EVENTS
NATO JET FLIGHT SPURS SERB PROTEST A NATO jet flew over Bosnia Saturday after flights had been suspended for several days, and rebel Serbs renewed warnings that they could not guarantee the safety of NATO planes. UN officials said the UN command had received an angry protest from the Bosnian Serb leadership, restating opposition to NATO policing of the no-fly zone over Bosnia and warning that the Serbs ``cannot guarantee the safety of any flights.'' Four hundred UN peacekeepers remained in rebel Serb custody Saturday despite promises by Serb leaders to UN envoy Yasushi Akashi that the peacekeepers would be freed. Serbs on Saturday accused the Croatian army of overrunning three villages in western Bosnia, UN sources said. Meanwhile, a powerful explosion rocked Zagreb's military airport late Saturday injuring six people. GM gas-tank pact
General Motors Corporation is the clear winner in a deal that lifts the US threat to recall millions of its pickup trucks in exchange for $51 million in GM support of safety programs. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena says he made the only logical choice. The deal that Pena announced Friday ends the government's investigation of alleged defects in GM's 1973-87 C-K model pickups. Critics said the trucks were fire hazards in side-impact crashes because their fuel tanks were mounted outside the protection of the frame.
Dole, Daschle to lead Senate
In separate closed-door meetings in the Senate Friday, Democrats elected Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota to lead them as a minority in the new Congress that convenes Jan. 4. He defeated Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, 24 to 23. Just down a Capitol corridor, Senator Dole, who has led Senate Republicans for a decade, was elected majority leader with no opposition. But his longtime second-in-command, Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, lost his job as Republican whip to Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi by a vote of 27 to 26. Mr. Lott is a conservative who wants his party to advance its agenda more aggressively.
Woman chosen in Mexico
Sen. Maria de los Angeles Moreno was elected president of Mexico's ruling party Saturday, becoming the first woman to head the powerful political institution. The PRI has ruled Mexico without interruption since 1929, but has never had a female president. The PRI presidency is considered one of the country's most powerful political posts.
Drought perils rice crop
The Cambodian government appealed yesterday to other countries and humanitarian organizations to provide food to make up for a rice harvest shortfall threatening 2 million of the country's 10 million people with starvation.
Cambodia will be short 300,000 tons of rice in 1995. Farms, battered first by floods and then by drought, need rain.
Iraq protests intercepts
Iraq Saturday urged the UN Security Council to condemn the interception of several Iraqi vessels by US warships in the Persian Gulf and the alleged beating of Iraqi seamen.
The US Navy said Saturday it had boarded five vessels suspected of breaking UN sanctions on Iraq in recent days.
