ABCNEWS' John Quiones

— -- Last season, Quiñones covered the Albanian refugee crisis for a 20/20 one-hour special on Macedonia and Albania.

Other stories included a look at women in polygamous marriages in Utah and an inspiring story about a young boy who was confined to a cage as a child for over two years and his remarkable recovery with his adoptive parents.

During 1996-97, Quiñones examined the problem of parents who run off with their own children in violation of the other parent's custodial or visitation rights; traveled to Balboa Park in San Diego, where pedophiles prey on Mexican boys who have crossed the border illegally; interviewed Sheldon Kennedy, a hockey player with the Boston Bruins, who broke his silence about being sexually abused for years by his coach when he was a teenager; traveled to Congo to interview Michael Fay, a man dedicated to preserving the world's last virgin rain forest in the northern part of the country; conducted a PrimeTime Live exclusive investigation involving illegal scams for getting mortgage loans from banks under false pretenses; and interviewed actor Jimmy Smits of NYPD Blue.

During the 1995-96 season, Quiñones reported on a woman who was condemned to life in prison by the Peruvian military because they claimed she was the top leader of a terrorist group, the MRTA; traveled to the island of Montserrat to monitor an active volcano; investigated the murder of American civilian Michael Devine by Guatemalan soldiers and the reported connection between drug traffickers and the Guatemalan military; told the story of Thelma Sebley, whose 5-year-old daughter was strangled to death when the drawstring on the child's snowsuit caught on a playground slide; reported on the increase of grizzly bear attacks on humans; and told the story of the life and tragic murder of Latin singing sensation Selena by the head of her fan club.

During the 1994-95 season, Quiñones went 20 feet below ground to interview roving gangs of young Mexicans known as "tunnel rats," who beat and rob defenseless immigrants who are illegally entering the United States. He traveled to Tanzania to profile Jane Goodall, who studies the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park and investigated how accused felons can skip bail and return to the streets without fear of being arrested. He also reported on the bittersweet story of Chester Szuber, a father who was on a waiting list to receive a heart transplant when his daughter was suddenly killed in a tragic car accident, and who was then faced with the decision of receiving her heart.

In the 1993-94 season, Quiñones conducted a hidden-camera investigation into the quality and safety of the nation's seafood supply; interviewed Bennie Agrelo, a courageous Florida teenager who rejected the pain of a third liver transplant so he could die with dignity; and went underwater off the coast of Bimini to profile a marine biologist dedicated to saving the sharks. He reported on the amateur photographer who shot video of the violent aftermath of the Rodney King verdict; reported on the endangered, ancient Penan Indian tribe in the Malaysian state of Sarawak; reported on charges that Catholic nuns in Canada tortured thousands of orphans in the 1940s, destroying their lives; used hidden cameras in Peru to report on the corrupt baby adoption trade; and investigated charges that the U.S. Navy condoned prostitution in the Philippines for 40 years, which resulted in 9,000 Amerasian children abandoned by their American fathers.

During the 1991-92 season, Quiñones contributed several award-winning and breaking news reports, which included an undercover investigation of the meat-packing industry, exposing how contaminated meat is being distributed to the American public. The report promoted an investigation by the USDA. A report on the exploitation of Haitian boys who work for substandard wages in the Dominican Republic sugarcane fields was honored with the Overseas Press Club Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and an Emmy Award. Quiñones smuggled hidden cameras into Tibet, winning an Emmy Award for his examination of how 40 years of Chinese domination has kept the land known as "Shangri-La" in a state of poverty and oppression.

Other reports included an investigation into the cause of an epidemic of brain defects in newborns in Brownsville, Texas; an examination of the problems of homeless veterans; a report from India where he exposed how the poor are selling their kidneys for organ transplants; and a look at how dolphins interact with handicapped children at a research center in Florida.

During the 1990-91 season, Quiñones contributed a number of reports to PrimeTime Live, including a report on a society of abandoned children who live in sewage tunnels beneath the streets of Bogota, Colombia; a look at the Yanomamo Indians of Venezuela, whose primitive existence is being threatened by encroaching civilization; and a report on the plight of Guatemala's 5,000 homeless children who, human activists claim, are being beaten and killed by the Guatemalan police force.

Quiñones has won six national Emmy awards for his PrimeTime Live, Burning Questions and 20/20 work. Most recently, he was awarded an Emmy for his coverage of Congo's virgin rainforest. This piece also won the Ark Trust Wildlife Award.

Quiñones has also been honored with a Gabriel Award, a World Hunger Media Award and a Citation from the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for To Save the Children, his 1990 report on the homeless children of Bogota. He received a 1990 Emmy Award for Window in the Past, his look at the Yanomamo Indians.

Quiñones joined ABCNEWS in June 1982 as a general assignment correspondent based in Miami, providing reports for World News Tonight With Peter Jennings and other ABCNEWS broadcasts. He was one of the few American journalists reporting from Panama City during the U.S. invasion in December 1989.

Quiñones has reported on a wide range of stories originating from Central America, including the political and economic turmoil in Argentina and civil war in El Salvador. He also covered such stories as the explosion aboard the U.S.S. Iowa, the execution of serial killer Ted Bundy and the debate over the availability of guns in Florida.

In 1988, Quiñones filed more than 50 reports from Panama, detailing the country's turmoil and U.S. efforts to oust Manuel Noriega. In January 1986, he covered the space shuttle Challenger disaster from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In April 1990, Quiñones received a National Emmy Award for his work on the documentary, Burning Questions, The Poisoning of America, which aired on the ABC in September 1988.

Prior to joining ABCNEWS, Quiñones was a reporter with WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he covered a variety of stories on local, national and international issues, including a report on the Haitian boat people in 1982 and the Cuban boat lift in 1980. Quiñones won two Emmy Awards for his 1980 reporting on the plight of illegal aliens from Mexico.

From 1975 to 1978, Quiñones was a news editor at KTRH-Radio in Houston. During that period, he also was an anchor-reporter for KPRC-TV.

Quiñones received a bachelor of arts degree in speech communications from St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. He received a master's degree from the Columbia School of Journalism.