EVENTS

WORLD COURT TO HEAR AIRLINER CASE The International Court of Justice said yesterday it would open public hearings in September on a 1988 incident in which a US warship shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 people. The US cruiser Vincennes shot down the Iran Air Airbus A300 with two antiaircraft missiles in the final weeks of the Iran-Iraq war after mistaking it for an attacking warplane. Washington said the Vincennes, which was part of a US convoy protecting neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf, fired in self-defense after repeated warnings to what appeared to be a hostile plane approaching the ship during an attack by Iranian gunboats. Iran took the case to the ICJ in May 1989, asking it to rule that the US had violated international aviation treaties and should pay compensation. The US says the court has no jurisdiction. The hearings, set to start Sept. 12, will determine only if jurisdiction exists. Italian journalists shot

Two journalists for an Italian television network were shot to death Sunday when Somali gunmen apparently tried to hijack their vehicle on the increasingly mean streets of Mogadishu. Reporter Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran Krovatin were gunned down outside the former Italian Embassy. Their Somali driver and three armed guards were not injured. They had returned to Mogadishu to cover the Italian troop pullout tomorrow. The last American troops will leave the African nation on Friday. GE's bid for Kemper

Turning up the pressure on Kemper Corporation, GE Capital asked the asset management company Sunday to turn over its list of shareholders so it could go directly to them to discuss its $2.35 billion takeover bid. Last Thursday Kemper's board formally rejected the GE bid of $55 a share. GE Capital says it now has no choice but to go directly to the stockholders all but indicating that the bid would turn hostile. Red Cross visits Kashmir

The first international relief workers allowed to visit India's Jammu and Kashmir state since its guerrilla war erupted four years ago arrived here yesterday. After a year of negotiations, the Red Cross recently won India's permission to visit the state and report on relief its impoverished people and refugees need. Indian security forces have been criticized by human rights groups for torturing and killing guerrilla suspects. Egypt shootings

Egyptian security forces hunting gunmen who allegedly ambushed a police vehicle in southern Egypt shot dead six Muslim militants in a dawn raid yesterday, security sources said. Two policemen, including a senior commander, were killed in the raid, taking the death toll in rising violence between militants and security forces since Sunday to 15 the most violent 24 hours this year. Lewis Grizzard, writer

Lewis Grizzard, whose down-home humor in columns and books such as ``My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun'' delighted and sometimes enraged readers, died Sunday. Grizzard, a fiercely proud Southerner, wrote a column four days a week for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and also was syndicated in 450 newspapers.