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: Sun, 8 Nov 92 15:50:37 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD;AROUND THE WORLD \BY FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS S=NEW STORY Colombian rebels kill at least 26 police BOGOTA, Colombia - Communist guerrillas conducted one of their fiercest attacks in years yesterday, killing at least 26 police officers during a four-hour battle near the southern border with Ecuador, the police said. A national police spokeswoman said some 200 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacked a patrol of 28 policemen guarding an oil well. Rebel casualties were not known, she said. Yesterday's dawn attack was part of a FARC offensive that began Oct. 12. The police spokeswoman described it as the worst attack by FARC since July 1988, when guerrillas killed 27 soldiers. S=NEW STORY Peace in El Salvador called back on track SAN SALVADOR - The rightist government and leftist rebels have agreed to comply with peace accords and end fighting next month, U.N. Undersecretary-General Alvaro de Soto said yesterday. "The peace process is moving forward just as it should," Mr. de Soto told reporters before leaving for United Nations headquarters in New York and a briefing with Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The peace plan started to unravel last month as each side accused the other of ignoring demobilization deadlines. S=NEW STORY Tehran doesn't seek renewed U.S. ties NICOSIA, Cyprus - Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati said yesterday that Tehran has no plans to seek formal ties with the United States and ruled out lifting the death sentence against British author Salman Rushdie. Mr. Velayati told the official Islamic Republic News Agency he did not expect relations with Washington to improve in the wake of Bill Clinton's victory in the U.S. presidential election. "We have no intention to resume ties with the United States," he said. S=NEW STORY Japan is reported planning loans to Iran TOKYO - Japan will end its 17-year suspension of economic assistance to Iran this year by providing that country with more than $243 million in loans, the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday. The loans would be used to fund a hydroelectric power plant on the Karun River in western Iran, the financial newspaper said. Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available to comment. S=NEW STORY Foreign laborers face Israeli AIDS barrier JERUSALEM - Starting next year, foreigners seeking work in Israel must prove they are not infected with the virus that causes AIDS, an official said yesterday. Tourists, businessmen and the clergy will not be immediately affected. The regulation is chiefly aimed at screening overseas blue-collar workers, said David Efrati, director of population administration for the Interior Ministry. Most of the 6,000 licensed foreign workers in Israel are manual laborers, he said, mostly construction workers from Europe. That figure does not include the more than 70,000 Palestinians who enter the country daily from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip as laborers. The rule doesn't apply to them. S=NEW STORY Angola tells Botha not to drop in LUANDA, Angola - The government declared South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha persona non grata yesterday because of his country's support of UNITA rebels as tension continued high across the country. The government accused Pretoria of sending logistical aid to UNITA in a recent flareup with the ruling MPLA. S=NEW STORY Bird migration foretells harsh winter in Europe NICOSIA, Cyprus - Unusually large and disorderly flocks of cranes are migrating south from Eastern Europe, Turkey and parts of the former Soviet Union, a bird specialist said yesterday. Pavlos Neophytou, secretary of the Cyprus Ornithological Society, said the migration presages a harsh winter in the northern regions, where the cranes spend the summer. He said as many as 30,000 cranes flew over Cyprus in the past week on their way to Africa, compared with a few thousand in previous years. Mr. Neophytou said it was odd that the birds, which usually fly high in 'V' formations, were flying low in disarray and making odd cries. 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