Monday 20th December
Workers dug 1,500 graves in a Caracas cemetery for victims of mudslides
along the Caribbean coast as the estimated death toll in Venezuela's
worst
natural disaster in 100 years reached more than 5,000 on Monday.
Pictures of the dead, their faces disfigured, were posted at the
cemetery's
entrance. Hundreds of anxious relatives gathered at the gates praying
that
their loved ones weren't in the photographs -- and crying when they
were.
Improvised crosses mark hastily dug graves along the streets where
victims
have been buried. Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel said Sunday
the
estimated toll has risen to 5,000. Another 150,000 people are homeless,
and
at least 6,000 have been reported missing many of whom are presumed
dead.
Survivors wandered through streets on Sunday covered with rocks
and mud in
search of food and water. Relief workers scurried across the
tarmac with the wounded at Caracas' international airport. Widespread
looting broke out across the northern coastline.
Russian forces and Chechen rebels fought fierce battles on the outskirts
of
the capital Grozny at the weekend and on Monday, while Sunday's
parliamentary vote showed the campaign is popular at home.
A small group of journalists for foreign news agencies in Grozny
over the
weekend witnessed heavy fighting near a television tower in the
city's south
on Sunday morning.
The reporters saw the bodies of seven Russian soldiers, and Chechen
fighters said there were about 40 more bodies trapped in no-man's
land.
Chechen rebel losses appeared to be light.
Interfax news agency reported from Russian headquarters on Monday
that the
army said it was sending reconnaissance units into the city to probe
rebel
defenses and had skirmished with militants in the north and the
south of the
city.
Despite heavy fighting, neither side appeared to make significant
gains in
the south of the city. Both occupied high points on the outskirts.
There was
constant fire from mortars, cannon and light arms.
At night, tracer fire lit up the sky.
Fighters also said a Russian column had moved toward the civilian
airport in
the north of the city and there was fighting under way there as
well.
It was impossible to know how many residents were still trapped
in the city,
but there were clearly thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, living
in dark
cellars with little food.
Tuesday 21th December
Russian troops are in a position to capture Chechnya's capital within
a day,
but have held off in order to avoid heavy casualties, a Russian
commander
said Tuesday.
The comments by Gen. Viktor Kazantsev came as heavy fighting raged
around
the city of Grozny, the battered capital of the rebellious republic.
Russian troops captured the city's main civilian airport on Monday
and have
edged into several parts of the city in recent days, raising speculation
that they might finish their assault on the city in the next few
days. The
Russian news agency RIA quoted military sources saying Monday that
operations to seize the city would begin sometime between Wednesday
and
Friday.
But the city has been heavily mined by the Islamic guerrillas Russia
invaded
Chechnya to uproot, Kazantsev said, making large numbers of killed
and
wounded a certainty if his troops tried to storm the city.
As many as 30,000 people may have been killed in the devastating
floods in
Venezuela, say the authorities.
As the country appealed for international help in dealing with the
catastrophe, a senior civil defence official, Angel Rangel, said
many bodies
remained buried in the mud that swept through entire coastal communities.
Estimates of the numbers killed have varied widely due to the chaos.
Mr
Rangel has warned that the final number of dead would never be known.
Despite the arrest of a man trying to smuggle explosives into the
US the
authorities there say they know of no specific terror threats against
American targets
That reasurance came from President Clinton's national security
adviser
Sandy Berger.
It follows the arrest of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian-born Montreal
resident.
Police in Montreal say they are searching for members of a theft
ring with
alleged ties to Algerian extremists and want to find out if Ressam
was
acting alone in what appeared to be a plot to plant a bomb in the
American
city of Seattle at the millennium.
Authorities said evidence seized from Ressam's car, when he was
arrested on
Dec. 14, indicated that he had a motel room in Seattle reserved
for that
night, and had airline tickets to fly to London the next day.
Wednesday 22th December
Over 100 homes have been evacuated and hundreds more are in danger
on
Wednesday as two wildfires blow down the Southern California hills,
Ana
winds gusting to 80 mph.
The fires together have burned about 2,800 acres, and destroyed
two
houses. No injuries had been reported from either fire.
Parched trees and underbrush exploded into flames, lighting up the
night
skies with orange flames. Helicopters could be seen making rare
nighttime
water drops on hot spots.
