No Hostages Freed as Deadline Passes

Nationalist rebels held 27 hostages today after another deadline set by the country’s military rulers passed with no firm agreement for when the captives would be released from the Parliament compound. The military said it expected talks to resume later today in its bid to persuade rebel leader George Speight to free the hostages, including deposed ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, possibly by Tuesday. Speight supporters also were holding about 30 hostages in a police station in Korovou village, about 40 miles from Suva, the capital. Speight stormed Parliament on May 19 and took Chaudhry and members of his multiethnic Cabinet hostage in the name of excluding the large Indian minority from power.