Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE A;TOP OF THE NEWS;WORLD \BY FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS S=NEW STORY Cristiani halts shifts till rebels disarm SAN SALVADOR - President Alfredo Cristiani announced yesterday that the government would not reduce or purge its armed forces until leftist rebels fully disarm, threatening to derail the nation's peace process. In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he will send his chief peacekeeper, Marrack Goulding, and Alvaro de Soto, his top negotiator on the Salvadoran peace accords, to El Salvador today. Earlier yesterday, Salvadoran rebels said they would disband 1,700 more fighters as a show of support for the U.N.-brokered peace plan. Mr. Cristiani said he would accept a U.N.-proposed delay of rebel demobilization. The January peace accord ended the Central American nation's brutal 12-year civil war, in which more than 75,000 Salvadorans, most civilians, were killed. S=NEW STORY Russian combat troops pull out of Poland SWINOUJSCIE, Poland - The last Russian combat troops stationed in Poland pulled out yesterday, ending a presence that reinforced Moscow's grip on the country for more than 40 years. The last torpedo boats sailed out of the northwestern port of Swinoujscie, leaving 6,000 noncombat troops in transport and communications units who will stay until the end of 1993 to help the evacuation of a Russian garrison in eastern Germany. "Poland is free at last," said Andrzej Drzycimski, spokesman for Polish President Lech Walesa. "This is an achievement of the new Poland and the new Russia. The opening was made possible by Russia's ability to take up the challenge of new times," he said. S=NEW STORY Israeli troops poised on Lebanese border TYRE, Lebanon - An Israeli mechanized battalion stood ready along the border with Lebanon, but there were no reports of further clashes yesterday between Israeli troops and pro-Iranian guerrillas. Tension eased in south Lebanon after two days of fighting between Israeli troops and Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas bent on scuttling Middle East peace talks under way in Washington. The United States has urged restraint, and Israeli officials said yesterday they would not allow the situation to deteriorate into war. S=NEW STORY Palestinians protest peace talk limits DAMASCUS, Syria - Thousands of Palestinians marched through Damascus yesterday demanding the Palestinian delegation walk out of Arab-Israeli peace talks unless Israel agrees to discuss an independent Palestinian state. A general protest strike was observed in Palestinian refugee camps through much of the region in response to a call from 10 radical groups opposed to the ongoing talks in Washington. The Damascus demonstrators chanted slogans denouncing Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, who has accepted that only an interim, five-year period of autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be negotiated in the talks. S=NEW STORY Beijing arms called threat to Taiwan TAIPEI, Taiwan - China has bought 24 Sukhoi-27 warplanes from Russia, posing a threat to Taiwan's security, the island's defense minister, Chen Li-an, said yesterday. "The number and quality of our warplanes are now inferior to the other side," Mr. Chen, citing Taiwanese military intelligence reports, told parliament. But he added that Taiwan would regain parity with China when it takes delivery of U.S.-built F-16 jet fighters in early 1996, modernizing its aging fleet of F-5Es and F-104s. Last month Washington approved the sale to Taiwan of 150 F-16s in a deal worth $6 billion. Taiwan is also seeking to buy 60 Mirage 2000 jet fighters from France for about $2.6 billion, according to local media reports. S=NEW STORY Tajikistan pleads for intervention DUSHANBE, Tajikistan - Tajikistan's prime minister appealed yesterday for outside help to save his country from being pulled apart amid signs that months of bloody internal strife may begin to spill across Central Asia. "The situation is extremely grave," Abdulmalik Abdulajanov said in a Reuters interview. "The fighting is getting out of hand and we need help from Uzbekistan and Russia." "Brothers are fighting brothers, neighbors are becoming enemies and worst of all, Tajiks and Uzbeks are growing hostile toward each other." A quarter of Tajikistan's 5 million people are ethnic Uzbeks. Uzbekistan, which shares a weakly defended border with Tajikistan, is also home to a large Tajik minority. S=NEW STORY Antarctic melting 3 million years old? LONDON - New evidence suggests that the Antarctic ice sheet melted extensively and raised sea levels about 3 million years ago during a period when temperatures were only slightly higher than today. The findings, published in the British scientific journal Nature, challenged the widely held view that the polar ice sheet had been stable since its formation 14 million years ago. They also provided a warning that temperatures only slightly higher than today could again cause large-scale deglaciation. The issue "is important because it concerns nothing less than the evolution of polar ice sheets and the global climate system," said Professor David Sugden of Edinburgh University's geography department. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM