Pinochet accepts responsibility for actions

Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet has taken full responsibility for the first time for the actions of his 1973-90 dictatorship, in which thousands were killed.

At a celebration of his 91st birthday yesterday, Pinochet also defended the bloody military coup that toppled freely elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, in a statement read aloud by his wife as he sat by her side.