News Briefs
May 30, 1996
Web posted at: 11:55 p.m. EDT (0355 GMT)
Bodies of monks slain by Algerian guerrillas found
MEDEA, Algeria (CNN) -- The bodies of seven French monks who were abducted in Algeria two months ago have reportedly been found. The Algerian Interior Ministry said the monks' remains were discovered several kilometers from the town of Medea, southwest of Algiers.
Algeria's most violent insurgents, the Armed Islamic Group, kidnapped the monks from their monastery in March. The group said last week that it cut the monks' throats after Paris refused to negotiate a release of jailed Algerian militants.
An estimated 50,000 people, among them more than 100 citizens of other countries, have been killed in Algeria's violence since January 1992, when the army-backed authorities canceled elections that the Islamists were poised to win.
- Pope cries 'never again' in memory of beheaded monks - May 26, 1996
War crimes teams find remains in Cerska
CERSKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- U.N. war crimes investigators Thursday began the second leg of a search for suspected mass grave sites in Bosnia. A preliminary investigation turned up the remains of one body and several parts of bodies within a site at Cerska, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Srebrenica.
The investigators are probing the area with sticks, which they sniff to detect where the bodies are.
The team began its search as the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal charged Bosnian Serb army trooper Drazen Erdemovic with participating in the killing of hundreds of unarmed Bosnian Muslims escaping the Bosnian Serb takeover of Srebrenica in July 1995.
U.S. bank rejects aid for controversial Chinese dam
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A government bank refused to provide loans or guarantees Thursday to American companies applying to help build China's giant Three Gorges Dam. The Export-Import Bank's four-member board agreed unanimously to deny the loan for environmental reasons.
The dam, 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) long and 180 meters (600 feet) high, is part of a huge project to harness the Yangtze River for electricity and irrigation.
The announcement won immediate praise from groups promoting human rights and environmental protection. Opponents say the project will use forced labor, worsen flooding, endanger rare species and displace more than a million people.
But Caterpillar, which wants to provide equipment worth $200 million to build the dam, said the company and its U.S. suppliers would be hurt by the decision.
Rwanda genocide suspects plead not guilty
ARUSHA, Tanzania (CNN) -- The first two Rwandans to be charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by the U.N. Rwanda genocide tribunal pleaded not guilty to all charges Thursday.
Jean Paul Akayesu, a local Rwandan official during the 1994 genocide, and Georges Rutaganda, a businessman, are accused of encouraging and ordering the murder of minority Tutsis. Trials for the two will be held in September and October, respectively.
The men, along with Clement Kayishema, who is scheduled to appear before the court Friday, were detained in Zambia last year and extradited to the tribunal's headquarters in Tanzania on May 21.
More than 500,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus, were massacred in 1994.
U.S. soldier dies of injuries received in Bosnia accident
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon said Wednesday that a soldier injured May 7 in Bosnia when a kitchen burner exploded died Tuesday night.
The military reports that U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Curtis Wilson, 35, of Farnhamville, Iowa, died at Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
Wilson and another soldier were injured when gasoline-fueled kitchen stoves exploded at a military camp near Tuzla.
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