AFP: French aid workers await sentence in Chad kidnap case 14 January

Sixteen Europeans are accused of participating in the alleged kidnap of 103 children in eastern Chad -- including six members of an aid group which claims it intended to fly orphans from the war-torn Darfur region to safety in France. Nine French nationals, including six aid workers of Zoe's Ark and three journalists, were charged late Monday with "kidnapping minors" and "fraud". Seven Spanish aircraft crew and two Chadian nationals were charged with complicity.

A court in Chad on Wednesday sentenced six French workers from the Zoe's Ark charity to eight years' hard labour for trying to fly 103 children they said were orphans from Darfur out to France. Images.

Chadian president pardoned six French charity workers on Monday, after the members of Zoe's Ark had been sentenced in December to eight years of hard labour for attempting to fly 103 African children to France. The official decrees, published in Chad's capital N'djamena, have now to be transmitted to French authorities who could free the aid workers within the next 24 hours.

Six members of a French charity accused of trying to kidnap 103 children in Chad go on trial on Friday in a new test of France's relations with its former African colonies. Images of trial opening.

Paris is scrambling to contain a row sparked by a French charity's bid to airlift more than 100 children out of Chad, a key ally for Europe's peacekeeping strategy in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. President Idriss Deby Itno reacted furiously to the botched operation, even suggesting the charity Zoe's Ark planned to sell the children to pedophiles or "kill them and remove their organs". Nine French nationals, seven Spaniards and a Belgian are facing possible child trafficking charges over the case, which has strained ties with France's former colony. A news report on the affair.

Thousands of civilians have fled the Chadian capital as rebels threaten to mount a fresh offensive following two days of heavy fighting. The government said its forces have pushed the rebels from Ndjamena, but rebel leaders insist they have made a strategic withdrawal. The fighting has left untold numbers dead and wounded hundreds. France, the former colonial power, has evacuated nearly 850 foreigners, while at least 300 more are awaiting transport out of the country. Footage of French soldiers evacuating foreign embassies in Ndjamena, and of the first arrival of evacuees at a Paris airport.

The French military has begun air flights to ferry humanitarian aid to eastern Chad, to victims of the Darfur crisis. The first plane forming the "aid bridge" landed on Sunday in the town of Goz Beida, delivering supplies to some of the estimated 150,000 displaced Chadians and 40,000 Darfur refugees in the region. Images of supplie being unloaded overnight from the plane and later transported to warehouse. Images courtesy of French Armed Forces.

The defense has started to present witnesses in the OJ Simpson armed robbery and kidnapping case. No testimony is expected today, with closing arguments taking place as soon as Thursday. (Sept. 30)

A few aid shipments have finally begun to arrive in Myanmar six days after the country's devastating cyclone, but the reclusive military regime's reluctance to open up has imperiled nearly a million people left homeless and short of food and water.