January 27, 1996
Web posted at: 1:55 p.m. EST (1855 GMT)
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces killed four guerrillas in a clash early Saturday in Israel's self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
Pro-Israeli sources in Lebanon earlier said six guerrillas had been killed in the clash. Those sources said a group of guerrillas armed with machine-guns and rocket- propelled grenades fought an Israeli patrol. Israeli forces reportedly used artillery and helicopters in the fight .
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Olga Havlova, wife of Czech President Vaclav Havel and a human rights activist, died Saturday of cancer. She was 62.
Havlova signed the Charter 77 human rights manifesto and worked within the Czech dissident community led by her husband. When he was in jail from 1979-82, he wrote her a long series of philosophical letters, later published as "Letters to Olga."
After her husband became president in the anti-Communist revolution in 1989, Havlova formed a Goodwill Committee known for its charity work.
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India on Saturday successfully tested a longer-range version of its medium-range Prithvi missile, capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The test flight of the missile, Prithvi-2, hit a targeted spot 150 miles away, a defense spokesman said.
U.S. officials say the introduction of sophisticated missiles like Prithvi in the region could increase tensions between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since they won independence from Britain in 1947.
JEDDEH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Thirteen people died and more than 30 were injured in a fire at a hospital in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Friday, a Saudi civil defense official said on Saturday.
The Saudi Press Agency said the victims included people of various nationalities and that they died from smoke and gas inhalation. The fire started as a result of electrical problems in the hospital.
Mecca is the site of the Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest shrine and focus of the annual pilgrimage, known as the haj, by Muslims from throughout the world.
LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 200 people may have drowned when a boat capsized in squalls off Nigeria this week, a newspaper reported Saturday. The incident was not reported by either the government or the police.
The accident occurred off Nigeria's southeast coast as the boat headed for the country of Gabon, and bodies continue to wash up on shore, the newspaper reported.
MOSCOW (CNN) -- Three Russian servicemen were killed and 12 were wounded in attacks launched by separatist Chechen rebels on Friday and Saturday, Interfax news agency said.
The Russian military press office in Chechnya said two servicemen were killed and five were wounded Friday when rebels attacked their post on Chechnya's western border.
One other was shot dead and two were wounded when gunmen attacked a Russian patrol at a market in the regional capital Grozny. Interfax said five other servicemen were wounded in rebel attacks launched across Chechnya since Friday morning.
HAIPHONG, Vietnam (CNN) -- An American veteran of the Vietnam War who came back to Vietnam to live was sentenced to five years in prison Saturday for bringing weapons, banned videotapes and books into the country.
Everett Sennholz, 45, was arrested last August when a rifle was found in a shipment of his household goods. Vietnamese officials called the rifle a military weapon, but Sennholz maintained it was for hunting.
A tax consultant from Puyallup, Washington, Sennholz said he had visited Vietnam five times since 1992 and was planning to marry a Vietnamese woman, settle in Haiphong and teach English.
The banned books in his possession included Stanley Karnow's "Vietnam: A History," a popular general history of Vietnam. The videotapes included one of the Sylvester Stallone "Rambo" films -- a fictional account in which Vietnam is still holding Americans prisoner from the Vietnam War.
ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkey's political crisis worsened Friday as the right-wing Motherland Party rejected an offer by caretaker prime minister Tansu Ciller to set up a coalition government with a rotating premiership.
The deadlock leaves Turkey uncertain about its next government, but paves the way for talks between the Motherland Party and the pro-Islamic welfare party.
Ciller had offered a rotating premiership, with her taking the first term.
The offer was a bid to break the political stalemate after elections last month failed to give any one party a majority. The pro-Islamic Welfare Party won the most seats, but not enough to form a government.
Motherland Party's leader Mesut Yilmaz said his party could not agree to be part of a coalition with Ciller's True Path Party, as it held her responsible for Turkey's problems, particularly high inflation, unemployment, and foreign debts.
GROZNY, Russia (CNN) -- A prominent critic of Chechen separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev was kidnapped Friday while returning home from a rebel-held town.
Lecha Saligov was abducted just yards from a Russian roadblock near Grozny and was with his wife and children, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
The agency said Saligov's family was left by the side of the road unharmed.
Dudayev was dislodged as president in last month's Moscow-imposed elections in Chechnya. Saligov was one of several candidates for the leadership post.
The head of the new Chechen government, Sanaki Arbiyev, told ITAR-Tass he suspected Dudayev loyalists had kidnapped Saligov.
The Chechen war began in December 1994 when the Kremlin dispatched tens of thousands of troops to end the mostly Muslim region's three years of self-proclaimed independence. The war has claimed up to 30,000 lives and uprooted more than 600,000 people.
OSLO, Norway (CNN) -- Israel consented Friday to compensate the wife and children of a Moroccan waiter killed by Israeli Mossad agents who believed him to be the PLO terrorist who engineered the 1972 attack on Israel's Olympic team.
The amount of compensation was not released, but Norwegian state radio said it was at least $235,000.
Agents for Israel's Mossad intelligence service apparently mistook Ahmed Bouchikhi for Hassan Salameh, the PLO intelligence chief charged with masterminding a plot that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
Bouchikhi was gunned down in 1973 while walking home from the movies with his pregnant wife in the Norwegian town of Lillehammer.
Five suspects, later identified as Mossad agents, served brief prison terms in connection with the shooting before being pardoned.
PARIS (CNN) -- Yemeni tribesman kidnapped at least 17 French tourists and demanded the release of a comrade jailed for the abduction of an American last September, the French Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
French officials said Yemeni authorities were negotiating with the kidnappers for the hostages' safe release.
Yemeni security officials told Reuters that the tourists had been abducted Thursday by members of the Doman tribe who were demanding the release of fellow tribesman Zubein Doman.
Zubein Doman is awaiting trial for the September abduction of an American an employee of a U.S. oil company who was released later in September.
The incident on Thursday was the second time this year that Yemeni tribes have taken foreigners hostage. Earlier this month, tribesmen held an American and three unidentified colleagues for four days before releasing them.
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