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World in brief
Compiled from Times wires 100 U.S. children caught in uprisingABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Heavy gunfire sounded briefly in Ivory Coast's rebel-held second city Monday, as French troops moved in and stood ready to evacuate foreigners if needed -- including some 100 American children caught in the middle of a bloody military uprising. The U.S.-based director of a boarding school housing the young Americans -- children of missionaries from across Africa -- said rebels breached the walls of the school and fired across the campus. "It really was cross fire. Not shooting at the children, but a whole lot of ammo going and scaring the children to death," said James Forlines, director of Free Will Baptist Missions, who spoke to the Associated Press from Nashville, Tenn., where he was in hourly contact with the school. No one was hurt. Ranging from infants to 12 year olds, the Americans are among 200 foreigners holed up at a boarding school for children of missionaries in Bouake, a besieged city that has been in rebel hands since they launched a coup attempt four days ago. The uprising killed at least 270 people in its first days. The half-million residents of Bouake are braced for a showdown between insurgents and government forces, claimed by military sources to have surrounded the former French colony's mainly Muslim second-largest city. Just in case, French troops with trucks and helicopters set up camp Monday at an airport outside the capital Yamoussoukro, 40 miles from Bouake. Their mission: to ensure the safety of the 20,000 French citizens and other Western nationals and, if necessary, to get them out. The U.S. Embassy said Sunday it had no immediate evacuation plans for its nationals. Annan urges reforms for United NationsUNITED NATIONS -- Calling on his officials and the 190 member nations to help redraw priorities, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a report Monday to the General Assembly that prescribes streamlining various departments, simplifying labyrinthine procedures, firing or retraining staff and recruiting more skilled people. "Activities which are no longer relevant must be dropped, while on new issues . . . the U.N. must deepen its knowledge, sharpen its focus and act more effectively," said the report, which cited countless committee meetings, fat reports written in dense language and reams of paperwork that tie up a complex web of officials.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
