Ten sentenced to death in Rwanda

A court in Rwanda is reported to have sentenced 10 people to death and 23 more to life imprisonment for leading the 1994 genocide in which around half a million people died.

The state run radio said the court in Gisenyi, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital Kigali, had found them guilty of organizing the militias that carried out the killings of Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

The radio said that a former member of parliament under the last extremist Hutu government, Wellars Benzi, was among those sentenced to death.

Mr Benzi was accused of of inciting Hutus to kill Tutsis through articles published in the Kangura newspaper.

Correspondents say the judgement comes as Rwanda is trying to set up an alternative legal system to speed up trials of genocide suspects, and reduce overcrowding in the country's prisons.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service