EVENTS
MUSLIMS PLAN ATTACK IN BOSNIA
Ten thousand Muslim fighters have gathered on a strategic hill overlooking Sarajevo amid rumors of an imminent Muslim assault to break the Serb siege of the Bosnian capital. Mik Magnusson, a spokesman for the United Nations Protection Forces in Sarajevo, said the buildup of troops had been taking place for several months. Fighting in the city has intensified in the last two days. Cubans defect to US
A hijacked Cuban airliner with 53 people aboard flew into Miami International Airport Dec. 29 and many requested political asylum, officials said. The plane was an Aero Caribbean twin-engine turboprop, said a United States Customs Service spokesman. It was flying from Havana to Varedero Beach on Cuba's north coast. Governor indicted
Alabama's Gov. Guy Hunt was indicted Dec. 28 by a grand jury on charges of taking $200,000 from his inaugural fund for personal use. He has reported to the county jail. The 13-count felony indictment included charges of theft, conspiracy, and ethics violations. It said Hunt conspired with his inaugural fund accountant, Gene McKenzie, and two former aides. Norwegian ship sabotaged
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an American environmentalist group based in Los Angeles, has claimed responsibility for sabotaging a whaling ship to protest Norway's decision to resume commercial whale hunting. Police said the 71-foot Nybraena was found nearly full of water Dec. 28 at its berth in the Lofoten Islands above the Arctic Circle. Gene therapy allowed
Doctors in San Diego, Calif., say they have received unprecedented federal approval for "compassionate use" of an unproven gene therapy on a patient. They plan to administer genetically altered cells in the hope that the cells will stimulate a natural immune response in the woman. Vote to oust Panic
Former communists and Nationalist allies of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia's Parliament voted Dec. 29 to force Yugoslavia's moderate premier, Milan Panic, out of office. This was the third effort to force Panic, a Serb-born American millionaire, out of Yugoslav politics. Deng `man of year'
Britain's respected Financial Times newspaper Dec. 29 named veteran Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping as 1992 Man of the Year for his free-market reforms. It said Deng's selection was more remarkable because his economic successes were achieved "during the year in which he turned 88." Chevron in Kazakhstan
Chevron Corporation will begin developing Kazakhstan's huge Tengiz and Korolyov oil fields next April, Itar-Tass news agency said Dec. 29. The Tengiz field is said to be the biggest oil deposit discovered in the world in the past decade. Nuclear power in Russia
Russia's top atomic energy official, Viktor Mikhailov, has pleaded for open markets for his country's nuclear technology, promising to press ahead with plans to double capacity for nuclear power. Beijing retaliates
China has ordered officials in Canton to cancel all contracts with France related to the southern Chinese city's planned subway project, the Beijing-funded newspaper Wen Wei Po reported Dec. 29. If true, the move would represent the latest act of Chinese retaliation against France's reported decision to sell 60 Mirage fighter jets to Taiwan. Vote in Ghana
Ghanaians voted Dec. 29 in the country's first democratic parliamentary elections in 13 years despite a boycott by opposition candidates who contend last month's presidential election was rigged. About 8 million people were registered to vote. They chose from among 441 candidates competing for 178 parliamentary seats, according to the Interim National Electoral Commission. Terms last four years.
