Police spokeswoman Claudia Medina said the men, 23 and 27, met the woman on the beach and invited her for a drink at a hotel. Hotel personnel found the woman tied up after assailants left her room Wednesday night. The two suspects were expected to be charged with rape.

The woman remained hospitalized in Veracruz with a broken rib and facial injuries and was under strict guard, Medina said. The hotel staff provided authorities with the license plate and make of the suspects´ car, which enabled them to track down the men Thursday.

.QUINTANA ROO

UNDERWATER CAVE IS WORLD´S LONGEST

A group of divers has found the world´s longest underwater cave in the Maya Riviera, on the Caribbean coast, officials said.

The head of the tourism office in the town of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo, Lenín Amaro Betancourt, told reporters the cave system, given the name Sac Actún, was 155 kilometers (96 miles) long. The underwater cave is being explored by divers Steve Bogaerts and Robbie Schmittner.

"After three years of dedicated exploration, Sistema Sac Actún is now the longest underwater cave in the world, and Mexico´s longest cave," the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey said on its web site.

Betancourt said the three longest underwater cave systems in the world were located in the Maya Riviera, making the area a mecca for spelunking, or cave exploration.

The other two great underwater cave systems in Quintana Roo are the Sistema Ox Bel Ha at more than 146 kilometers (about 91 miles) long and the Sistema Dos Ojos, which runs nearly 58 kilometers (36 miles).

.PEMEX

OIL COMPANY STEPS UPOFFSHORE EXPLORATION

Petróleos Mexicanos plans to drill 50 to 60 wells in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico by 2012 as the state-owned oil company seeks crude deposits to make up for a decline at its largest oil field. Pemex, as the company is known, expects to determine the commercial viability in three weeks in Gulf waters as deep as a kilometer where it sunk three exploratory wells and plans to drill two more this year, said Carlos Morales, Pemex director of exploration and production.

"We now know there are hydrocarbons there," Morales said during a tour of Pemex´s exploration information center in Ciudad del Carmen. "From here going forward, we´re going to be finding more oil in deep water."

Pemex drilled its first exploratory well in 1995 in waters deeper than 500 meters (1,640 feet) where it has estimated it may have 54 billion barrels of oil.

The company plans to tap the deposits to make up for its Cantarell field, where production fell 12 percent in 2006. Cantarell accounted for 55 percent of Pemex´s production last year.