Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

World in brief

Minister fatally stabbed during prayer service

By wire services
Published August 18, 2005

PARIS - A Romanian woman slipped into a choir of singing monks during an evening prayer service and fatally slit the throat of the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical Christian community in the presence of 2,500 horrified pilgrims in Burgundy, authorities said Wednesday.

The slaying Tuesday of Brother Roger in the Church of Reconciliation drew reactions of shock and grief from the pope, the leader of the Anglican Church and worshipers around the world.

"It happened very fast. There were some screams. We turned around. He was wounded," said Brother Emile, who witnessed the killing. "We carried him out of the church so people didn't see the terrible part. ... She slit his throat."

Brother Roger was stabbed at least twice in the neck. Bleeding profusely, he died 15 minutes later in the community house, Brother Emile said.

The Taize community, which the late Pope John Paul II visited in 1986, each year draws some 100,000 people, about 17 to 30 years old.

BOGOTA, Colombia - A small boat overloaded with more than 100 illegal immigrants capsized and sank in rough waters in the Pacific Ocean, and only nine survivors were found, clinging to a wooden box and buoys, officials said Wednesday.

Ecuadorean navy Capt. Armando Elizalde told Colombian RCN television most of the 113 people aboard "sank with the boat." The Colombian navy said the immigrants' boat was meant to hold only 15 people.

The disaster that hit the boat - whose passengers were believed to be heading for the United States - occurred more than 100 miles off the coast of Colombia.

HERAT, Afghanistan - Two NATO peacekeeping helicopters that went down in Afghanistan, killing 17 Spanish troops, did not come under hostile fire, an Afghan defense ministry official said Wednesday.

The crash Tuesday was the biggest loss of life yet for the International Security Assistance Force, a NATO force inside Afghanistan. Five Spanish soldiers injured were in stable conditions, officials said.

[Last modified August 18, 2005, 01:06:07]