Peru

The Peruvian government says police have killed an important leader of the still-active Shining Path guerrillas. Epifanio Espiritu Acosta, who was second-in-command of one of the two remaining Shining Path groups, was killed in Aucayacu, in central Peru. Another eight guerrillas were arrested in the operation, police said. The move comes at a time of increased violence against the security forces by the remnants of the group, who are now involved in drug trafficking. The Maoist Shining Path staged a bloody insurgency in the last two decades in which almost 70,000 people were killed in massacres, bomb attacks and state reprisals. (BBC)