EVENTS
HAITIAN-BOUND TROOPS WORRY LAWMAKERS Lawmakers expressed concern Sunday that sending hundreds of American soldiers to Haiti could get the United States embroiled in yet another military conflict. ``This is another area where we need to send up a little alarm,'' said Sen. Sam Nunn (D) of Georgia, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He called Haiti ``a very hostile environment with people obviously killing each other.'' Although administration officials played down the danger to the 700 military support troops being sent to Haiti this month, other members of Congress echoed Nunn's worries. Arsenal destruction delay
United Nations arms experts, running behind schedule, need about two more months to finish the destruction of Iraq's stockpiles of poisonous gases, a UN source said yesterday. UN inspectors said last July that if all went well Iraq's known arsenal of toxic gases would be destroyed by September. About 25 experts of a UN chemical destruction team are supervising the scrapping of Iraq's chemical arsenal under the terms that ended the 1991 Gulf war over Kuwait. The source said the experts were facing unspecified problems. Tax pushes gas prices up
Retailers are passing a new federal gas tax onto American consumers, pumping gas prices up more than 4 cents a gallon in the past two weeks, an industry analyst said. Regular unleaded gasoline at self-service pumps on Oct. 8 sold for an average $1.11 per gallon, mid-grade sold for $1.22, premium $1.30 and regular leaded $1.14, according to a survey of 10,000 gasoline stations nationwide. The increase of 4.33 cents over the last survey, conducted Sept. 24, was mainly due to the new 4.3 cent-a-gallon federal gas tax that went into effect Oct. 1, Trilby Lundberg said of the latest Lundberg Survey results. Damaged tanker
Coast Guard salvage crews in Galveston, Texas, worked yesterday to keep a fire-ravaged tanker from spilling its 365,000 gallons of fuel oil into one of the world's busiest ports. At least two crewmen were killed in an explosion Saturday night that caused a raging fire and ripped a gaping hole in the side of the 660-foot gasoline tanker. Another missing worker was presumed dead. Coast Guard officials said no fuel had escaped into the Houston Ship Channel in the Gulf of Mexico and the tanker was carrying no cargo. Yeltsin visits Japan
Russian President Boris Yeltsin flew to Tokyo yesterday for a long-delayed state visit (see Page 1) as thousands of Japanese police went on the lookout for nationalist protests. Ten thousand police, many in riot gear, were mobilized to prevent protests by rightists incensed by Russia's refusal to return a group of islands seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II. They also are demanding an apology for the brutal treatment of Japanese prisoners of war. Oslo publisher shot
The Norwegian publisher of Salman Rushdie's book, ``The Satanic Verses,'' was shot and seriously wounded yesterday outside his home in Oslo. William Nygaard was shot three times, at least once in the back, as he was getting into a car, said the Oslo police, who did not know who shot Nygaard. The police said it was too early to tell whether the shooting was related to the Norwegian-language publication of Rushdie's book, which many Muslims consider blasphemous. Gay rights trial begins
Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton goes to court today in Denver to try to prove homosexuals in her state face no discrimination, have plenty of political clout, and are free to change their sexual proclivities - all of which would disqualify them from state constitutional protection. The state is defending its new amendment, which would ban state and local laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. It also would cancel existing gay rights ordinances in Aspen, Boulder, and Denver. Vaccine sales rising
The world market for human vaccine products is seen rising to $5.26 billion by 1999 from $1.83 billion in 1992, an annual growth rate of over 16 percent, according to a new study on the global vaccine industry by market researchers Frost & Sullivan.
