US warns Iraq against attack on Kurds: The United States Tuesday wanned Iraq against attacks on civilians In Kurdistan and demanded that Kurdish refugees be allowed to return to their homes, reports AFP from Washington.
State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said officials were concerned by reports of "Indiscriminate Iraqi artillery fire on civilian areas."
Tn the past, we have specifically cautioned Iraq about actions In northern Iraq and those warnings stillstand," she said. (
The United* States has banned Iraqi aircraft from flying north of the 36th parallel and has deployed air force units In Turkey to deal with violations The United Nations also has 441 security troops in the region. Tutwiler noted.
Iraq destroys ’supergun’: Iraq on Tuesday completed the destruction of Ils first 'supergun' under
Nations supervision, the head of a UN Inspection team announced in Baghdad, reports AFT
Douglas Englund told reporters the procedure had been carried out by Iraqi technicians over the past three days at the JubeT Mans ay n Military Base 180 kilometres (115 mtWT north of Baghdad.
The tubes (gun barrels) are cut into pieces and we verify the final disassembly of the gun." he said.
The supergun had a diameter of 350-mlllinictrcs and a barrel measuring 52 metres (170 feet), according to Englund, who added that Iraq had been able to assemble enough com ponents to manufacture four more giant canons.
US for trade embargo against Haiti: The United State*. Canada and Latin America support a trade embargo against Haiti to' force coup leader* to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, diplomatic sources said Tuesday, reports AFP from Washington.
The mca*urc being considered by the Organisation of American Stales (OAS) behind close doors is aimed at eco notnically forcing the coup leaders to capitulate to OAS demands for Aristide s return.
Artslide, in exile in Caraccs issued an urgent call to the 34 member OAS to send a civilian mission lo support conslitu tlonal democracy In Haiti. According to an OAS resolution draft, the organisation appears ready to send such a mission
The draft resolution would impose an embargo freeze Haitian asset* tn foreign countries halt petroleum supplies from oil producing countries and Suspend air and boat trans portatfon into Haiti.
US high official leaves Moscow : US Assistant Secretary of State Reginald Bartholomew left Moacow on Tuesday after three days of talks with Soviet as well as with republican representatives on recent disarmament initiatives pul forward by the Soviet Union and Washington, reports AFP
His departure a day earlier than planned was on account of the success of his mission. which satisfied both sides, the officials Tasa news agency reported
Bartholomew arrived Saturday, a few hours before presi dent Mikhail Gorbachev s tekwised presentation of a package of radical cuts to the country s nuclear arsenal.
The Soviet announcement came in response to President George Bush s own initiative eight days earlier which set the ball rolling on superpower cuts by proposing to unilaterally scrap US ground and sea launched short-range nuclear weapons and proposing the elimination, along with Moscow, of multiple-warhead ballistic missiles
France plans to reduce N-tests : FrancehptanAsg to reduce next year the number of nuclear tests ft carries out annually from the current six to four or fives. informed sources said Tuesday, reports AFP from Parts
The proposal is part of a bill on military planning that must first be submitted for approval lo the defence council ex peeled to meet under President Francois Mitterrand some time during the nest few weeks. the sources said.
They said however, that France did not Intend for the moment lo scrap the tests dllogi thc r
French nuclear tests arc conducted underground in French Ifolynesia mostly in the south Pacific atoll of Mururoa and have been constantly criticised by Pacific governments and inlcrnaUonai environmental groups
Israel violates Iraqi airspace :
in a teller to the United Nations made public Tuesday, complained that four Israeli warplanes violated its airspace for 30 minutes on Friday, reports AFT from New York
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ahmad Hussein Al-Khodalr re quested that UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar In tervene immediately to lain all necessary measures to put an end to these violations'
Such violations "call Into question ... the credibility of the United Nations and the role Incumbent upon it of protecting the independenet and tcirfturlal integrity of Ka mernber •laics/ the tettrr said
The Iraqi letter, dated October 6. prompted the United Stales to warn Israel that its actions could endanger UN tn speetion teams in Iraq, said anonymous diplomatic sources in Waahto^on.
According to Husseins teller, four Israeli F-J5 fighter air craft on October 4 entered northwestern Iraqi airspace from Syria. flew at low altitude over the western region of Al Kat m
Al WaM, and left 30 adnuto fafer through Saudi Arabia