Eleven people have been arrested in southern Mexico after the mayor of their village was dragged out of his office, tied to a pick-up truck and dragged through the streets. Police intervened to free Mayor Jorge Luis Escandón Hernández, who reportedly suffered no major injuries.

It was the second attack by farmers demanding that he fulfil his campaign promise to repair a local road. Extra officers have been deployed to the village in Chiapas state. Mayors and local politicians in Mexico are often targeted by drug gangs when they refuse to cooperate with their criminal schemes but it is less common for them to be attacked over their campaign promises. Mr Escandón said he would press charges for abduction and attempted murder.

Video taken by bystanders outside the mayor’s office showed a group of men pulling him out of the building and forcing him onto the back of the vehicle.Footage captured later by a CCTV showed him being dragged along, tied with a rope around his hands to the back of the truck through the streets of Santa Rita, which forms part of Las Margaritas.(BBC)…[+]

At least two people have been killed in a shooting in the eastern German city of Halle, police say. One person was arrested, police said, but other suspects were believed to have fled the Paulus area in a vehicle. Witnesses said one gunman was wearing military camouflage and carrying several weapons. A second shooting was then reported in Landsberg, some 15km (9 miles) east of the city. It was not clear if the incidents were connected.

A witness told German n-tv news that a gunman in camouflage opened fire with an assault rifle on a doner kebab shop.”The man came up to the Doner shop, he threw something like a grenade, it didn’t explode, and he opened fire with an assault rifle. The man behind me must have died… I hid in the toilet,” the witness told a TV reporter near the scene.

German media report that shots were also fired near a synagogue in Halle, but the details have not been confirmed. One witness said one attacker had thrown a petrol bomb or grenade over a cemetery wall. It happens as Jews celebrate Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day. It was not clear where the arrest took place. Police are still warning residents to remain in their homes.(BBC)…[+]

Venezue­lan pi­rates who op­er­ate out of Patos Is­land, one of Venezuela’s small un­in­hab­it­ed is­land, have re­port­ed­ly kid­napped three Ica­cos fish­er­men for ran­som.

The is­land is lo­cat­ed in the north­west­ern Gulf of Paria and is said to be one of the hide­outs for des­per­ate Venezue­lan pi­rates who kid­nap and smug­gle drugs and guns in ex­change for ba­sic ne­ces­si­ties. Up to late yes­ter­day, ne­go­ti­a­tions were on­go­ing and rel­a­tives re­mained tight-lipped say­ing they had no in­for­ma­tion to give. Last night sec­re­tary of Fish­er­man and Friends of the Sea Gary Aboud said a US$10,000 has been de­mand­ed for their safe re­lease.

Po­lice said the fish­er­men Ramkissoon Har­richa­ran, 64, Car­lo Snei­der, 61, of Lovers Lane, Ica­cos and a third uniden­ti­fied man were snatched at gun­point around 7 am while they fished off Gal­fa Point in Ica­cos about half a mile from the shore. A fish­er­man who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said he saw the Venezue­lan pi­rates ac­com­pa­nied by oth­er lo­cal Trinida­di­ans chas­ing down fish­ing ves­sels.

“We ran from them be­cause we re­al­ized they were pi­rates and they were com­ing to get our en­gines and nets,” the fish­er­man said. An­oth­er fish­ing crew from Erin was al­so pur­sued by the pi­rates. They even­tu­al­ly cap­tured the two old fish­er­men and took them aboard their pirogue. Two boat en­gines were tak­en and Snider’s boat Ger­man 1 was left adrift.(Stabroeknews)…[+]