January 28, 1996
Web posted at: 12:15 a.m. EST (0515 GMT)
KURGAN TYUBE, Tajikistan (CNN) -- A warlord rose up against the Russian-backed president of Tajikistan on Saturday, capturing the former Soviet republic of Kurgan Tyube and demanding the resignation of the man he helped bring to power.
The rebels are being led by warlord Makhmud Khudoberdyev, who commands about 1,000 men in a special army brigade based in Kurgan Tyube. Khudoberdyev was demanding the resignation of President Emomali Rakhmonov, who had rewarded him for his service during the civil war.
The rebels were reportedly in control of the police station in Kurgan Tyube, key government buildings, and part of the road leading to Dushanbe, the capital.
The siege underscored the fragility of Rakhmonov's hard-line regime, which is supported mainly by thousands of Russian soldiers and border guards.
For several years, Rakhmonov has been battling the Islamic and democratic opposition that his forces defeated in Tajikistan's bloody 1992 civil war.
WARSAW (Reuter) -- Poland's ex-Communists, a dominant force in the ruling coalition, shouted defiance by picking outgoing Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy as their party leader on Saturday despite allegations he had spied for Moscow.
The overwhelming vote, at a congress of the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (SDRP), flaunted the party's confidence in Oleksy, who has quit over security service allegations, which he firmly denies, that he was a spy.
Oleksy, who said he had been persuaded only at the last minute to stand, gained 308 votes out of 325, a party statement reported.
The SDRP is the core faction of the Democratic Left Alliance, the larger party in the coalition, which also includes the Polish Peasant Party.
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuter) -- The first convoy of trucks in 13 days arrived Saturday in the besieged Afghan capital of Kabul, bringing badly needed stocks of food and fuel.
The convoy reached the city along the main route to Pakistan, which had been cut off for about two weeks by a dispute between two factions of the opposition Hezb-i-Islami party led by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
The official Kabul Radio put the size of the convoy at 300 vehicles.
Four other routes into the city have been cut off for months by the Taleban Islamic militia, which is seeking to topple the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
A government official said supplies would continue to reach Kabul along the road from the Pakistani city of Jalalabad.
The United Nations had warned of a human catastrophe in Kabul unless the road re-opened quickly.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuter) -- A clash between two factions in Somalia killed 29 people and wounded over 60 others, a radio station operated by one of the militias reported Saturday.
The radio station said militiamen loyal to warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed fought the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), which is armed and supported by his rival Ali Mahdi Mohamed, for most of Friday north-west of the capital Mogadishu.
At least 70 people have been killed this month in factional fighting in Somalia, according to unconfirmed reports.
The devastated Horn of Africa country has been without central government since rebels led by Mahdi and his former ally Aideed overthrew president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging Somalia into anarchy.
International efforts to stop a famine resulting from the fighting degenerated into shoot-outs between Somali militiamen and U.N. forces, who pulled out last year.
The radio, loyal to Mahdi, said 18 Aideed fighters and 11 members of the RRA were killed, while a total of 63 from both sides were injured.
There was no independent confirmation of the clash.
PARIS (Reuter) -- Algerian security forces have killed 39 Muslim rebels in operations across the country over the past week, the official Algerian news agency APS said Saturday.
Eight guerrillas armed with two Kalashnikov assault rifles and six shotguns were shot and killed last Sunday when troops stormed their hideout in the western Oran area, 225 miles from Algiers, said APS quoting an official security statement.
Nine rebels were killed Wednesday inside a house in Ain Aguima village in the eastern Souk Ahras province, 275 miles from the Algerian capital.
The statement said 22 armed militants were shot dead between last Sunday and Thursday in nine other regions of Algeria. It mentioned no casualties among the government forces.
Up to 50,000 people have been killed in Algeria's political violence since 1992 when authorities canceled general elections which the Islamists were set to win.
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.
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