Wednesday 10 October 2012

Honduran leader checks security on buses

President Porfirio Lobo Sosa boarded several buses in Tegucicalpa on 9 October to check on a recent initiative to have soldiers assure security on buses, El Heraldo reported. Honduras has one of the world's highest crime rates. Lobo spoke to passengers and said troop numbers on buses could increase; his presence reportedly provoked congestion on the Bulevar Centroamérica, one of the capital's traffic arteries. On 28 September Lobo personally inaugurated the plan to have two soldiers or two policemen on every bus for 20 routes in Tegucicalpa and the northern suburb of Comayagüela, El Heraldo reported. "People tell me they take a very positive view of soldiers being there, and feel safer," he said as he came off a bus on 9 October. The government began to place security cameras on buses in February 2012.

Eight reported killed around Mexico

"At least" eight people were killed in violent incidents in four states of Mexico on 9 October, including a 16-year-old girl gunned down from a car in the northern city of Torreón, Proceso reported that day. Another victim was a 75-year-old man apparently strangled to death in the north-western town of Santiago Papasquiaro. Suspected criminals separately burned 20 police cars and confiscated vehicles in a police parking in Fresnillo in the north-central state of Zacatecas, Proceso reported on 9 October.