The World - News from Dec. 17, 1986

Ousted Emperor Jean-Bedel-Bokassa of the Central African Republic, on trial for his life in his homeland, told the weeping widow of one of his alleged victims that he was sorry. But Bokassa, 65, denied that he was to blame for the murder of Lucien Mobongo, public works minister who disappeared in 1973 and whose body was found six years later when Bokassa was ousted in a coup. Bokassa also is accused in the murder of 100 schoolchildren who refused to wear uniforms made at the imperial factory--the episode that brought on his downfall. Bokassa was put on trial after he unexpectedly returned Oct. 23 from exile in the Ivory Coast and France.