EUROPE UPDATE
Bosnians face renewed fighting as winter sets in
Bosnia's warring parties - after allowing 1,200 desperate civilians to evacuate the battered capital - ignored a fresh cease-fire and kept on fighting for territory in the former Yugoslav republic.
Sarajevo radio said that Gradacac, the last major Muslim-held town in northern Bosnia, was "a town of blood and horror." Over 1,000 shells fell on the Gradacac area during the day, the radio said, killing eight people and wounding 12 others.
In Sarajevo, where temperatures plunged to 23 degrees Fahrenheit and puddles turned to ice in the morning, radio reported heavy shelling that was the biggest violation of the cease-fire in Sarajevo since it came into force.
Most of the town was again without electricty. The gas supply used by most of the 380,000 long-suffering residents for cooking and heating was also cut. All warring sides had pledged not to interrupt essential services.
Despite monitored and reported violations of the cease-fire, the commander of the United Nations Protection Force, Brig. Gen. Philippe Morillon, stressed that the UN-brokered truce had not collapsed. Morillon met Bosnian Serb commander Gen. Ratko Mladic to talk about implementation of the cease-fire, a UN spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic renewed his plea for lifting the UN arms embargo on his country. In a letter to UN Special Envoy Cyrus Vance, the Muslim president called it a great injustice and said the world body had let Bosnia down.
"You are treating both sides equally and that is a big injustice for my nation. We think you are helping the aggressor [the Serbs] to execute us," Mr. Izetbegovic wrote.
He emphasized that Bosnia did not want this war and, above all, not a religious war. "It is still not one, but if it becomes one, the responsibility will not be on us but on [those] who accept that might is right." Lithuanian ex-Communists win runoff election
Former Communists won an overwhelming victory in Lithuania's first post-Soviet elections, defeating nationalists who steered the Baltic country to independence last year, yesterday's preliminary results showed.
Returns from Sunday's second round of voting gave the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) a total of 80 seats in the 141-seat parliament. An alliance dominated by the nationalist party Sajudis won just over 40.
The elections, held in two rounds spread over three weeks, took place amid growing disillusionment over economic decline.
The DLP, headed by former Communist Party leader Algirdas Brazauskas, appeared to have won full control over the parliament and the right to form a government. It was originally formed from a break-away Lithuanian Communist Party which split with Moscow to support the drive for independence.
Since Lithuania won back its statehood in September 1991 after 51 years of rule from Moscow, Mr. Brazauskas has fiercely criticized the ruling Sajudis for pushing economic reforms too hard and for allowing relations with Russia to break down. France spells out opposition to EC-US farm deal
France was expected to tell fellow European Community nations at a meeting yesterday that a deal to solve a crucial farm row with the United States would be incompatible with a reform of the EC's farm policy agreed earlier this year. The dispute with the US threatens to spark a trade war and scupper prospects for a global deal under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
France's confirmation of its objections showed the 12-member Community remained deeply split on whether and how to bridge the gap with Washington on oilseeds and farm subsidies. Negotiators for both sides are to meet in Washington this week.
A French document noted that the Commission, the EC's executive, had assured the 12 governments that its negotiating position with Washington was compatible with this year's Common Agricultural Policy reform, which had already cut subsidies to EC farmers.
The document said Paris wanted the farm ministers to discuss how further cuts would affect several sectors of the farming industry, such as dairy, beef, cereals, oilseeds, pigs and poultry, and goods not covered by the Common Agricultural Policy reform such as olive oil, sugar, fruit and vegetables and wine.
