World IN BRIEF : LIBYA : Government Denies Plane Bombing Plot

Libya rejected charges by a French judge that it masterminded an airliner bombing that killed all 170 people on board in 1989. A DC-10 of France’s UTA airline exploded over the Niger desert during a flight between the Congolese capital of Brazzaville and Paris after a stop in Chad. The official news agency JANA called the judge’s charges “a campaign of racial hatred against the Arab people of Libya” and said Libya “condemns all terrorist operations against innocent civilians.” The judge investigating the bombing, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, was quoted by Paris lawyers as telling relatives of the DC-10 victims that Libyan diplomat Abdallah Azragh, who is based in Brazzaville, organized the attack.