Christian Science Monitor Journalist Missing in Serb-Held Bosnia By RICHARD LORANT
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1) An American journalist reported missing in Bosnian Serb territory is alive and in Serb hands, the United Nations said Thursday.
2) A ``high-level Bosnian Serb official'' informed the United Nations that David Rohde is being held in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale, said Clayton Jones, international editor of the Christian Science Monitor.
3) ``There's no word, other than that he's alive. But the U.N. assumes they wouldn't report him alive if his condition is bad,'' Jones said.
4) Rohde, the Monitor's East European correspondent, was last heard from late Saturday, when he called an editor at the Boston-based newspaper and sent her a computer message with his plans for the next day.
5) Chris Gunness of the United Nations in Zagreb, Croatia, said his organization was working for Rohde's swift release.
6) ``We hope that now that they have informed us that they're holding him, that they will realize their responsibilities to guarantee his safety and security,'' Gunness said.
7) The Monitor received a call from the United Nations in Zagreb at 7 this morning, while members of Rohde's family were gathered in the paper's offices to do a television interview on ABC's ``Good Morning America.''
8) ``We were about to go on, and the control room called to say, `Anything new?''' said Rohde's brother, Erik. ``It took five days but it's OK.''
9) Jones said the State Department has raised the issue of Rohde's capture with Serb officials at U.S.-brokered peace talks which opened Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.
10) Rohde, 28, reported in mid-August that he had visited a site in eastern Bosnia believed to be one of the mass graves for people rounded up after the Serb capture of the U.N. ``safe area'' of Srebrenica.
11) Traveling without Serb permission, Rohde reported finding human remains, and spent ammunition. Jones said it was unclear whether his reporting on the massacre was a factor in Rohde's capture.
12) ``A lot of journalists are detained. Another thing is how is he treated once they discover it was David Rohde who exposed on-ground evidence of the massacre,'' Jones said.
13) In mid-October, Bosnian Serbs detained three journalists working for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Independent in London, saying they objected to some of their stories. All three were released unharmed after spending a night in detention at a police station in a Serb-controlled suburb of Sarajevo.
14) Rohde, who is not married, has been based in Zagreb, Croatia, since last November. His family lives in New England.


Progress Made on Release of US Reporters, Says Western Diplomat Eds: Recasts Ld and throughout to expand and UPDATE with UN saying
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1) U.S. and U.N. officials seeking the release of U.S. journalist David Rohde met with his rebel Serb captors Saturday, and a senior Western diplomat said progress was made on securing his freedom.
2) Rohde, East European correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, was detained a week ago. He was the first western journalist to reach the Srebrenica region after the Muslim enclave fell to the rebels July 11 to report on evidence of mass killings of unarmed Muslims by the rebels.
3) The rebels' self-styled Interior Ministry, which runs their police, said Rohde had been detained in Zvornik, close to Srebrenica on the Bosnian-Serbian border, for ``illegally crossing the border ... with forged documents.''
4) The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Rohde ``could be released soon.'' U.N. spokesman Yuriy Chizik said the meeting between the rebels and U.N. and U.S. representatives occured in Lukavica, a southern Sarajevo suburb held by the Serbs.
5) Information about Rhode's whereabouts and other details of his captivity has been scarce and confusing.
6) Bosnian Serb police sources said Friday Rohde was being held in Pale, the Bosnian Serb stronghold just east of Sarajevo. But on Saturday, a U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in Sarajevo that Rohde was now in Bijeljina, a Serb-held town in the northeastern tip of Bosnia.
7) A Serb official in Pale, also asking for anomymity, said Rohde was well and said U.S. diplomats from Belgrade would visit him sometime in the day. But the State Department in Washington said it was unable to confirm such plans and its Belgrade embassy denied knowledge of such a meeting.
8) Rohde was last heard from a week ago when he sent an editor at his newspaper a computer message detailing his plans for the next day. According to U.N. reports, Rohde left Sarajevo by car and headed east toward Srebrenica.
9) Thousands of Muslim men were allegedly killed by the Serbs when the rebels overran the Srebrenica enclave. International organizations have been demanding permission to inspect alleged mass graves in the region reported by U.S. intelligence services and witnesses who escaped the reported carnage.
10) In Dayton, Ohio, where Balkan peace talks are taking place, the
11) State Department's top human rights official, John Shattuck, and the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, John Menzies, met with Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials Thursday and demanded Rohde's release.
12) State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the U.S. embassies in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia have been asked to work full-time on the issue.


