News In Brief

Upper Volta executes 7 charged in coup attempt

Seven conspirators convicted of plotting to overthrow the socialist regime of President Thomas Sankara of Upper Volta were executed early Tuesday, Radio Ouagadougou reported.

The seven men - most of them Army officers - were found guilty and sentenced to death by a military court for a May 28 coup attempt, said the broadcast monitored in Abidjan.

Mr. Sankara, an Army captain and former prime minister, seized power Aug. 4, sweeping away 24 years of Western-oriented civilian rule in the former French colony.

Sankara has installed a militantly leftist regime in the landlocked West African nation and is believed to be closely linked with Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings in neighboring Ghana.