- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Gurbaz, birthday boy Rashid lead Afghanistan to 177-run rout of South Africa
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Top Hezbollah commander 'killed' in Israel strike
- Poland charges Russian over attack on Navalny ally: prosecutors
- Man City have rest 'advantage' in Arsenal showdown: Guardiola
- Maresca has 'no doubt' in Jackson as Chelsea's number nine
- EU chief announces 35 bn euro loan plan for Ukraine before winter
- From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame
- Verstappen punished for swearing in Singapore press conference
- Sri Lanka lead by 202 in first New Zealand Test
- Brook 'not too fussed' by England's batting in heavy Australia loss
- India's Ashwin 'happy' to embrace pressure
- A modern 'Trojan Horse': two days of mayhem in Lebanon
- Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
Retired Colombian soldiers admit to murder of 120 civilians
Ten retired members of Colombia's military began admitting to victims' families on Tuesday their roles in the assassination of 120 civilians that were later presented as rebels killed in combat.
It was the first public admission by the former soldiers that they had made people disappear before killing them in cold blood.
One general, four colonels and five officers, as well as a civilian, were due to make their confessions to the special tribunal set up as part of the 2016 peace deal that ended a half century of conflict between the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.
The "false positives" scandal in which murdered civilians were passed off as enemy combattants is the largest ever to have rocked Colombia's armed forces.
"I ask you to clear our family names ... they were rural workers, not subversives, guerrillas and thugs as they were branded," said Eduvina Becerra, the partner of Jose Ortega, a murdered farmer.
Around 50 of the victims' family members showed up to the university theater in Ocana, close to Colombia's northern border with Venezuela, where the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) hearing took place.
"I acknowledge and accept my responsibility as co-perpetrator" of the murders that took place between 2007 and 2008, said Nestor Gutierrez, a former non-commissioned officer in the army.
"We murdered innocent people, peasants," said Gutierrez, promising to "clarify it here before the judgment, before the world, before the country."
In front of an audience of sobbing family members, the soldiers gave details about how they murdered the victims, most of whom were men aged 25 to 35.
The JEP, which was set up in 2017 to try the worst atrocities committed during the conflict, said that Ocana was the site of a sinister plan thought up by a battalion stationed in the town of 100,000 and motivated by "the army's institutional policy of counting bodies" to inflate the reporting of their successes in combating guerrillas and other armed groups.
The tribunal says more than 6,400 civilians were murdered between 2002 and 2008 after being lured to areas far from their homes.
The JEP has the authority to offer alternatives to jail time to people who confess their crimes and make reparations.
The Catatumbo region where Ocana is located is home to the largest area of illegal coca leaf crops used to make cocaine in the world, making it a hub for organized crime.
The hearing is due to last two days with former general Paulino Coronado the highest ranking officer on trial.
M.Odermatt--BTB