MEXICO CITY

‘Anonymous avenger’ kills 2 holding up bus passengers

Mexico City officials said Tuesday an unidentified man disarmed a thief trying to rob passengers aboard a bus, then shot him and another thief to death before fleeing.

The Mexico City prosecutor’s office said the bodies of two men were found at the scene of the shooting late Monday, as were two pistols – one of them a toy.

The office quoted witnesses as saying the two men had started robbing passengers at gunpoint when one bus rider wrestled a gun away from one thief, shot him and then killed the accomplice. The other thief may have been holding the toy pistol.

Some local media began calling the passenger “the anonymous avenger,” or “Vengador Anonimo,” the Spanish title for the 1974 Charles Bronson movie “Death Wish.”

Passengers in the neighboring State of Mexico have often resisted armed assaults aboard buses there, often paying with their lives for their resistance. But the rebellious passengers in the past have often been off-duty policemen. Seldom have passengers been able to wrestle a gun away from an assailant.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic

Officials suspect 3,500 cases of mosquito-borne virus

Health officials in the Dominican Republic say a mosquito-borne virus has spread widely since making its first appearance in the country.

The Health Ministry says it has documented about 3,500 suspected cases of chikungunya virus since it was first detected in March. Chikungunya is rarely fatal but it can cause high fever and intense joint and muscle pain. There is no vaccine.

– From news service reports

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