In brief: Peace Corps leaves Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The entire Peace Corps delegation in Honduras has left the country weeks after the United States decided to pull them out for safety reasons.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Ledy Pacheco said 158 volunteers have left the Central American country notorious for the world’s highest homicide rate.

Honduras President Porfirio Lobo said Monday that the group was affected by rising crime, but he and the U.S. haven’t specified attacks.

The Peace Corps had operated in Honduras since 1963.

U.S. urges S. Korea to cut Iran oil buys

SEOUL, South Korea – A senior U.S. official is urging South Korea to reduce its crude oil imports from Iran to put pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

U.S. State Department official Robert Einhorn today also urged Seoul to “unwind” its financial dealings with Tehran’s central bank.

South Korea restricts financial dealings with more than 200 groups and individuals with suspected links to Iran’s nuclear program. But Seoul hasn’t yet announced plans to cut oil purchases from Iran.

Leader apologizes for 1981 massacre

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – El Salvador President Mauricio Funes apologized Monday for the 1981 El Mozote massacre of 936 civilians in an army counterinsurgency operation. Funes also commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1992 peace accords that put an end to the country’s 12-year civil war.

Funes said the El Mozote massacre, named for the town where it occurred Dec. 11-13, 1981, was “the biggest massacre of civilians in the contemporary history of Latin America.” He formally acknowledged the government’s responsibility for the killings.

He also asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the estimated 12,000 people who disappeared in the conflict, which left 75,000 dead.

“I ask forgiveness of the mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters of those who still today do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones. I ask forgiveness from the people of El Salvador, who suffered an atrocious and unacceptable violence,” Funes said in a speech in front of thousands of farmers at the massacre site.