EVENTS
KHMER ROUGE ALLOWS REFUGEE ACCESS
In a potential breakthrough, Khmer Rouge guerrillas in Cambodia have agreed to allow United Nations officials and police into two guerrilla zones to care for thousands of refugees to be repatriated from Thailand, UN officials said. Defying a peace accord it signed, the Khmer Rouge has refused to disarm and generally prevented UN peacekeepers from entering the 15 percent of Cambodia it controls. German farmers rally
About 40,000 farmers staged a protest Dec. 8 in Bonn against an agricultural-trade compromise between the United States and the European Community thought to favor benefits for German industry over farming. Bombs planted on trucks
Bombs were found planted on seven trucks bringing UN relief to Kurds in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurds said Dec. 8. The Kurds, representatives of groups opposed to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said the bombs were part of a renewed attempt by the Iraqi government to sabotage relief efforts. Japan anticipates blame
Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe said Dec. 8 that he fears Japan will be blamed for not doing enough to help the US-led operation to feed Somalia. It was the first official sign that Japan is worried it will be targeted once again as not carrying its share of the global burden. During the Gulf war, Japan faced global criticism for contributing only cash, but no personnel, to the alliance against Iraq. A law enacted earlier this year allows Japanese troops to be used for UN peacekeeping operations as long
as a cease-fire is in place, a condition that is not met in Somalia. Marcos off to Hong Kong
Imelda Marcos left Manila Dec. 8 for Hong Kong for what her staff said would be discussions on the transfer of $356 million in Swiss bank deposits. A day earlier, the Philippine anti-graft court gave Mrs. Marcos 20 days to travel abroad to meet her late husband's trustees and foreign lawyers about transferring the money to Philippine banks. Mrs. Marcos faces 46 criminal and civil suits in the anti-graft court in connection with corruption charges stemming from the 20-year rule of her husband, Ferdinand, who died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. EC to meet in Scotland
The leaders of the European Community meet in Edinburgh Dec. 11 and 12 for the final summit of a troubled six months when Britain has held the Community's rotating presidency. Community attempts to further unify have been thrown into doubt by Denmark's rejection of the Maastricht Treaty, which calls for closer political and monetary union, with a common foreign policy and a single currency by 1999. The rejection reflected fears among some voters throughout the 12-nation bloc that a federal Europe would s wallow its individual nations. Tajik refugees flee
About 5,000 refugees from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan have crossed into neighboring Afghanistan and 200 may have drowned, a UN official reported Dec. 8. Refugees interviewed by relief workers claimed helicopter attacks had forced them to flee across an icy border river into Afghanistan Dec. 6. Mine rescue suspended
Rescuers trying to reach eight men deep in a Norton, Va., coal mine rocked by an explosion of undetermined cause suspended the search Dec. 8 after smoke, heat, and dangerous gas forced them to retreat. Crews working in relays got within 300 feet of where the miners were thought to be when the blast occurred Dec. 7 - more than a mile inside. Rescuers were considering other options. Jackson scolds baseball
The Rev. Jesse Jackson got the owners' attention at baseball's winter meetings in Louisville, Ky., Dec. 7 by suggesting that they will face boycotts and challenges to their antitrust exemption unless they open top-level jobs to minorities. There are no black chief executives or general managers in the major leagues.