INTERNATIONAL
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, April 21, 1992
7
INTERNATIONAL BRIEFSE
San'a, Yemen
Soldier frees Saudi ambassador
A commando disguised as a waiter threw hot tea in the face of a gunman holding the Saudi ambassador hostage yesterday, allowing soldiers to storm in and end a 19-hour standoff.
The kidnapping of Ambassador Ali Kafidi threatened to further strain relations between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, which have been cool since the government in San'a supported Iraq during the gulf war. However, the standoff also necessitated direct contacts between the two countries, and the Saudis authorized the rescue in advance.
The Saudi government denounced the kidnapping as a terrorist act and a flagrant violation of all diplomatic norms. The statement was echoed by the Yemeni Foreign Ministry, which condemned all acts of terrorism and all attempts to mark the brotherly relations between the two countries.
Seville, Spain
Expo opens under tight security
The world's largest showcase of culture and technology opened yesterday to a chorus of church bells, a 21-gun salute and the pounding of workers scrambling to finish pavilions and exhibits.
The doors of Expo '92 officially were opened by King Juan Carlos, who promised in 1976 to host at the event to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus 'first voyage to the New World.
The opening ceremonies also included a fireworks display and a military band.
Security was extremely tight due to concerns about terrorist attacks by Basque separatists, who have declared the Expo and the Summer Olympics in Barcelona as possible targets.
Maputo, Mozambique
Spill threatens fishing industry
A stranded tanker spilled an estimated 1 million gallons of oil near Mozambique's coast in the country's worst environmental disaster, the national news agency reported yesterday.
Oil from the Greek-owned Katina P already has begun washing onto beaches and drifting into Maputo Bay, the AIM news agency quoted Foreign Minister Pascoal Mocumbi is saying.
Mocumbi said the spill threatened the fishing industry in Mozambique, an impoverished, war-torn country on Africa's southeast coast. Maputo Bay is fringed with mangrove forests that feed shellfish including prawns, one of Mozambique's leading exports.
So far, just more than 5 percent of the oil aboard the Katina P has spilled, according to Mocumbi's estimates.
From The Associated Press
U.N. special envoy pleads for Afghanistan cease-fire
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - With Muslim guerrillas claiming they now control all major cities but Kabul, a U.N. special envoy pleaded yesterday for a ceasefire between government forces and rival rebel groups.
Benon Sevan, who was trying to mediate a settlement of the nearly 14-year-old civil war before the fall of President Najibullah last week, said he was trying to negotiate safe passage out of the country for the ousted leader.
Sevan said agreement was close on an interim government to replace the Soviet-installed government, but a radical fundamentalist group rejected that idea. The group, Hezeb-Isha, threatened yesterday to attack Kabul if the city was not surrendered to its fighters in one week.
A more moderate group, Jamiae-i-Islami, which is considered the best organized of Afghanistan's many rebel organizations, said its troops had formed a protective ring outside the capital. Troops of the crumbling Communist government held the city itself.
Manypeoplefearthecivilwarwilldegenerateinto
Sevan urged the rebels to put aside their "personal and political ambitions" and work out a peaceful transition to a new government.
fighting among the various factions and turn this city of 1.5 million people into a battleground. An estimated 2 million Afghanans already have died in the war and 5 million more have fled their homes.
"We are almost there. Don't risk destroying the chance for peace," said Sevan, who appeared in public for the first time since Thursday, when Najibulah gave up power and tried to flee the country with the U.N. envoy's help.
"We do not have months, not even days, perhaps. There are enough dead people in Afghanistan. There is enough destruction," Sevan said.
Nervousness steadily has increased in Kabul as the guerrillas, known as mujahedeen or Islamic holy warriors, have tightened their noose around the capital and seized several provincial towns in the four days since Najibullah's ouster.
Sevan also called for a general amnesty and an opening of roads so the United Nations could distribute 40,000 tons of wheat that has been donated to overcome food shortages.
Russian officials raise gas prices; average fill-up costs week's salary
MOSCOW — In the latest blow to price-battered Russians, Moscow authorities unexpectedly quadrupled gasoline prices yesterday. Now it costs the average Russian a week's salary to fill the gas tank.
Motorists grumbled they would have to take on extra jobs to pay for gas — or just ston driving.
The Associated Press
"I can't do without my car." moaned mechanic Vladimir Markarov. "We are going somehow to find ways to cope." He said he might use his car as a private taxi or moonlight with extra car-repair jobs.
Prices for everything from clothing to cabbage have skyrocketed in Russia since January, when President Boris Yeltsin lifted decades of government price controls on most goods and services. Gas prices already had tripped before yesterday.
Despite the latest price increase, there were long lines at Moscow gas stations. Some frustrated drivers complained that state-owned gas stations shut down the weekend rather than sell gas at the old prices.
Moscow has suffered gas shortages in recent weeks, with fuel being diverted to southern regions for spring planting. Russia, which has one of the world's largest known oil reserves, has seen production drop in recent years because of outdated equipment.
Before yesterday, it cost about 60 rubles to fill the standard 10-gallon tank with the most commonly used gasoline. Now it costs 240 rubles — only $2, but about a week's salary for the average Russian worker.
"It's an unpleasant and rather depressing feeling," said Vladimir Stukalov, a computer worker, waiting dejectedly in a two-hour line outside a Minskaya Street gas station in western Moscow.
Also yesterday, the prices of diesel fuel increased more than sevenfold, and a high-octane gasoline favored by drivers of Western-made cars rose about sixfold.
Viktor Vasiliev, a worker at a research institute, said he would take the bus to work so that he could continue driving to his dacha outside Moscow on weekends. Dachas are more than summer cottages
— many Russians now grow vegetables there or raise animals to help feed their families.
The price increases were ordered by the Moscow city government under a Russian government decree to standardize gas prices throughout the republic.
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