U.N., U.S. Officials Visit American Reporter
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1) American and United Nations officials on Sunday visited an American journalist held by Bosnian Serbs, and a U.N. official said he hoped he would be released soon.
2) A United Nations statement released here said officials from the U.N. peacekeeping mission and the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo had visited Christian Science Monitor correspondent David Rohde in a Bosnian Serb prison.
3) ``Mr. Rohde appeared in sound health, although he has now spent eight days in detention and is fatigued,'' said the statement. It said the journalist was serving a 15-day sentence after being accused of falsifying press documents.
4) Antonio Pedauye, U.N. civilian affairs chief, had contacted Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and asked for Rohde's ``immediate release,'' said the statement.
5) It did not say where Rohde was being held but U.N. officials have said privately he was in prison in Bijeljina, a Serb-held town in northeastern Bosnia near the Serbian border.
6) Officials at the U.S. embassy refused to comment.
7) Rohde disappeared after he sent an editor a computer message Oct. 28, detailing his plans for the next day.
8) The United Nations said Rohde left Sarajevo by car and headed east toward the eastern Serb-held town of Srebrenica. The rebels say he illegally crossed into their territory.
9) Rohde was the first Western journalist to reach the town to report on evidence of mass killings of unarmed Muslims after the enclave fell to the Serbs last July.


American Journalist Released From Bosnian Serb Jail Eds: Leads throughout to UPDATE with reaction from Christian
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1) Bosnian Serbs on Wednesday released a U.S. reporter held captive for almost two weeks, saying it was a sign of goodwill towards peace negotiations under way in the United States.
2) David Rohde of the Christian Science Monitor was turned over to U.S. Embassy officials in Belgrade by Serbian security officials, who mediated the release.
3) A tired-looking Rohde said he was ``very happy and very grateful to the security service for getting me out of Bosnia.''
4) In a statement faxed to The Associated Press earlier Wednesday, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said Rohde was ``cleared of all charges'' and would be released ``as a sign of goodwill and contribution to the peace talks,'' near Dayton, Ohio.
5) Rohde, the Monitor's Eastern Europe correspondent based in Zagreb, Croatia, disappeared after contacting his editors Oct. 28. He had written on rights violations by Serbs against Muslims in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica.
6) On Friday, Bosnian Serbs confirmed they had detained Rohde, who was tried and convicted of illegal entry into Bosnian Serb territory and of falsifying documents.
7) A U.N. source in Sarajevo, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the release was the result of strong U.S. pressure, and contacts between U.S. and Bosnian Serb officials.
8) In the Monitor's Boston newsroom, where some staffers had barely slept since Rohde's capture, fatigue gave way to celebration Wednesday.
9) ``We're all relieved, we're all very happy,'' said international editor Clayton Jones, who went to Dayton for two days to plead Rohde's case to negotiators there.
10) ``We're waiting with great anticipation for a phone call from David. There's a great sense of release that this ordeal's over,'' he said.
11) The Monitor issued a statement expressing gratitude to international organizations and political leaders who helped win Rohde's release and denying Bosnian Serb allegations that he was doing anything improper.
12) ``Now that David is safe, we want to state unequivocally that David was on a journalistic assignment for the Monitor. Claims that he was engaged in espionage are totally false,'' said David Cook, the Monitor's editor.
13) Rohde's brother Lee arrived in Sarajevo on Tuesday. He said he made the trip after Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. mediator for Yugoslav peace talks in Dayton, recommended one family member come, ``hopefully anticipating the release of my brother.''
14) Rohde said his brother seemed in good shape when he spoke to the family from his Serb captivity two days ago. There was ``no severe abuse of any kind that we know of.''


