Aspin puts off Sarajevo tour:
US Defence Secretary Les Aspin has cancelled plans to visit Sarajevo next week, Pentagon spokeswoman Kathleen de Laski said Thursday, AFP reports from Washington.
On Thursday the New York Times said that President Bill Clinton s national security advisor Anthony Lake became furious when he learned about Aspin's intention to go to Sarajevo.
The daily quoted an administration in official as saying the trip to Sarajevo would be too dangerous for the Defence Secretary, and would have focused attention on a situation that is considered a political loser in the United States, and possibly raised unrealistic expectations among Bosnian Muslims.
Death threat against Menem: a television station broadcast a death threat Thursday against President Carlos Menem, reportedly left by an anonymous caller •to its studios, AFP says from Bunes Aires.
The male voice on the answering machine recording, broadcast on channel lines evening news programme, accused Menem of corruption and called him a traitor.
The voice warned that Menem would be shot If he made a scheduled appearance Monday on a popular daytime television show "Lunching wit^i Mirtha." ,
Pope arrives in Estonia: pope John Paul arrived in Estonia, third stop on his ground-breaking Baltic tour, for a one-day visit yesterday. Reuter reports from Tallinn.
Live television showed him kissing the ground and being welcomed by President Lennart Meri. The Roman catholic church leader had previously visited Lithuania and Latvia on his first trip to the former Soviet Union.
Life expectancy up in China:
China's average life expectancy has risen to a record 17 years, more than double the average when the communist state was founded in 1949, according to the Ministry of Public Health. Reuter reports from Beijing.
Ministiy official Qiao Ginzcng said Infant mortality had been reduced to 14.5 per 1,000 and 2 3 per 1,000 respectively In China's cities and rural areas, the official China Daily reported • on Friday. That is down from an overall average of 200 per k 1.000 in 1949.