EVENTS
BOSNIAN SERBS POUND DEFIANT GORAZDE
Gorazde shuddered under relentless mortar and artillery attacks yesterday, and Bosnian officials there said Serbs were closing in on eastern Bosnia's last Muslim-defended enclave. The city, home to as many as 70,000 residents and refugees, is one of six "safe havens" designated by the United Nations to protect Bosnia's Muslims. Bosnian Serbs, who control about 70 percent of Bosnia, seek unchallenged authority over eastern Bosnia. Gorazde has been cut off for months and under fierce attack for 18 days. Bo snian Serb leaders have refused to allow UN monitors into the town. Abortion blockade case
The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to decide whether abortion rights advocates may use federal racketeering or antitrust laws to sue protesters who block women's access to abortion clinics. The court said it will review a ruling that spared Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion groups from being sued under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or federal antitrust law. Yesterday's action came five months after the high court handed a major setback to the abortion rights movement, ruli ng that federal judges cannot stop abortion clinic blockades. Haitian HIV camp to close
The final group of HIV-infected Haitian political refugees, who spent nearly two years in a razor-wire encircled US compound in Cuba, began arriving in Miami yesterday. The remaining residents of the compound at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base blasted as "an HIV prison camp" by a federal judge are expected to fly in on eight additional flights over the next week.
The refugees, some of whom are children, have been held at the base despite their valid claims for political asylum because the United States does not accept HIV-infected immigrants.
New York federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. ruled June 8 that the camp should be closed and the Haitians, who fled their homeland after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in a 1991 military coup, allowed into the US. The camp will close when all of the refugees have departed.
Once in the US, the Haitian refugees still must complete the asylum process, which could take months. Bombs defused in Egypt
Suspected Muslim extremists planted bombs in Cairo and another city on Monday, a day after an Islamic radical was executed for plotting to overthrow the government. Police said the bombs were defused without damage. More than 150 people have been killed in clashes between authorities and extremists since last year. Turkey gets woman premier
Turkish President Suleyman Demirel asked Tansu Ciller to form a new government yesterday, giving this secular but Muslim country its first woman prime minister, Anatolian news agency said. The former economics professor and minister for the economy succeeds Mr. Demirel as prime minister and leader of Turkey's True Path Party, after he quit last month to become president in place of the late Turgut Ozal. China's Li Peng reappears
A cheerful and generally healthy looking Premier Li Peng appeared in public yesterday for the first time since he was sidelined with an illness more than seven weeks ago.
Mr. Li, who is rumored to have suffered a heart attack, smiled and frequently gesticulated as he greeted visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at an official welcoming ceremony in the Great Hall of the People. Li is widely disliked because of his high-profile role in the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy protests and his slowness to support senior leader Deng Xiaoping's market-style economic reforms. Azeri Rebel Holds Talks
Azerbaijani rebel commander Suret Guseinov held talks through the night with the country's prospective parliamentary leader in an attempt to head off possible civil war, Itar-Tass news agency said yesterday.
Mr. Guseinov held talks at his stronghold in Azerbaijan's second city, Ganja, with Geidar Aliyev, the one-time Azeri Communist Party chief who now looks set to make a comeback as peace-broker in the country's growing conflict. There were no immediate details of the talks.
