Mexican rights activist killed

A human rights activist has been killed in Mexico's violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Thursday. Josefina Reyes, who belonged to the National Front Against Repression, a rights group that mainly investigated police and army abuses, was killed on Jan. 3 in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The National Human Rights Commission warned that the killing indicates "attacks against defenders of human rights are on the rise." Attacks against and harassment of rights activists has risen from 16 cases in 2007 to 24 in 2008 and 25 in 2009, the commission said. Ciudad Juarez has been the hardest hit by Mexico's drug violence, with about 2,500 drug-related killings in 2009. The commission did not say how Reyes was killed, or whether the killing was related to organized crime.