The intrigue over the defection of high-ranking Iraqi officials to Jordan continues. On Aug 21st, Hussein Kamel Hassan, the former head of the Iraqi weapons program, claimed that Iraq planned to invade Kuwait and Saudi Arabia this fall, believing that an international coalition could not be formed. Then, on Aug 23rd, Egypt offered political asylum to Saddam Hussein if he stepped down as Iraqi leader, and Jordan's King Hussein cut ties with Iraq in anti-Saddam Hussein speech Aug 24th. Meanwhile, Hassan is said to have left Iraq with billions in assets, and Iraq has released details of its biological weapons program to the UN.
€ Explosions in Sarajevo led to several dozen deaths on Aug 22nd and 23rd.
€ The leaders of Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Croatia agreed in principle Aug 24th to meet in Indonesia for peace talks.
€ UN Peacekeepers began to withdraw from Goradze Aug 25th.
€ Croatian President Franjo Tudjman called Aug 26th for expatriate Croats to return and populate the Krajina region, inflaming the Serbs who had previously lived on that land.
€ Microsoft introduced the new Windows-95 operating system with $300 million in fanfare Aug 24th, including a paid half-hour TV show hosted by Jay Leno, among MANY other things.
€ Colombian drug lord Rodriguez Orejula was sentenced to just one year in prison Aug 20th.
€ A fire at a Seoul, South Korea rehabilitation center killed 37 Aug 21st.
€ An Atlantic Southeast commuter planed crashed Aug 21st in Carrollton, GA, killing five.
€ A woman suicide bomber in Jerusalem managed to kill five Aug 21st, forcing a further three-day break in peace talks.
€ Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisted another suicide Aug 21st.
€ ABC apologized Aug 21st to Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds for a television report which stated that the companies had "spiked" their products with nicotine.
€ Upjohn and Pharmacia agreed to a $13 billion merger Aug 21st.
€ An obscure Algerian group claimed responsibility for the recent bombings in France Aug 21st.
€ Congressman Mel Reynolds (D-IL) was found guilty Aug 22nd of having sex with a campaign worker who was a minor; Beverly Heard who was 16 at the time of the incident did testify in the trial. Reynolds now faces a House Ethics investigation and mandatory jail time.
€ Former senator David Durenberger (R-MN) pled guilty to embezzling Congressional funds Aug 22nd.
€ Figures released Aug 23rd showed the highest SAT scores since 1974, with the verbal average up 5 to 428 and the math average up 3 to 482, though the test did go through a major re-formatting before this year.
€ A huge brush fire broke out on Long Island in the Hampton resort area Aug 24th, burning a stretch five miles long and over a mile wide; residents were not allowed to return to the area until Aug 26th.
€ Zaire stopped expelling refugees from Rwanda Aug 24th after the UN complained that the tens of thousands of Rwandans returning to their homeland were causing a major relief crisis. The deportations were described as "brutal" and "heartless", and many Rwandans had fled refugee camps to avoid being departed.
€ A British diplomat was kidnapped in Colombia Aug 26th.
€ Five people died when a seaplane crashed in Rhode Island Aug 26th.
€ Taiwan defeated the US in the Little League World Series Aug 26th, by the ten-run rule.
€ Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt died Aug 24th at the age of 96.
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