New probe set in journalists' killings

ROME, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A judge in Rome has ordered a new investigation into the 1994 deaths of Italian TV journalist Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran Hrovatin in Somalia.

Judge Emanuele Cersosimo alleged that the pair may have been deliberately killed to prevent the reporting of a high-level conspiracy to divert Italian aid to an organization trafficking in weapons and toxic waste, ANSA reported Monday.

Cersosimo rejected a prosecutor's request to declare the case closed .

"From a thorough analysis of all the evidence gathered so far, the most probable and reasonable reconstruction of the case appears to be that of a contract killing," said the judge.

Alpi, 32, and Hrovatin, 45, were shot while sitting in their jeep in Mogadishu by a seven-man commando unit.