Sudan: 14 Chinese Freed

Sudanese officials claimed Monday that the military had rescued 14 of 29 Chinese nationals who had been kidnapped by rebels in the south. The Army announced that the road workers, seized in South Kordofan province Saturday, had been “liberated.” But Chinese Embassy officials seemed to doubt the reports that they were freed, saying that all the workers were still missing. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North had said that the workers were caught in the crossfire in a battle between them and the Army. But Wang Zhiping, a senior executive at the Power Construction Corp., which employed the workers, said the rebels had attacked them at their compound.