Mexican city installs countdown clock for Dec. 21 2012, when some fear apocalypse

MEXICO CITY - A city in southern Mexico wants to live each moment as if it were the last.

Tourism officials in Tapachula have installed a digital clock to count down the time left before the Dec. 21, 2012, solstice, when some believe the Mayan long-count calendar "runs out."

The clock will be started this Dec. 21, a year before what some think will be an apocalyptic event.

Chiapas state tourism regional director Manolo Alfonso Pinot said Friday that Mayan priests will perform a ceremony at the nearby archaeological site of Izapa.

Maya experts says the apocalypse fears are a misreading of Maya texts that mention the date, noting the Maya considered it the end of one calendar cycle and the beginning of another.