El Salvador: At least 30 slain in bloody 24-hour span

Authorities in El Salvador say at least 30 people, most of them gang members, have been killed in one of the Central American nation's bloodiest 24-hour spans this year.
The wave of violence includes a shootout between gangsters and private security guards that killed six in the capital Wednesday.
Gang members also shot dead three women and then ran into a firefight with police, resulting in six suspected criminals killed.
National Civil Police Commissioner Howard Cotto said yesterday that at least 17 of the 30 people slain nationwide are suspected gang members.
Justice Minister Mauricio Ramirez Landaverde told local radio that the country's insecurity problem is "complicated and difficult."

El Salvador has posted some of the highest homicide rates in the world in recent years amid raging gang violence.