Land activist killed in Brazilian Amazon

A Brazilian land reform activist has been killed in the Amazon state of Para amid ongoing land disputes in the area. Police said two men on motorbikes shot Pedro Alcantara de Souza five times in the head as he was riding a bicycle. Souza, the head of a union of landless farmers in Para, had led the occupations of large farms by peasants. American nun Dorothy Stang was killed in the same region in 2005, after she had spent three decades working with peasants and small farmers there. Souza was the president of the small farmers' union in the town of Rendencao and had previously served for 14 years as the city councilor. The police say his killing was carried out by hired gunmen, the BBC's Paulo Cabral reports From Sao Paulo.