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: Sat, 7 Nov 92 19:23:58 EST Message-ID: \SE A;TOP OF THE NEWS;WORLD \BY FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS S=NEW STORY Military smuggling by Saddam reported AMMAN, Jordan - Saddam Hussein is smuggling spare military parts into Iraq, including at least two recent shipments from China, and is upgrading weapons at secret installations, Western intelligence sources say. A source speaking on the condition of anonymity identified one such installation as a military-industrial complex near Tharthar Lake, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad. It was a command center during the Persian Gulf war. The source said the Iraqis have tested rockets at the site in a continuing effort to upgrade and improve their inventory of conventional weapons. Last year's U.N. cease-fire resolution said Saddam's weapons of mass destruction had to be destroyed but did not order Iraq to dismantle its armed forces or facilities for conventional weapons. S=NEW STORY U.N. peacekeeper in Angola for talks LUANDA, Angola - The top U.N. peacekeeper arrived in Luanda yesterday to try to negotiate an end to fighting between government and rebel forces that has threatened to reignite full-scale civil war. Marrack Goulding, the U.N. undersecretary for peacekeeping, said he will meet with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi to discuss steps to end the hostilities, the state news agency Angop reported. But in Rio de Janeiro, Angolan Foreign Minister Pedro de Castro Van Dunem said talks cannot start until the rebels disarm. "The solution is in the hands of" the rebels, Mr. Van Dunem told reporters. "Savimbi should take a patriotic position and demilitarize. If he doesn't, we will do it for him." S=NEW STORY North Korea scrubs talks with Japan BEIJING - Normalization talks collapsed yesterday when North Korea refused Japan's request for information about a Japanese woman Tokyo says was kidnapped and forced to train spies. The eighth round of the talks were suspended yesterday after the deputy head of the North Korean delegation walked out. When the discussions did not resume by 6 p.m., the Japanese delegation said it canceled the remaining sessions. Japan wants information on a woman it says was abducted about 13 years ago and forced to tutor North Korean spies, including a woman convicted of the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner. The Japanese woman was identified in 1991 by Kim Hyun Hui, the Korean convicted of bombing the plane. She said the woman told her she was abducted from Japan to serve as a language tutor. S=NEW STORY Liberian rebels hit by rocket attack MONROVIA, Liberia - To the cheers of ground troops, a Nigerian jet fired rockets yesterday at guerrillas holed up in an iron factory in the capital. "Beautiful, beautiful. Go for it!" shouted a Nigerian lieutenant in the seven-nation force defending Monrovia from soldiers fighting for guerrilla leader Charles Taylor. Other troops from the West African force showed a reporter on the front a hole where a guerrilla mortar had exploded an hour earlier near a gas station where two dozen soldiers sought shelter behind a wall. S=NEW STORY Iran vows to settle accounts with Israel NICOSIA, Cyprus - Iran's president yesterday said Muslims will settle their accounts with Israel if Washington's attention ever is focused elsewhere, Tehran radio reported. Speaking at Tehran University, Hashemi Rafsanjani attacked Arab countries involved in the U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Israel. "The weak and miserable Arab governments have agreed to negotiations with Israel, thinking their problem is finished. . . . "Will the Muslim people respect these signatures in the future? These signatures haven't the least value." The worshipers responded by chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," said the radio, monitored in Cyprus. S=NEW STORY Turkish Kurds yield in Iraq DAHUK, Iraq - At least 2,500 Turkish Kurds have surrendered to Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq, and fighting is nearly over, a senior Iraqi Kurdish leader said yesterday. Iraqi Kurdish forces have been fighting for more than a month to compel Kurdistan Workers Party fighters to leave the mountainous frontier region, which they had used to launch attacks inside Turkey. Turkish troops backed by planes and helicopters crossed into northern Iraq in mid-October, and about 80 tanks and armored carriers advanced along the main road through the Iraqi border town of Zakho a week ago. An armored Turkish column yesterday thrust deeper into mountains northeast of Zakho, apparently to prevent the Turkish Kurds from escaping. S=NEW STORY Yeltsin is urged to change Cabinet MOSCOW - Leading advisers reportedly urged President Boris Yeltsin yesterday to make Cabinet changes that would appease hard-line foes seeking to undermine his reforms. Mr. Yeltsin, huddling with aides in the Kremlin to plot strategy for an expected confrontation next month with the Congress of People's Deputies, did not rule out a Cabinet shuffle. But he repeated that he will not sacrifice acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, the architect of Russia's market-oriented reforms, to mollify the anti-reformers who dominate the 2,250-member Congress, the country's highest lawmaking body, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. S=NEW STORY U.N. help sought on rights in Baltics NEW YORK - Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who has suspended the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Baltics, yesterday sought United Nations help in stopping alleged rights violations against Russian speakers in the region. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Mr. Yeltsin said he will ask the General Assembly to take up "the question of mass violations of human rights and freedoms" in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Mr. Yeltsin, who suspended the withdrawal of 58,000 former Soviet troops from the republics last month, said the Russian leadership "clearly and unequivocally reiterates its intention to withdraw its troops from the territories of these states." S=NEW STORY Rushdie expects Clinton's help STOCKHOLM - Writer Salman Rushdie, who has a $2 million Iranian bounty on his head, said yesterday he expects President-elect Bill Clinton to be more helpful to him than President Bush has been. "It can't be any worse," Mr. Rushdie told a news conference. He said "the Bush regime was uninterested" in pressuring Iran to lift the death sentence the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini imposed on Mr. Rushdie for his novel "The Satanic Verses." 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