URGENT NEW YORK: nicotine potency.
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1) David Rohde of The Christian Science Monitor won the international reporting award for his reports on the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
2) MORE


ConAgra searches for leader after CEO steps down
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1) ConAgra Foods Inc. is looking for a new chief executive and chairman after Bruce Rohde said he is stepping down after eight years at the helm and transforming an agriculturally based conglomerate into a more focused packaged-foods retailer.
2) Bruce Rohde, 56, asked the company's board of directors Tuesday for a search committee. A time table was not established, ConAgra spokesman Chris Kircher said Wednesday.
3) Whether Rohde would remain with the company in some capacity, such as chairman, was not immediately known, Kircher said. How the succession proceeds will depend on who the candidates are, Kircher said.
4) In a news release, Rohde, who has been chief executive since September 1997 and chairman since 1998, said the company had made progress and was poised for new growth.
5) The search committee will be led by ConAgra board member Steven Goldstone, retired chairman and chief executive of RJR Nabisco, board members said.
6) Kircher said Rohde had initiated discussion of his succession. Rohde was not immediately available to comment.
7) When Rohde took charge, about half of ConAgra's sales involved commodities such as fresh beef, pork, chicken and canned seafood. Rohde sold those business and last year, more than 80 percent of ConAgra's sales came from branded foods and value-added foods.
8) Now one of the largest U.S. food companies, its brands include Act II popcorn, Healthy Choice, Banquet, Chef Boyardee and Manwich.
9) ConAgra has struggled as it sought to centralize management, improve its technology and consolidate its processing plants.
10) In March, the company said its third-quarter operating profit in the period ended Feb. 27 fell 12.6 percent, to $396 million (euro307 million), compared with the year before, because of weak results in refrigerated branded meats, food production problems and inefficiencies in technology consolidation.
11) ConAgra shares rose 8 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $27.15 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where they have traded in a 52-week range of $25.38 to $30.24.


ConAgra names former PepsiCo CEO as new president, CEO
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1) ConAgra Foods Inc. on Wednesday named a former top executive of PepsiCo Inc. as its new president and chief executive.
2) Gary Rodkin, the chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Beverages, succeeds Bruce Rohde, who announced earlier this year he wanted to leave the company.
3) Rodkin, 53, will take over on Oct. 1, when he will also be made a member of the board of directors.
4) Omaha-based ConAgra is one of the nation's largest processed food companies, with brands such as Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters and Parkay.
5) "Gary is a quality person and a proven leader. His record of growing brands, marketing excellence and leading people is exactly what we need. He is fully ready for this opportunity and our people are ready to respond," Rohde said in a statement.
6) Rodkin was most recently chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo Beverages and Foods North America. He joined PepisCo in 1998 when the company acquired Tropicana, where he had been president for North America since 1995. He has previously worked at General Mills and served as president of Yoplait-Colombo.
7) Rohde had been CEO of ConAgra for eight years. Rohde also had been chairman since 1998.


NYT reporter escapes from Taliban captivity
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1) A New York Times reporter is free after more than seven months in captivity in Afghanistan and the newspaper says he and an Afghan reporter escaped from the militants holding them by climbing over a wall.
2) David Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin climbed over the wall of a compound in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan, where they were being held captive. The Times says a Pakistani army scout led them to a nearby base, where the two were flown to the U.S. base at Bagram in Afghanistan on Saturday.
3) Rohde, 41, traveled to Kabul in early November to work on a book about the history of American involvement in Afghanistan. He was taken by militants on Nov. 10 in Logar, one province south of Kabul.


