World News
Date 11/12/1998 12:00 AM | Topic: NewsKurdish refugees rescued off the coast of Italy
On Saturday, authorities rescued 400 refugees, most of them Kurds, from a dilapidated freighter drifting off the coast of southeastern Italy for an unknown amount of time. The ship was painted black to avoid detection, abandoned by the crew, and had its engines cut. The first Italian police to board the ship described the condition of some of the immigrants as "distressing," Italy's ANSA news service said. Six children and two women were taken to a hospital for examination.
Serbs and KLA violate cease-fire
The Friday killings of five ethnic Albanians by Serb police in a shoot-out on a road near Opterusa in central Kosovo is a violation of the cease-fire established last month, Kosovo rebels claim. Police say that the Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas fired first, but one rebel said it was a police ambush and that the Albanians never fired. Two Serbian police officers also disappeared on Friday while distributing food to remote police checkpoints about 25 miles southwest of Pristina, the province's capital. Serb sources said they may have been abducted by the KLA.
Bomb is an attempt to stop pact ending anti-Israel terrorism
Palestinian extremists attempted to derail the settlement of the U.S.-brokered Mideast peace deal this week by exploding a car bomb in a busy Jerusalem market on Friday. The bomb killed the two Islamic Jihad suicide bombers and injured 24 Israelis. Israel's defense minister says he expects the Cabinet to approve if the pact, in which Israel will forfeit an additional 13% of the West Bank to the Palestinians in exchange for a crackdown on anti-Israel terrorists. Palestinian officials arrested 20 Islamic Jihad militants over the weekend and Israelis arrested another eight Palestinians believed to have been involved in the attack.
Relief efforts for Honduran victims of Hurricane Mitch
Aid shipments to feed, clothe and protect the hundreds of thousands of victims in Central America who survived Hurricane Mitch are pouring into Honduras as relief workers attempt to remedy the famine, homelessness, and the dangers of contaminated water in remote areas. Almost 10,000 people died in the torrential floods and mudslides that accompanied the worst natural disaster to hit Central America this century. Thousands are still missing.
Seven members of Northern Ireland splinter group arrested
Police were able to arrest seven men in Drogheda Sunday after they left a meeting of a splinter group that opposes the peace accord in Northern Ireland, due to a recently improved anti-terrorism law. They were at a conference organized by Republican Sinn Fein, an anti-British group of Sinn Fein dissidents. Sinn Fein has publicly denied any links to that group. Officials say the men were being questioned about possible involvement with the "Continuity IRA," the only outlawed group that has not declared a cease-fire in Northern Ireland.
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-Compiled Kaarin Babcock
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