EVENTS
ISRAELI GUNS ROLL INTO LEBANON, AGAIN Israel sent more big guns into its "security zone" in south Lebanon Aug. 24 after pro-Iranian guerrillas made their second attack in five days. Security sources said five 155mm artillery guns were towed over the border to Marjayoun, headquarters of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA). It was Israel's second deployment since Hizbullah (Party of God) guerrillas killed nine Israeli soldiers in the south Aug. 19. The Israeli death toll was the heaviest for one day in Lebanon since 1985, and Israel has v owed to avenge the killings. On Aug. 24 guerrillas fired anti-tank rockets at a hilltop SLA post. SLA militiamen returned with machine-gun fire, the sources said. Israeli helicopter gunships also unleashed 800 rounds of cannon fire at valleys just north of the "security zone" on Aug. 24. There were no reports of casualties. More troops to Somalia
The Clinton administration is sending at least 400 additional US soldiers, members of an elite ranger unit, into Somalia to reinforce US troops there, administration officials say. A defense official said late Aug. 23 the soldiers from the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment were being sent to curb violence in Mogadishu, the capital, following three separate attacks on US soldiers in August.
The troop reinforcement symbolizes the dramatic change in the US military's role in recent months as fighting between UN forces and a Somali warlord has persisted. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali recently requested 3,000 more troops for Somalia and vowed to press military operations to disarm Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed. The fourth man quits
A State Department specialist on Eastern Europe resigned Aug. 23 the fourth such resignation and the third in August saying the US was tacitly allowing genocide in Bosnia.
In his resignation letter, Stephen Walker, a desk officer for Croatia, urged the administration to arm Bosnia, preserve the Bosnian state with its original boundaries, guarantee human rights in the region, and punish war criminals.
Mr. Walker's resignation follows the departures of Marshall Harris, the Bosnia desk officer, and Jon Western, an intelligence research specialist. Yugoslavia desk officer George Kenney resigned from the Bush administration last year, also in protest over Bosnia policy. Nigerian says he'll bow
Nigeria's military ruler, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, under pressure from trade unions and pro-democracy groups to hand over power, will step down Aug. 25, a senior aide said. Pro-democracy activists had urged Nigerians to resume a campaign of civil disobedience to force the military ruler to surrender power to the winner of a June 12 election he annulled.
Washington threatened Aug. 23 to cut off aid to Nigeria unless General Babangida kept his promise to turn over power to civilians by Aug. 27. The US provides Nigeria with $22 million a year. Chinese dock ship in Gulf
A Chinese ship suspected of carrying chemical weapons materials to destined for Iran headed for Saudi Arabia on Aug. 24 after China agreed to let it be searched.
The Yin He had been bound for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where its cargo was to have been transferred to another ship bound for Iran. But Dubai refused to let it dock on the strength of US intelligence reports that the cargo contained chemicals used in mustard gas, nerve gas, and blistering agents.
China had insisted there was no prohibited material on board and refused to permit inspections, stranding the ship in the Gulf of Oman for three weeks. Carter vs. Eyadema
Former President Jimmy Carter told Togolese leader Gnassingbe Eyadema on Aug. 23 that US observers would withdraw unless he agreed to put off Aug. 25 elections for 10 days, international monitors said.
The two main opposition candidates says they will not take part in the election as the national electoral commission needs more time to remedy serious organizational flaws. General Eyadema has been in power since 1967.