New York Times reporter escapes Taliban captivity
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1) A New York Times reporter known ormain nvstgaiv tip depinid dngros onlit ons escpe from militant captors after more than seven months in captivity by climbing over a wall, the newspaper said Saturday.
2) David S. Rohde was abducted Nov. 10 along with an Afghan reporter colleague and a driver south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He had been traveling through Logar province to interview a Taliban commander, but was apparently intercepted and taken by other militants on the way.
3) The Times reported that Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahi Ludin on Friday climbed over the wall of a compound where they were held captive in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan.
4) The two then found a Pakistani army scout, who led them to a nearby base, the Times said. On Saturday, the two were flown to the U.S. military base in Bagram, the Times reported.
5) A U.S. military spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Chrstine Sidenstricker, said the military had not been involved. She could not say whether the State Department or CIA had flown the two to the military facility.
6) Rohde, reported to be in good health, said his driver remained with their captors.
7) In Washington, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the U.S. is "very pleased" that Rohde is safe and returning home. He said the escape "marks the end of a long and difficult ordeal."
8) Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton thanked the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan for their assistance in ensuring Rohde's safe return. She said she was "greatly relieved" that he was safe and would be reuniting soon with his family.
9) Afghan officials confirmed the kidnapping in th dysaferth bdcton bt heAsocatd res ndmost thr Wesern news outlets respected a request from the Times to not report on the abductions because the publicity could negatively affect hostage rescue efforts and imperil Rohde's life.
10) "From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David's family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several governments and others we consulted was that going public could increase the danger to David and the other hostages. The kidnappers initially said as much," Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor, said in a story posted on the Times' Web site.
11) "We decided to respect that advice, as we have in other kidnapping cases, and a number of other news organizations that learned of David's plight have done the same. We are enormously grateful for their support."
12) "We are very relieved that our New York Times colleague escaped safely, and this episode has ended happily," said AP Senior Managing Editor John Daniszewski. "It was an unusual and difficult news judgment to withhold reporting on his abduction, but our practice is to avoid transmitting stories if we believe they endanger someone's life."
13) The Times said there had been "sporadic communication" from Rohde and his kidnappers during the last seven months but that no ransom money had been paid.
14) Kristen Mulvihill, Rohde's wife, told the Times that the two had been married for nine months, "and seven of those David has been in captivity." She thanked the Times, the U.S. government and "all the others" who helped the family during the kidnapping.
15) The FI ai i astteen tatitha beninesigtig Rodes idaping, working closely with the Times and Rohde's family. It said Rohde contacted family members Friday to tell them he had escaped. The FBI said it was working with the U.S. State and Defense departments to see that receives medical attention and is reunited with his family.
16) Rohde was on leave from the Times when he was taken. He had traveled to Afghanistan to work on a book about the history of American involvement in Afghanistan when he went to Logar to interview a Taliban commander. Before setting out, he notified the Times' bureau in Kabul on whom to notify if he did not return, the Times said.
17) Logar province, where Rohde was seized, has seen an influx of militants over the last two years. Residents last year said the government had little control outside the provincial capital and that Taliban and other militants frequently set up checkpoints on highways.
18) In January, the U.S. military deployed more than 3,000 troops to Logar and neighboring Wardak to combat the insurgent safe havens near Kabul's doorstep.
19) It was not clear who took Rohde captive, and the Times did not reveal his abductors. Logar province has militants loyal to Taliban leader Mullah Omar but also to renegade warlord Siraj Haqqani, whom the U.S. has accused of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings.
20) Violence has risen steadily across Afghanistan over the last three years, and Rohde was taken during a period when attacks against Westerners spiked. A Canadian journalist, Mellissa Fung, was kidnapped in Kabul and a Dutch reporter was taken just outside Kaularun te im Rhd ws bdctd.Boh er rlese wthin a month.
21) The militants who kidnapped Rohde transferred him about 100 miles (165 kilometers) southeast to Pakistan's North Waziristan region. The Pakistan government said in a statement earlier this year that Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, had asked for its help in obtaining Rohde's release.
22) Holbrooke, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President George W. Bush's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, were actively involved in seeking Rohde's release.
23) Rohde's father, Harvey Rohde, told the Times that he regretted that his son had made the trip but that he understood his motivation "to get both sides of the story, to have his book honestly portray not just the one side but the other side as well."
24) Rohde was part of the Times reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize in May for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan last year.
25) He also won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting while working for The Christian Science Monitor for reporting on the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
26) During that time, Rohde was taken prisoner by Serbian officials and held for 10 days, during which he was deprived of sleep and interrogated relentlessly, according to a Web page on Rohde created by journalism students at Columbia University. Serb officials accused him of being a NATO spy, the page says.
27) The Columbia site says Rohde knew the reporting trip would be dangerous and that his editors would likely not allow him to make it. So he sent his ditors a emal ha h kewthy oud reeie oolae o top te rip, the site says.
28) When he was released, he was greeted by many cameras at the airport, which he did not like, his older brother, Lee Rohde, told the Times.
29) "The last thing he ever wants is to be the story. He's supposed to be the storyteller," Lee Rohde said.
30) Rohde is the author of "Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica."


