EVENTS
CANADA SEEKS MEETING ON RWANDA Canada has invoked a special clause of the UN Human Rights Commission to convene an emergency session on atrocities in Rwanda, officials said May 9. The emergency session, which would be only the third in the commission's 48-year history, could be held as soon as May 20 if a majority of the 53 member countries approve, UN spokeswoman Therese Gastaut said. Paul Dubois, head of the Canadian diplomatic mission to UN offices in Geneva, requested the session. More than 200,000 people in Rwanda have been killed since early in April when the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, both Hutu, died in a mysterious plane crash. Most of the fighting and massacres have pitted the majority Hutus against the minority Tutsis. Meanwhile, rebels advanced steadily in Rwanda's capital May 9 in fierce, close-quarter combat that appeared to be street-to-street in some parts of Kigali. It appeared the capital would fall in a matter of days to rebels who are encircling government positions around Kigali and pushing deeper into the city center. South Yemen accuses Sudan
Southern forces in Yemen charged that Sudan has sent troops to aid its Islamic fundamentalist allies in northern Yemen as the country's civil war rages on. After almost a week of fighting, it still was nearly impossible to determine which side had the upper hand. Northern Yemen claimed May 9 that its troops had seized highlands overlooking the southern stronghold of Aden. But the southerners said they had thwarted a ninth attempt to penetrate their defenses miles away from the Red Sea port. Amid the conflicting claims, northern President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired Prime Minister Heidar Abu Bakr al-Attas, a southerner who has been abroad for weeks. AT&T-Saudi phone deal
With lobbying from President Clinton, AT&T Corporation has landed the biggest international order ever for telephone equipment, a $4 billion deal to build a digital communications network in Saudi Arabia. AT&T said May 8 it beat Northern Telecom Ltd. of Canada, Siemens AG of Germany, LM Ericsson Telephone Company of Sweden, and other foreign companies to win the seven-year deal. Saudi Arabia wants to create 1.5 million digital lines as well as wireless systems for its 17 million people. Gacy executed
John Wayne Gacy was executed in Joliet, Ill., by lethal injection May 9. The execution took place more than 15 years after the discovery of bodies buried in the crawl space under his home gave police the break that led to his conviction in 33 sex murders. Gacy was convicted in 1980.
