Vietnam

Remains thought to be American MIAs returned

Five sets of remains believed to be those of American soldiers who went missing during the Vietnam War were sent home Sunday nearly 30 years after the war ended.

The remains were loaded onto a C-17 transport plane in central Danang, from where they were to be flown to an Army laboratory in Honolulu for identification.

The remains were located in central and southern Vietnam by a joint recovery team that searches for soldiers missing in action, said Lt. Col. Ty Smith, commander of the U.S. MIA office in Hanoi.

About 1,800 American soldiers remain unaccounted for in the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.

Vatican City

Pope seeks release of hostages in Iraq

Pope John Paul II appealed Sunday for the release of hostages in Iraq, calling on the kidnappers to show “humanity.”

John Paul said he was following events in the Holy Land and Iraq with great sadness.

“I invite the kidnappers to have feelings of humanity,” the pope said in his weekly appearance from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

Fifteen foreigners are missing in a spate of abductions that erupted alongside some of the worst violence in the country since the U.S.-led invasion. They include two Americans.

Kenya

Fighting drives at least 50,000 from homes

At least 50,000 people have fled their homes in recent weeks because of militia attacks and fighting between Sudanese government and rebel forces in Sudan, the United Nations said Sunday.

The clashes between the government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army rebels occurred despite a 2002 cease-fire between the warring parties, which are involved in talks to end the country’s 21-year civil war.

Since early March, the United Nations has received reports of villages, schools and health clinics being destroyed and looted, as well as incidents of rape in Shilluk Kingdom in the northern Upper Nile region, the office of the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan said in a statement.