Journalists held by Taliban endured death threats
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1) An Afghan journalist held by Taliban militants with a New York Times reporter said Monday he was beaten and repeatedly threatened by captors whose demands kept changing during their seven-month ordeal.
2) After being abducted, Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin and Times colleague David Rohde were driven across Afghanistan with little water and in constant fear for their lives, Ludin said. The journalists and their driver were seized south of the capital Nov. 10 while en route to interview a Taliban leader.
3) "Around 100 meters (yards) after the town of Baraki Rajan district one vehicle stopped and there were armed men inside. They pointed their guns to us and said, 'Don't move, you are under arrest.' So we had no guns, we stopped. They put us in the back of their car," Ludin said. He said the kidnappers were the same people through whom he had arranged the interview.
4) The 35-year-old journalist said he and Rohde were put in separate cars, and that he and their driver were blindfolded and beaten.
5) "They were beating me with the butt of their Kalashnikovs and punches," Ludin said. He said he tried to tell his captors to call the Taliban leader they had planned to meet, Abu Tuyeb, or Taliban spokesmen.
6) "They told me, 'We don't know Abu Tuyeb, we don't know (spokesman) Qari Yusuf, we don't know (spokesman) Zabiullah. Everyone is Zabiullah,'" Ludin recounted.
7) Rohde told Ludin he had not been beaten, and Ludin said he had not seen any evidence Rohde was harmed.
8) Ludin, who escaped with Rohde last week, spoke to The Associated Press in two brief phone conversations and during a short visit to a house where he was staying in Kabul. Ludin said he was worried that he was still in danger, and The New York Times was making arrangements to ensure his safety.
9) Rohde hired Ludin, who works mostly for the Times of London, to arrange the interview last November and to translate.
10) Ludin said their Taliban captors sometimes accused the men of being spies, but at other times appeared to have purely financial motives for the kidnapping, threatening to kill them if they did not procure large sums of money.
11) At first they demanded $30 million, then said they wanted to exchange the men for Taliban prisoners being held by the Afghan government. The demands would change week by week, Ludin said.
12) They repeatedly threatened Ludin's life and the lives of his family, the reporter said, adding the threats made him angry enough that he would curse at them in return.
13) "Sometimes they would show us the way that they would kill us, like showing us a CD of chopping off people's heads," he said.
14) The New York Times reported that Ludin and Rohde escaped Friday by climbing over the wall of a compound where they were held in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. They had planned the escape for a number of weeks, securing a rope and plotting to keep their guards awake late into the night so they would sleep soundly while the two went out a window, The New York Times said.
15) The reporters also waited for an evening when the electricity was running so the noise of the air conditioner would cover up any noise they made. They told the newspaper their driver had decided to join the Taliban.
16) Once out of the compound, the two found a Pakistani army scout, who led them to a nearby base, The New York Times said. On Saturday, the two were flown to the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, the paper reported.
17) Ludin said the hostages were relatively well treated once they were driven into Pakistan's tribal areas. They were given plenty to eat and drink, and often able to take hot showers, even though they were repeatedly shuffled from house to house.
18) "We would always have mineral water," said Ludin, adding that each of the three hostages were allowed to make individual requests for meals.
19) "You'd be surprised. Everything was according to request. Like you were staying in a hotel," Ludin said. At one point, Rohde was sick and their captors allowed him to see a doctor, Ludin said.
20) Ludin appeared healthy aside from a bandaged finger and toe, having even gained weight during his captivity. But he also seemed confused about people and his surroundings.
21) It took the reporter a few minutes of phone conversation to recall knowing an AP reporter, even though the reporter introduced himself by name at the beginning of the call.
22) "I knew you were one of my friends, but I couldn't remember who you were," Ludin said.
23) Rohde was on leave from The New York Times when the three men were seized and was working on a book about the history of American involvement in Afghanistan. Rohde was reunited with his family on Sunday, the newspaper said.


5 dead in apparent murder-suicide in Norway
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1) Norwegian police say a 41-year-old man is believed to have murdered his wife and three children, including a 2-week-old baby, before killing himself.
2) Police spokeswoman Hanne Kristin Rohde says the wife and baby were found dead in the couple's apartment in Oslo on Wednesday. The bodies of the man and two daughters, aged 9 and 13, were later found in a nearby lake.
3) Rohde said Thursday the cause of death had not been established but the case was believed to be a murder-suicide. The motive was unclear.
4) She said the man was originally from Iran. He moved to Norway in 1991 and became a Norwegian citizen eight years later. Rohde said his wife was from Morocco.