One fire that has blackened about 800 acres started in the hills
in the La
Canada Flintridge area, 13 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
At least one
structure was destroyed; firefighters said it wasn't a house.
The thunderous impact of Russian shells echoed across the Chechen
capital of
Grozny on Wednesday as troops inched their way into a city that
spelled
their doom in a similar war just a few years ago.
Grozny is the last major town in Chechnya occupied by militants.
The capital is more heavily fortified than any of the villages and
towns of
the north that are controlled by the Russians. Russian commanders
have
repeatedly said they do not plan to storm the city and risk repetition
of
their disastrous losses in the 1994-1996 campaign.
Still, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted on Wednesday
that the
end of the Chechnya operation "is close," reported ITAR-Tass news
agency.
"But we're not going to create any time limits and we won't time
the
operation," Putin said after a meeting with President Boris Yeltsin
in
Moscow.
Cardiac wards in Tehran hospitals were full Tuesday as dangerously
high
levels of air pollution caused serious problems for Iranians with
heart
conditions and asthma.
As the capital experienced its fifth consecutive day of heavy smog,
Mayor
Morteza Alviri said the authorities were going to embark on a long-term
project to combat air pollution, costing dlrs 2.2 billion.
Visibility was extremely low in Tehran. Iranian state-radio continued
to
broadcast messages urging residents to remain indoors and use the
city's
buses and minibus taxis instead of driving their own vehicles.
Thursday 23th December
As their political bosses talked with Western officials about
arms control
and the correctness of Russia's Chechnya campaign, Russian military
commanders said Thursday the rebel republic would be free of militant
control in less than a month.
"Within a mere two weeks, three at most, we are planning to establish
full
control of the mountain areas of Chechnya," said Col. Viktor Kazantsev
in an
interview in the Krasnaya Zvezda armed forces newspaper.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, riding a wave of popularity in Russia
because
of the Chechen campaign, said Russian forces were now fighting
only
"pockets of resistance" in the Caucasus republic, ITAR-Tass news
agency
reported. The agency quoted him as saying "almost all the territory
of
Chechnya is now controlled by the federal forces."
Forty-three people have been killed in new clashes between Muslim
and
Christian mobs despite President Abdurrahman Wahid's plea for peace
in
violence-plagued eastern Indonesia.
Military spokesman Col. Iwa Budiman told reporters Thursday that
fighting
broke out the previous day in several villages on Buru Island after
a
disagreement developed among workers at a local plywood factory.
Wednesday's bloodshed was among the worst one-day death tolls since
sectarian violence erupted across Maluku province 11 months ago.
Officials
said more than 170 homes, churches and other buildings were torched
in the
fighting.
The dispute flared into fighting between Christians and Muslims
as it spread
outside the factory, Budiman said. Dozens of troops were being sent
to the
area as reinforcements, even though the situation was under control,
he
added.
Friday 24th December
An exchange of artillery fire between Israel's south Lebanon militia
and
Hezbollah guerrillas on Friday broke an informal two-day cease-fire
in the
last active Arab-Israeli front, security sources said.
They said Hezbollah guerrillas fired mortars on four positions of
the
pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia. A dozen 120-mm missiles
were
fired in retaliation from the direction of Israel's south Lebanon
occupation
zone, hitting the outskirts of Yater and Kafra, they added.
In the southern city of Tyre, Hezbollah officials said fighters
attacked the
Radar, Kalaa and Dabshe and Talet al-Jamousah SLA militia posts.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the exchange of
fire, the
first since Tuesday. U.N. Spokesman Fred Eckhard said the last 48
hours were
the quietest period in southern Lebanon in 22 years. Israel has
occupied
parts of the region since 1978.
The United Nations said the cease-fire, which was not announced
by either
the Israeli army or the guerrillas, was arranged by the five-nation
group
monitoring the fighting in the south.
Machete-wielding Rwandan Hutu rebels attacked a resettlement camp
in
northwestern Rwanda, hacking to death at least 29 people and injuring
scores
of others, security officials said Friday Kigali, Rwanda's
capital, said
the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Most of the
victims were
Tutsi civilians. The rebels had crossed over from Congo on Thursday.
It was the first such attack inside the country since Rwandan troops
crossed
into Congo in August 1998 in support of Congolese rebels fighting
to oust
President Laurent Kabila. The Rwandan Hutus have joined Kabila's
forces.
