EVENTS
ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS DEFENSE PLAN The Clinton administration yesterday unveiled a sweeping post-cold-war defense plan to slash the US military while nurturing the domestic arms industry and keeping a strong presence in Europe and Asia. Developed by the Pentagon and approved by President Clinton, the plan would slash construction of planes and ships and cut troops from a current 1.7 million to 1.4 million, but maintain 12 Navy aircraft carriers to thwart future wars around the world. The blueprint for defense seeks to maintain a broad US military-industrial base and will require approval by Congress, where liberals have called for deeper cuts and conservatives say defense is being dangerously slashed. Troops depart Lithuania
Russia's last remaining troop unit in Lithuania went home Tuesday night as the Baltic country celebrated the end of more than half a century of Soviet and Russian military presence.
Lithuania, with its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The three won back their independence after a 1991 hard-line Kremlin coup, just months before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia has been under strong pressure to withdraw the troops from the Baltics, but says it faces difficulties finding housing for returning soldiers. Nigerians protest
Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, remained at a standstill yesterday, the fifth day of a general strike against the installation of an interim government by the former military administration. Banks and factories were closed; few people were out on the streets, and public transport was grounded.
The strike was called by the Nigerian Labor Congress, an umbrella group of 41 unions, to protest the annulment of last June's presidential election by former military ruler Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. The poll was widely believed to have been won by businessman Moshood Abiola. The interim president, Ernest Shonekan, on Tuesday called for an end to the strikes and pledged a dialogue with aggrieved groups. Resignations demanded
In a bid to end corruption, Guatemala's President Ramiro de Leon Carpio on Tuesday demanded that all 116 legislators resign.
On Tuesday, 76 deputies met late into the night and called on the remaining 40 members of Congress to join them to start efforts to purge the most corrupt legislators. Congress agreed to purge itself of corrupt members as part of former President Jorge Serrano Elias's Army-negotiated ouster on June 1, but have since made little effort to do so. Mostar is quiet
United Nations peacekeepers patrolled the Muslim and Croat sectors of Mostar yesterday, as tensions eased following the release of 53 other Spanish peacekeepers the day before. But Muslim-Croat battles raged in central Bosnia while their leaders talked peace in Geneva. UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg said he expected Bosnia's warring factions to decide on a peace plan within ``days.'' FBI director sworn in
US District Judge Louis Freeh yesterday took the oath of office as director of the FBI. Mr. Freeh succeeds former federal judge William Sessions, whom Clinton fired July 19. New figures released
The Clinton administration yesterday sharply cut its estimate of economic growth this year and next and predicted low interest rates and low inflation through most of the decade. The administration said the gross domestic product will grow at an inflation-adjusted 2 percent rate this year, improving to a 3 percent rate in 1994. In February it called for 3.1 percent growth this year and 3.3 percent next year. Chinese ship inspected
Experts have yet to complete inspection of a Chinese ship suspected by the US of carrying banned chemical weapon materials for Iran, Gulf-based diplomats said yesterday. Saudi and Chinese experts began inspecting the Yinhe Saturday, two days after it docked at the Gulf port of Dammam. Saudi Arabia agreed to receive the ship to resolve an impasse over its cargo between the US and China.
