Conductor cleared

Grenoble - A French court yesterday cleared Franco-Swiss orchestra conductor Michel Tabachnik of responsibility for the deaths of 74 members of the Solar Temple doomsday cult. Mr Tabachnik (58) had been charged with "membership of a criminal group" and prosecutors said he had been a leading member of the cult, encouraging followers to go to their deaths in a series of ritual killings and suicides in France, Canada and Switzerland in 1994-97.