The remnants the Hutu-dominated Rwandan army and Hutu militiamen
are
currently based in Congo. They are primarily responsible for the
1994
massacre at least half a million Tutsis and politically moderate
Hutus.
Details of Thursday's attack were sketchy, but the officials said
a group of
50 Hutu fighters stormed Mutura, a resettlement village that shelters
Tutsis
either forced out of eastern Congo or who returned from years of
exile in
Uganda and Congo.
Embattled Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bedie urged the nation
on Friday
to resist "by any means" an attempted military coup in the
traditionally stable West African country.
Bedie told Radio France Internationale hours after former defense
chief
Robert Gueie announced on state television that Bedie had been deposed
that
he was still in command of the country.
"As the democratically elected president of the republic with the
support of
loyalist forces who are in the majority, I energetically condemn
this
attempted military coup," Bedie said.
Gueie's announcement that a "public salvation committee" had overthrown
Ivory Coast's government came on the second day of an army revolt
over pay.
Protesting troops paralyzed the capital of Abidjan on Friday, firing
weapons
and looting fora second day.
The Russian military said Friday that it had prevented Chechen militants
from escaping south to neighboring Georgia, and hammered rebel positions
near Chechnya's eastern border with bombs and shells to try to flush
out
guerrillas.
Russian forces continued moving south into Chechnya's mountainous
region and
battling rebels along Chechnya's borders. They repulsed three attempts
by
militants to break through from southern Chechnya into Georgia,
while jets
and helicopter gunships attacked three rebel bases in the southern
mountains, the military command said.
Russian aircraft and artillery pummeled rebel emplacements near
five eastern
villages, along Chechnya's border with the Russian region of Dagestan.
In all, Russian aircraft flew 71 combat missions over the past 24
hours and
destroyed two anti-aircraft guns, eight fortified bunkers, three
communications stations and 11 vehicles.
The military commandant of Grozny, Isa Munayev, said Friday that
a Russian
helicopter had been shot down overnight in the Shatoi region of
southern
Chechny. The Defense Ministry could not confirm the report.
The commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, General Viktor Kazantsev,
has said that Russia would establish complete control of
not just Grozny,
but
the country's mountains "within a mere two weeks, three at
most."
The military has already vowed to take the capital, Grozny,
by the end of
the year.
But ground troops are not about to rush in and risk becoming bogged
down in
close contact house-to-house combat which favours the separatists
rather
than a regular army.
In an attempt to minimize casualties, Russian forces are launching
wave
after wave of artillery shells towards the city hoping they hit
rebel
positions.
The weapons being used are deadly, but have little accuracy and
new pictures
from Grozny appear to make a mockery of claims that the war is only
targeting the rebels.
Separatists and residents trying to flee the surrounded capital
and its
suburbs run the risk of being picked off by high-flying Russian
jets unable
to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians.
Christmas Eve revellers were hurt along with six police officers
when a bomb
exploded in a nightclub in Cape Town, South Africa.
Police sealed off the popular tourist area in the Green Point section
of the
city, near the sea. It is full of restaurants and shops and crowds
milled
about in alarm and confusion.
A warning call had been made about the bomb which was placed at
the
restaurant, bar and club complex. Six investigating officers and
"a couple"
of bystanders were injured in the explosion.
Last year, there was a bomb attack on the Planet Hollywood restaurant
on
Cape Town's waterfront which killed two people and injured 26.
And last month, dozens of people were injured in the bombing of
a beachside
pizzeria, popular with young families. Security is certain to be
tight for
the Millennium celebrations in Cape Town.
The hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane with 189 people on
board have
landed at a military air base near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates
after
they were refused permission to land in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The plane was on its way from Lahore in Pakistan where it refuelled
after
being hijacked during a flight from Kathmandu in Nepal to New Delhi.
The hijackers claim they have shot four passengers dead but the
reports are
unconfirmed and the pilot has told officials that he heard no gunshots.
The Pakistani government unsuccessfully tried to prevent the plane
from
landing in Lahore, gave the hijackers food and allowed the aircraft
to
re-fuel.
The A300 Airbus first tried to land in Lahore but was denied permission
by
the Pakistani government. The hijackers then forced the aircraft
to land in
Amritsar and it then returned to Lahore for an emergency landing
- without
receiving permission from the airport.
The decision to allow the plane to refuel and fly to Kabul came
after
Pakistani authorities negotiated with the hijackers.
Thank you.
Tia