EVENTS
COMMITTEE SAYS HARDING WILL SKATE Tonya Harding will skate in the Winter Games after all, her place secured Saturday by an agreement with the US Olympic Committee hours after the Opening Ceremonies in Lillehammer, Norway. Ms. Harding, accused by her ex-husband of helping to plot the attack on Nancy Kerrigan last month, will join Ms. Kerrigan as a teammate upon arrival Wednesday at the athletes' village near the figure skating arena. The agreement calls for Harding to drop her $25 million lawsuit and for the USOC to let her join in the Olympics without a disciplinary hearing. Frustrated American athletes and Olympic officials had pressured on the USOC to resolve the dispute, which was threatening to overshadow everything else at the Olympics. In addition to skating in the same competition, Harding and Kerrigan will practice together in the Olympic Village prior to the event. Both declined the option of working out at separate rinks, according to the head of the US skating team. Somali fighting
In Somalia, an Egyptian soldier was killed and another wounded yesterday in an unexplained attack in Mogadishu. Earlier, two Italian aid workers were kidnapped by gunmen about 60 miles from Mogadishu. Somali clan fighting has intensified in recent days. Clan battles killed 60 people and drove up to 5,000 others out of the southern port of Kismayu on Friday, and a grenade blast forced aid agencies Saturday to pull all foreign staff out of a central Somali town for the first time in two years. The battles in Kismayu were the worst in six months. UN officers see the port as a prime flashpoint for renewed civil war after the upcoming March 31 pullout of Western troops. Stolen scream
The world-famous painting ``The Scream'' by Edvard Munch was stolen Saturday from a cultural exhibition connected with the Winter Olympics. Two thieves climbed a ladder to break through a window of the National Art Museum in Oslo, Norway, and cut a wire holding the 1893 painting to the wall, escaping in less than 50 seconds. Police are now studying a security camera film of the thieves. Munch painted the powerful image, considered a harbinger of modern art, as part of his ``The Frieze of Life'' series. Haitian fuel explosion
A major explosion destroyed Haiti's center for contraband gasoline and diesel fuel Saturday night, gutting a block-long stretch of buildings in the capital of Port-au-Prince. The cause of the blast was unknown and no casualties were reported, according to authorities. The loss will intensify the already severe shortage of fuel in the nation, under a UN fuel embargo since October to pressure the departure of Haiti's military leaders, who took power in the violent overthrow of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in September of 1991. Decree anniversary
Today marks the five-year anniversary of the Iranian decree calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie for allegedly insulting Islam in his book, ``The Satanic Verses.'' The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the Islamic religious decree on Feb. 14, 1989. The continuing decree, unprecedented in modern times, has caused a storm of international protest.
