EVENTS
NO MIDEAST PROGRESS FOR CHRISTOPHER US Secretary of State Warren Christopher ended his latest Mideast peace mission Aug. 9 without a breakthrough on an accord between Israel and Syria. His last stop was Jerusalem, where he met Aug. 8 with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Rabin has signaled Syria he would give up at least some of the Golan Heights and move the 13,000 Israeli Jews who came into the 15-mile-wide buffer zone after Israel captured it in 1967. Syrian President Hafez Assad wants Israel to relinquish all the territory. Christopher intends to return to the region in September. Violence in Burundi
At least 15 people have been killed in two days of clashes in Burundi, a volatile central African state that diplomats say may follow neighboring Rwanda down the path to chaotic tribal conflict. The clashes, involving angry youths of the minority Tutsi tribe, brought commerce to a standstill in the capital, Bujumbura. Aid workers say the clash threatens the main UN supply route to Rwandan refugees. Nigeria's oil exports hit
Nigeria's main striking oil workers union said Aug. 9 it was stepping up its campaign to halt crude-oil production and exports to force army rulers to hand power to detained presidential claimant Moshood Abiola. The 150,000-member union began the strike July 4 to demand the release of Mr. Abiola and his installation as president. The strike has cut crude-oil production by at least 25 percent. Muslims flee to Croatia
Thousands of civilians and soldiers loyal to rebel Muslim leader Fikret Abdic were fleeing to Croatia from the Bihac area of Bosnia in what seems to be a collapse of Abdic's forces, the United Nations said Aug. 9. Mr. Abdic, a businessman and former member of the Muslim-led Bosnian leadership, split with Sarajevo almost a year ago in a disagreement over whether to accept an international peace plan for Bosnia. Angola-rebel pact
Angolan government negotiators signed an 11-point procedural agreement with UNITA rebels Aug. 9, but thorny questions of power-sharing still stand in the way of a peace pact. UNITA spokesman Jorge Valentim and government spokesman Caneira Higino said they were adopting the procedural accord before moving on to the next agenda item at long-running peace talks the security of UNITA leaders. US census ruling
In a ruling that could mean more money for big cities and give urban areas more power in Congress, a federal appeals court said the Bush administration undercounted blacks and Hispanics in the 1990 census. The ruling by the US Court of Appeals in Manhattan supports the position of the Census Bureau, which said the Bush administration missed about 5 million citizens, mostly in urban areas. Southern California and Arizona could gain a representative at the expense of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, plaintiffs said.
