WORLD IN BRIEF : LAOS : Possibly Some MIAs Slain, Official Says

A senior Laotian official told visiting U.S. senators that some downed U.S. airmen may have been killed by enraged villagers in Laos during the Vietnam War. The statement by Vice Foreign Minister Soubanh Srithirath helps explain what may have happened to some of the 522 Americans still not accounted for. Unresolved questions about their fate have been a major impediment to improved U.S.-Laos relations. The senators characterized the statement as significant and far-reaching. “We got our answer--they killed them,� Sen. Hank Brown (R-Colo.) said. “I guess we have to live with it.