Reporter slain in Mexico's Gulf coast

ALVARADO, Mexico — A reporter for a weekly investigative crime magazine was toppled from his motorcycle and run over Tuesday by unidentified assailants who then shot him at close range, state authorities said.

Roberto Marcos Garcia, 50, chief reporter for the weekly Testimonio magazine in the port city of Veracruz, was shot four times along a highway on the city's northeast outskirts, the state attorney general's office said.

Police said no arrests had been made.

Garcia had written investigative reports on crimes ranging from drug trafficking and auto theft, as well as the alleged corruption of local officials. The magazine was distributed throughout the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

State Deputy Attorney General Marco Antonio Aguilar said it was too soon to speculate on possible motives for the slaying, but he said that at least two people were involved in Garcia's death.

Garcia was the third journalist killed this month in Mexico: a former general manager of the daily Excelsior newspaper, Jose Manuel Nava, was found stabbed to death, while Misael Tamayo Hernandez, editor of a newspaper in Zihuatanejo, was found dead in a hotel room.

Nava had recently published a book criticizing the federal government, the business community and newspaper employees, while Tamayo was killed a day after running stories about organized crime and corruption in city government. No motive has been officially established in either killing.