Britain launched a major murder investigation after the bodies of 39 people were found on Wednesday in a refrigerated truck, once again putting the spotlight on the shadowy people trafficking business. The corpses were found in a truck container at an industrial park in Grays, east of London, triggering outrage among politicians.
Four former Serbian spies have been jailed for the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija in 1999. A Belgrade court jailed two of the defendants for 30 years each, while two others received 20-year sentences. Curuvija, an outspoken critic of the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, was gunned down outside his apartment.
Apparent links between Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro and two suspects arrested over the murder of rights activist Marielle Franco are believed to be a coincidence, police said on Tuesday, as the President faced scrutiny over the connections.
Brazil had a record number of murders last year, with homicides rising 3.7% from 2016 to 63,880 according to a study released on Thursday, just months before a presidential election in which violence has become a key issue.
President Hugo Chavez Venezuela is on track to set a new record for murders and to remain South America's most violent country, according to data released by a crime watchdog. The Venezuela Violence Monitor (OVV) said this week that 19 336 people had been murdered in 2011, an average of 53 per day in a country of 29 million.
Venezuela registered 19,133 murders in 2009, which places the rate of homicides in the country at 75 for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to a study by the National Statistics Institute, or INE, cited Friday by the press.