Killing Fields four go on trial

Four now old and infirm members of the Khmer Rouge's ruling elite were facing a war crimes tribunal today, decades after their plans for a Communist Party utopia in Cambodia killed around 1.7 million people by execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.

The UN-backed tribunal, comprising Cambodian and foreign jurists, will begin trying them on charges including crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture.