MEXICO
Report: Killings ignored
Mexican drug gang bosses furious at suspected turncoats sent commandos aided by local police to seize dozens — perhaps hundreds — of people, murder them and dispose of their bodies in a town near the Texas border, yet state and federal officials ignored the massacre for years, according to a government-backed report released Sunday. The long delay in the investigation makes it impossible to determine just how many people were killed in the town of Allende in 2011, according to the report sponsored by the federal Executive Commission for Attention to Victims. The Coahuila state file lists 42 missing people related to the case. But a Zeta drug gang member told a U.S. court in 2013 that 300 died, though it was not clear if all the deaths occurred in the same incident.
Colombia
President to donate prize
President Juan Manuel Santos says he’ll donate almost $1 million in Nobel Peace Prize money to the victims of Colombia’s half-century conflict. Santos made the announcement Sunday during a visit with his family and top government officials to an impoverished town in western Colombia where dozens of people were killed while stranded in a church during an intense battle between leftist rebels and far-right militias. He promised the residents of Bojaya that he won’t give up on securing peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia despite voters’ rejection of a deal with the guerrillas in a referendum a week ago. More than 96 percent of residents of Bojaya voted for the peace deal. Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday less than a week after the peace accord was shot down in a vote that even surprised government opponents.
ISRAEL
Fatal drive-by shooting
A Palestinian militant carried out a drive-by shooting near the national headquarters of the Israeli police in Jerusalem Sunday, killing two people and wounding five others before being shot dead following a frenzied chase through the streets of the holy city, Israeli police and emergency services said. The attack, carried out in broad daylight by a member of the Hamas militant group with a long police record, was one of the bloodiest during a yearlong spate of Palestinian assaults. Israel had beefed up security in recent weeks, warning that the potential for violence could rise during the current Jewish high holiday season.
Compiled from wire reports.