EVENTS
EGYPT WILL RETRY SHEIKH RAHMAN
Egypt yesterday ordered the retrial of Muslim radical cleric Omar Abdel Rahman and 46 of his followers on charges of participating in a violent 1989 anti-government demonstration. They were acquitted of the charges in 1990 by an emergency court because of lack of evidence and a discrepancy in witnesses accounts, but retrial had remained a possibility. The sheikh is in self-exile in the United States. Two members of Sheikh Rahman's congregation at a storefront mosque in New Jersey have been arrested in co nnection with the Feb. 26 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and wounded more than 1,000. Amnesty in El Salvador
El Salvador's Congress approved a full amnesty March 20 for people accused of civil war atrocities, days after a United Nations report recommended their removal from public office or military service. The move was certain to anger many, including some victims of the brutal 12-year war, and could alienate the rightist government's foreign backers. Some lawmakers walked out in opposition. Hostages freed
Gunmen holding 11 hostages in the Nicaraguan Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica, freed their captives yesterday, but remained inside the building, police said. The break in the 13-day standoff came after negotiators agreed to allow the leader of the four gunmen to seek political asylum in the Dominican Republic. A spokesman for the Costa Rican government said it had promised to safeguard the life of Nicaraguan-born dissident Jose Urbina Lara, who set the hostages free. Bosnia charges genocide
Bosnia-Herzegovina has filed a claim in the World Court charging Serbia and Montenegro with genocide, the Bosnian UN ambassador said at the UN March 20. Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey said that the UN General Assembly had in effect supported Bosnia's claim by passing a resolution condemning "ethnic cleansing" as genocide. Bombing in England
Two bombs that exploded March 20 in the northwest England town of Warrington, killing a 4-year-old boy and injuring dozens of shoppers, were similar to other bombs planted by the Irish Republican Army, police said yesterday. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombs. Many of the shoppers were shopping for Mother's Day, which Britain celebrates on the third Sunday in March. French Socialists
France's ruling Socialists headed for a widely expected thrashing as voters cast ballots yesterday in the first round of elections for a new National Assembly. All polls conducted in recent weeks show the conservative opposition burying the Socialists in a landslide victory, winning perhaps 75 percent. Philippine volcano
Mayon volcano in the Philippines exploded seven times yesterday, hurling tons of chocolate-colored ash more than 13,000 feet high, darkening the skies and raining ash on villages near the crater. Some 72 people have died since the volcano began erupting Feb. 2.
