Abducted Mexican journalist freed

A Mexican journalist who was kidnapped at gunpoint as he took his daughter to school has been freed, authorities in the violent eastern state of Veracruz said Thursday. Marcos Miranda, who had received threats over his work as editor and crime reporter with the news portal Noticias a Tiempo, was abducted Wednesday morning by two armed men in the town of Boca del Rio, Veracruz.

State Governor Cuitlahuac Garcia tweeted early Thursday that "minutes ago, we managed to free the journalist Marcos Miranda." He did not give further details. A military source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP Miranda had been found walking down the street, beaten and disoriented.

But it was rare good news for the press in Mexico, which as of May has been the deadliest country in the world this year for journalists, according to watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. The group regularly ranks Mexico alongside war-torn Syria and Afghanistan as the most dangerous in the world for the news media.

The kidnapping came the day after journalist Norma Sarabia was murdered in the neighboring state of Tabasco, the sixth slain in Mexico this year. More than 100 reporters have been murdered since 2000 in Mexico, which has been swept by a wave of violent crime in recent years as the military fights the country's powerful drug cartels.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)