A Belgian court sentenced a former Rwandan army major to 20 years in prison today for his part in the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an unspecified number of Rwandan civilians at the start of the 1994 genocide.

Bernard Ntuyahaga, 55, was found guilty of manslaughter following the killings of the Belgian paratroopers, who were on UN duty in the country.

Ntuyahaga was accused by prosecutors of spreading rumours that the Belgian peacekeepers were responsible for shooting down a plane, killing President Juvenal Habyarimana, on April 6 1994. The next day Ntuyahaga took the peacekeepers from the residence of the prime minister, whom they were trying to protect, and handed them over to fellow soldiers at a military camp in the capital, Kigali, where they were beaten to death, shot or slain with machetes. In the following three months, some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

The death of the 10 peacekeepers led to the withdrawal of the 450 Belgian troops in Rwanda and eventually troops from other nations in the UN mission. It opened the way for the genocide to spread.

The former major was not convicted of manslaughter in the killing of the then prime minister, Agatha Uwilingiyimana, who the Belgian peacekeepers were responsible for protecting. The public prosecutor had asked for a life sentence for Ntuyahaga’s role in the genocide.

“He remains a Hutu extremist and will probably remain it for the rest of his life,” prosecutor Philippe Mere said, adding that Ntuyahaga, had expressed no remorse.

But the jury decided on a more lenient penalty, which presiding judge Karine Gerard said left the door open for reconciliation among Rwandans.

The defence said Ntuyahaga was a political scapegoat, who had only been passing the prime minister’s residence by chance and had given the Belgians a ride at their request. Ntuyahaga’s attorney said he would appeal.

“If Belgian troops had stayed [in Rwanda] we could have saved hundreds of thousands of people,” Beligium’s Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told the court in his testimony in May. Theodore Simburudali of Ibuka, a Rwandan umbrella group for genocide survivors, said: “The truth has come out, which we have always said. Those top military officials killed many of our people - he deserves a big sentence.”

It is not the first time Rwandans have stood trial in Belgium over the genocide. Two Catholic nuns, a university professor and a businessman were sentenced in 2001 to between 12 and 20 years’ jail for aiding the mass murders.

(AP)The makers of Splenda and Equal on Friday settled a lawsuit over Splenda’s disputed advertising slogan Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar.

The settlement came after the jury announced that it had reached a verdict.

Chicago-based Merisant Co., which makes Equal, accused Splenda of confusing consumers into thinking its product was healthier and more natural than other artificial sweeteners. Splenda’s marketer, McNeil Nutritionals, countered that it simply has a better product backed by superior advertising.

A McNeil spokeswoman in the courtroom said the amount of the settlement wouldn’t be announced. The two sides planned to issue a joint statement later Friday.

Merisant was seeking more than $200 million from McNeil at least $183 million for unfair profits since 2003 and compensation for at least $25 million in lost sales.

The active ingredient in Splenda starts as pure cane sugar but is chemically altered to create a compound that contains no calories, according to McNeil. The final product contains no sugar.

The one-month trial focused mostly on Splenda’s advertising slogan, but it ended in a settlement after the jury said it had reached a verdict Friday afternoon.

Settlement talks began after jurors asked the judge for a calculator and a white board, an indication that they were computing damages to be awarded to Merisant. Lawyers rushed to the courtroom to try to delay the jury’s announcement and then huddled in a courthouse meeting room.

McNeil’s own consultants said its slogan confused potential customers, some of whom thought that Splenda was sugar without the calories, Merisant’s attorneys said. McNeil rejected a plan to add the phrase does not contain sugar to the front of Splenda’s yellow box, which might have cleared up the confusion, Merisant said.

Because the manufacturing of Splenda begins with sugar, McNeil can accurately claim that Splenda is made from sugar, according to its attorneys.

Splenda is used in more than 4,000 food and drink products and is included in recipes at numerous chain restaurants.

It had 60 percent of the consumer artificial sweetener market last year, according to the research firm Information Resources Inc. Equal, which comes in blue packets and is made with aspartame, and Sweet’N Low, in pink packets and made with saccharin, each held about 14 percent of the consumer market.

McNeil is a unit of Johnson & Johnson based in suburban Philadelphia and markets Splenda for its manufacturer, London-based Tate & Lyle PLC. It is also defending its Splenda advertising claims in a separate lawsuit in California filed by a group of U.S. sugar manufacturers.

Venus Williams took another step towards her fourth Wimbledon title with a hard-fought victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals. Fresh from her brilliant performance against second seed Maria Sharapova yesterday, Williams battled to a 6-3, 6-4 win to seal a semi-final against either Nicole Vaidisova or Ana Ivanovic.

An 11am start perhaps explained a sluggish opening from Williams, who had not faced a single break point against Sharapova but had to save two in the opening game of the match. Later in the set, Williams took advantage of a poor approach shot from Kuznetsova to send a forehand winner down the line for the only break, serving out comfortably to take the set 6-3 after 30 minutes.

Kuznetsova saved seven break points in an epic opening game of the second set but then surrendered her serve in the fifth game to seemingly put Williams in total control. However, a lapse in concentration from Williams allowed Kuznetsova to break straight back, only for a third consecutive break of serve to give the 23rd seed another chance to close out the match.

Williams squandered three match points before sealing victory, much to the delight of her family, including younger sister Serena, watching in the players’ box.

Williams will have to play four days in a row if she is to lift the title on Saturday following all the rain delays, but doesn’t seem to mind: “That’s OK because if I have a day off it would mean I’m out of the tournament,” she joked.