Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will spearhead a project to rescue the Pacific port of Acapulco, a once glamorous haunt of Hollywood stars that has lately become mired in violent crime.

Slim, the world's richest man and owner of Latin America's biggest cell phone company, will be the president of a council that will pool funding for new hotel developments, mostly in the oldest part of the resort.

The drug-related killings scared tourists away, and prompted the President to send hundreds of extra police and soldiers into Acapulco to establish order. The murder rate has fallen in the last few months, according to Guerrero state.

(READ the Reuters story in the Vancouver Sun)