Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.inter From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: inter Wed, Mar 4 1992 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 92 05:50:52 EST Message-ID: 03-04 0000 DECISIONLINE: International News USA TODAY Update March 4, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network AZERIS RECOVER 120 BODIES: Police in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan said Tuesday they had recovered the bodies of 120 Azeris killed as they fled an Armenian assault in the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, and that they were being blocked from retrieving more dead. But Armenian officials denied as a "gross exaggeration" claims that 1,000 were massacred in the attack on Khodzhaly last week. ELECTIONS CALLED `HISTORICAL': Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi Tuesday accused Secretary of State James Baker of reneging on his pledges to intervene in Mideast peace talks. "We feel left to the mercy of Israel," she said. She also hailed as "historical" Tuesday's proposal by the Palestinians to hold elections in the territories - after Israel disarms Jewish settlers. BAKER DENIES CUT IN AID: Secretary of State James Baker, on the defensive about U.S. foreign aid, denied Tuesday that he intends to slash Israel's $3 billion aid budget. He was also grilled sharply by a House subcommittee about a 300% increase in funding for U.N. peacekeeping forces. The Senate Appropriations panel considering Israel's request for the loan guarantees is putting the issue on hold. PROBLEMS CONFRONT KUWAIT: One year after Kuwait's liberation, people are suffering from allergies, bronchial asthma and even pneumonia, doctors say. They suspect that Kuwait's 727 oil well fires - set by invading Iraqi troops - are probably to blame. Doctors say they've been so busy treating patients and repairing Kuwait's shattered hospitals that they've had little time for research. BUSH TO HOST YELTSIN: President Bush will host Russian President Boris Yeltsin for their first summit June 16-17 in Washington. Bush said the "informal" session would "get into the nuclear and military questions, and then the joint efforts in support of reform in Russia." SOMALIANS REACH TRUCE: Mogadishu's two rival warlords, interim President Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Gen. Mohamed Farah Aideed, signed a U.N.-sponsored cease-fire agreement Tuesday to halt three months of savage fighting in the Somali capital that has killed or wounded more than 30,000 people. YUGOSLAVIA STRIFE CONTINUES: Hundreds of armed Muslims took up positions on roads into Sarajevo Tuesday to confront Serbs reportedly moving on the city, the center of a growing ethnic conflict over Bosnia-Hercegovina's independence from Yugoslavia. Bosnia-Herzegovina has simmered for months over tensions among its Serbs, Croats and Muslims. MINERS TRAPPED IN TURKEY: Up to 700 miners were feared trapped after an explosion ripped through a Turkish coal mine, officials said Tuesday. At least three miners were known to have been killed and 38 injured in the blast in northwest Turkey. MENACHEM BEGIN ILL: Menachem Begin, the prime minister who signed Israel's only peace treaty with an Arab country, collapsed after a stroke Tuesday. Begin, 78, was in critical condition on a respirator, an official of Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital said. PC USERS BRACE FOR FRIDAY: On Friday, the 517th birthday of the famous artist Michelangelo, thousands of personal computers may come crashing to a halt. That's when the virus, code-named Michelangelo, is programmed to kick into action. No one knows how many PCs have been contaminated. But unless PC users worldwide take safeguards, Michelangelo could wipe out months of work stored in IBM-compatible PCs. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Wednesday at 3290.25, after closing up 14.98 Tuesday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 228.43, up 0.23. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 415.49, down 1.30. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 634.25, down 1.22. DOLLAR OPENS MOSTLY UP: The dollar opens mixed on foreign markets Wednesday. It opens at 0.5755 British pounds, up from 0.5709; 5.5617 French francs, unchanged; 130.87 Japanese yen, up from 129.68; and 1.6580 German marks, up from 1.6430. (As of 3 p.m. Tuesday. Source: First American Bank of New York.) International News Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM