3 Acquitted of Killing Children

A Rio de Janeiro state court declared not guilty two police officers and another man accused of shooting to death eight street children and wounding six in a 1993 massacre, a court spokesman said. Six children died when assailants opened fire indiscriminately on about 70 youths playing or sleeping on the steps of a church July 23, 1993. Two other children were taken to the waterfront and executed. The outcome of the trial came as no surprise to human rights activists, who had expected the three men to be freed even though one of the accused was identified by a surviving victim of the massacre as one of the killers.