Libya Pressed For Suspects
EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak left Aug. 17 for talks with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi, a day after Libya rejected new Western demands to surrender two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Mr. Mubarak has tried to persuade Libya to cooperate in the investigation of the bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, as well as the 1989 bombing of a French jet over Niger that killed 171 people.
Libya has said it would surrender the two men to stand trial in a country other than the United States or Britain.
The United Nations on Aug. 13 renewed arms, diplomatic, and air traffic sanctions on Libya to try to force it to hand over the two men. The sanctions were first imposed in April 1992. At the same time, France, Britain, and the US warned Libya that they will move to freeze its financial assets and ban its purchase of oil equipment if it does not surrender the suspects by Oct. 1. South Lebanon shelled again
Arab guerrillas fired mortars and grenades at Israeli-backed militia in south Lebanon on Aug. 17, security sources said. There were no casualties. The guerrillas attacked South Lebanon Army (SLA) posts inside Israel's self-proclaimed security zone, the sources said. The SLA returned fire.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. But on Aug. 16, guerrillas of the pro-Iranian Hizbullah (Party of God) fired rockets at an Israeli patrol in the zone, also without casualties.
Israel mounted a seven-day offensive that killed 147 people and wounded 496 others last month after Hizbullah and radical Palestinian guerrillas killed seven Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon. The UN, having sent an envoy to southern Lebanon to assess damage from the Israeli strikes, said Aug. 17 it would seek $30 million for reconstruction efforts. Kuwait debates rights groups
The Kuwaiti parliament debated Aug. 17 a plan to shut down all unlicensed private organizations.
The move, announced by the Ministry of Social Affairs Aug. 12, could deal a sharp blow to efforts by private Kuwaiti groups to secure the release of an estimated 800 Kuwaitis and 3,000 non-Kuwaiti residents believed to be held by Iraq, international human rights advocates say.
Four Kuwaiti rights groups have applied for licenses since 1991, but none have issued them. The government said it wanted to consolidate human rights efforts.
