MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Forty Mexicans have died this year trying to cross
                  the border into the United States, a Mexican government official said.

                  Immigration Undersecretary Fernando Solis Camara said Thursday the 40
                  had died as a result of drownings and other accidents, the government news
                  agency Notimex reported.

                  "In none of the cases was it caused by the abuse of some U.S. authority,"
                  the agency quoted Solis Camara as saying.

                  The number of deaths of people crossing the border has soared in recent
                  years. Last year 357 people died -- more than four times the 1995 figure.