25 December 2004	Saturday	12 Ziqa'ad 1425

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 24: Twenty-eight people were killed in Honduras on Thursday after their bus was strafed by gunfire in what officials suspect was a chilling message from gangs to President Ricardo Maduro and crime-busting politicians.

Twenty-one people were wounded in the attack in Chamelecon, 220kms north of here. An official said the passenger bus "was machine-unned", killing several passengers in an attack that has shocked the nation ahead of Christmas in what the local media described as a "massacre" committed by a gang of "assassins". -AFP