News Briefs

September 26, 1995
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 GMT)

Sikh militant group says it planted bombs

DELHI, India (CNN) -- A Sikh militant group has claimed responsibility for Monday's bomb attacks which wounded more than 45 people in Old Delhi

In a handwritten note to India's Press Trust news agency, the Khalistan Liberation Force, or KLP, says it planted two explosives near Delhi's historic Red Fort and a crowded market.

The group also threatened to detonate more bombs. Two more explosions occurred Tuesday, injuring six people.

Libya expelling 30,000 Palestinians

TRIPOLI, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has given the estimated 30,000 Palestinians who live in his country 48 hours to leave.

The Palestinians were arriving Tuesday at Libya's border with Egypt. Libya wants them to travel on to the Gaza Strip, but Egypt has in the past been reluctant to allow Palestinians to pass through its territory unless they have valid work permits.

Analysts suspect Libya is trying to sink the Palestinian autonomy accord with Israel by flooding the Gaza Strip with Palestinians.

Twelve die in church massacre

MPENDLE, South Africa (CNN) -- Unidentified gunmen killed 12 people, including five children, Monday night during a church service in the Kwazulu-Natal Province.

At least 80 people have been killed since Friday in violence between supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress.

Thousands protest schoolgirl's rape in Japan

TOKYO (CNN) -- Some 4,000 people gathered on the island of Okinawa on Tuesday to protest the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl by three U.S. servicemen on September 4. (298K AIFF sound or 298K WAV sound)

The protest came on the heels of a 24-hour sit-in near the American embassy in Tokyo. Legal wrangling has inflamed tensions already high in the volatile case.

U.S. officials have refused to release the Marines to Japanese authorities because of a clause in the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement, which bars such a move until formal indictment. The suspects are currently being questioned at Camp Hansen by American military personnel and Japanese police.

Iraqi children feel pangs of hunger

GENEVA (CNN) -- Severe food shortages endanger an entire generation of Iraqi children, a United Nations agency reported Tuesday.

"There are actually more than four million people, a fifth of Iraq's population, at severe nutritional risk," stated the report issued by World Food Programme (WFP). The figure includes 2.4 million children under five, as well as pregnant women, nursing mothers, and female single-providers of households."

In pediatric wards, the organization found kinds of malnutrition no longer existing in many countries. Countless children suffered severe mental and physical damage because of lack of protein. "We are at a point of no return in Iraq," said one WFP official.

Iraq remains politically and economically hobbled under President Saddam Hussein, who drew U.N. trade sanctions for the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Former Italian Prime Minister gets temporary reprieve

PALERMO, Italy (CNN) -- In what has been dubbed the trial of the century in Italy, former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti got a reprieve on his first day in court. The judge adjourned the case until October 6 pending a ruling on a request to move the trial to Rome.

Andreotti, who dominated Italian post-war politics, is alleged to have served as the Mafia's chief contact point with Rome in exchange for Mafia support of his Christian Democrat party. Prosecutors charge that he cozied up to Mafia bosses for more than 20 years, fixing organized crime cases and possibly even commissioning one of them.

Andreotti claims he's the victim of a carefully-orchestrated conspiracy.