Tracks lead to arrests in journalist deaths

 DAKAR (AP):

French forces who found the bodies of two radio journalists kidnapped and shot to death in northern Mali followed the abductor's tracks in the sand and arrested about a half-dozen suspects yesterday, a Malian intelligence official said.

The director of Radio France Internationale confirmed multiple arrests.

The kidnappers' car had a broken steering wheel, suggesting the vehicle broke down, according to the Malian official, who refused to be named because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Witnesses reported that French journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were grabbed by four men on Saturday after interviewing a Tuareg rebel leader in the northern city of Kidal. Dupont was shot in the chest and Verlon was shot in the head, both of them "coldly assassinated," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday.