• SLOVYANSK, Ukraine (AP) -- Pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine on Saturday released the seven OSCE military observers and five Ukrainian assistants who had been held for more than a week.
• The observers were seized on April 25 in the city of Slovyansk, the epicenter of eastern Ukraine's unrest, as they traveled with an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observer team. The insurgents said they possessed unspecified suspicious material and alleged they were spying for NATO.
• An observer from Sweden was also seized as part of the team, but was released earlier. Unlike the other observers' countries, Sweden is not a member of NATO and the Swede reportedly suffers from a mild form of diabetes.
• Shortly before the release, the insurgents' leader in Slovyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying he ordered the release because of increasing insecurity in the city.
• Two Ukrainian helicopters were reported shot down outside the city on Friday, killing two crew members and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said two other soldiers were killed in a clash on the oustkirts. Ponomarev said 10 local people were killed in a confrontation with soldiers on Slovyansk's outskirts, but there was no independent confirmation.
• ___

• KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan rescuers and hundreds of volunteers armed with shovels rushed on Saturday to help villagers hit by a massive landslide in the remote northeast a day earlier, officials said, while fears of a new torrent of mud and

(Continued on page 49)