- A Mexican journalist under government protection was shot dead Tuesday, an official said, the 10th journalist murdered in Mexico this year.

Candido Rios, a correspondent for a regional newspaper in the violent state of Veracruz, was killed along with two other people.

He had been under the protection of a government program designed to keep journalists and rights activists safe from a wave of deadly violence, said Jorge Morales, head of the program in Veracruz state.