11.   Despite the absence of immediate hostilities, the killings took place in a turbulent region.

12.   Gierasch said the killing took only minutes.

13.   He said all the suspects are Indian villagers from Chenalho, the highland village in Chiapas state where the killings took place.

14.   He described generations of conflict between the three leading families in the Chenalho area that surrounds Acteal, the hamlet where the killings took place.

15.   He said the sheriff wanted to make sure he was in a public place when the killing took place.

16.   He lives next door to Wedgwood Baptist Church, where the killings took place.

17.   He said that more than an hour later, at the approximate time the killings took place, he heard a woman yell.

18.   In Africa, where mass killings are taking place from Sierra Leone to the Congo, the United States has steered clear of military intervention.

19.   In Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and other places where honor killings take place, newspapers rarely mention such killings.

20.   Killings are still taking place at a rate of about one a day.