Nation/World
World briefs
Brussels, Belgium
Kurds take over Iraqi Embassy
About 10 Kurds took over the Iraqi Embassy early today, seizing a guard, ransacking the building and waving Kurdish flags from the windows, police and news reports said.
Police said the group slashed pictures of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whose army has been battling an insurrection by ethnic Kurds in northern Nigerian Gulf War ended in a cease-fire in February.
Police said the intruders took over the embassy, located in a residential suburb, about 5:30 a.m. It was not clear if the Kurds were armed.
The attackers stormed the embassy after breaking the windows of the modern three-story building.
Police said the Kurds took an embassy guard hostage, apparently the only one on duty during the night, and damaged embassy furniture and office equipment.
Panama City
U.S., Panama agree on treaty
U. S. and Panamanian officials have agreed on the terms of a treaty that will enable investigations into drug money laundering but otherwise remain closed to Panama's secretive banking system, officials said.
The signing ceremony, which a Foreign Ministry official said would occur Monday, will mark the end of more than a year of arduous bargaining in which the United States unsuccessfully tried to pry open the nation's banking disclosure system.
Once the legal assistance agreement is signed, the Central American nation will get $80 million that the United States had withheld from a $420 million program to rebuild Panama after the December 1989 invasion that overthrew dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Washington
Farm exports to Iraq audited
WASHINGTON — Government loan guarantees used by U.S. companies to finance farm exports to Iraq in the late 1980s exceeded the world average of dollars, federal auditors found.
The Agriculture Department's Office of Inspector General, in a report released yesterday, said it found $71 million of significant pricing differences when 47 contracts for $228 million of guaranteed exports to Iraq in 1967, 1988 and 1989 were compared with prevailing market prices.
On 38 of the 47 contracts, the government ended up guaranteeing prices that were more than 15 percent above the world market price, in contrast to the market rate. **From The Associated Press**
U.N. expects resolution for cease-fire will pass
The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS -- As diplomats wound up work on a cease-fire resolution that would strip Baghdad of its biological and chemical weapons, the United Nations will to get involved in efforts to halt Iraq's civil war.
But the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union all indicated that the French proposal would not be included in the resolution, which diplomats have responded after the Security Council reconvenes today.
The 3,700-word resolution, spelling out conditions for Iraq's capitulation, intends to render Saddam Hussein incapable of threatening his neighbors for the rest of the century.
Fighting ended Feb. 28 between Iraqi and allied armies after Saddam's forces were driven from Kuwait. But the destruction of much of the Iraqi army encouraged revolts in northern and southern Iraq.
After initial successes that saw them seize dozens of major cities, Shiite Muslim-led insurgents in the south and Kurdish fighters in the north were defeated by Saddam's better-armed forces.
A U.S. declaration of neutrality in Iraq's internal affairs spurred the victory of pro-Sadam forces, as Washington spurned rebel plebs that it down its gunships Iraq was using against the insurgents.
In Paris, Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said France was asking that the United Nations intervene to stop the actions of extermination
France's acting U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc Rochereau or the sa Liberale, sought a resolution seeking peace talks between Saddam's government and the rebels. The resolution would also have allowed the two sides to Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar in getting humanitarian aid to Iraq's rebel areas.
against Kurds
Turkey's government said it told its U.N. ambassador to request an urgent meeting of the Security Council to discuss the plight of at least 200,000 foreigners who want to enter Turkey from northern Iraq.
Turkey's semi-official Anatolia news agency said some 2.5 million Iraqi were trying to flee into Italy.
U. S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering said the prosecution and Turkish proposals could be discussed after a hearing.
But when the Soviet ambassador, Yuli Vori-tsov, was asked if he thought the council should intervene in Iraq's civil war, he shook his head vigorously to indicate that he did not.
Iraqi Ambassador Amir Abdul al-Ambari ridiculed France and Turkey for making noises about human rights, calling their proposals a rather abusive intervention into his country's internal affairs.
The United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain and France yesterday resisted all but the most minor amendments to their proposed text of the cease-fire resolution.
Kuwaitis who didn't leave during war offered money
The Associated Press
KUWAIT CITY — How rich are Kuwaitis? So rich that when the emir offers free money, some of them just shrug.
Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Jailib al-Ahmad al-Jabir as-Sahab, is giving 500 dinars ($1,700) to all Kuwaitis who stayed in the oil-rich emirate during the seven-month Iraqi occupation.
Some say they don't need it. Others say it's not enough. A few think the mind should keep his hands out.
The longest lines yesterday in recently reopened
ware are formed by people buying U.S. dollars,
not kuwaiti dollars.
"I came to get some dollars so I can go on vacation outside Kuwait," Abdul Hameed Jasem said at the Commercial Bank of Kuwait. "I don't need the (emir's) money."
Dahrill Ali, who runs a school bookstore, said he collected his 500 dinars and was giving it to
"The money is of no importance to me." Ali said. "I want to use it to thank the people who helped give us our country back."
Egyptians, Sudanese and other foreigners living in his neighborhood who had assisted Kuwaiti dur ing the war.
With tremendous oil wealth and fewer than 600,000 citizens, Kuwait was one of the world's richest countries before Iraq invaded on Aug. 2. Its annual per capita income was nearly $20,000, though the devastation inflicted by the Iraqis will reduce living standards for years to come.
The government has enough money left to provide free gasoline, water and other necessities
provide free gasoline, water and other necessities. The emir's offer took effect Saturday and applies to all Kuwaitis who stayed put, an estimated 250,000.
Foreigners, who accounted for 73 percent of Kuwait's population and 86 percent of its work force before the invasion, were excluded.
Attention Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Nominations are now being accepted for the Graduate Student Teaching Award. The KU Endowment Association and the Graduate Student Council are sponsoring five awards to recognize excellence in teaching by graduate students at the University of Kansas.
Anyone may nominate a graduate teacher by writing to the Graduate Student's department or program. Your letter should be submitted to their department by no later than Thurs,April 4.
For further information, please call the Graduate Student Council, 864-4914, or the Graduate School, 864-3301.