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GADDAFI EXPELS PALESTINIANS
In yet another of the flamboyant and contradictory gestures that have marked his 26-year rule, Muammar Gaddafi began expelling Libya's 30,000 Palestinians to protest the Israeli-P.L.O. accord, which he called "treason, lies and a sham." Gaddafi's main criticism: the agreement makes no provision for the Palestinians expelled in 1948 from what is now Israel. As many as 1,000 of Libya's Palestinians are stranded at the frontier with Egypt, which refuses to allow them to enter because they have no travel documents. Gaddafi said he would create a permanent refugee camp for Palestinians on the border if necessary, and even offered to join them, noting, "I can bring my own tent."
YELTSIN HEIR APPARENT BOWS OUT
Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin, widely seen as the successor to President Boris Yeltsin, said he was not planning to run for President in next June's elections. Yeltsin, who is recovering from a heart attack and remains highly unpopular with voters, has not announced his candidacy, but insiders believe he will run.
CLINTON EASES OPEN CUBAN DOOR
President Clinton loosened restrictions on Americans' interaction with Cuba by signing an order that permits, among other things, travel to Cuba by academics, clergy and Cuban Americans and allows U.S. news organizations to open bureaus in Cuba--and vice versa.
THE ARTS & MEDIA
IRISH POET WINS THE NOBEL
Seamus Heaney, 56, the Irish poet, teacher and essayist, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A Catholic who grew up on a farm near Belfast, Heaney was praised for his "analysis of violence in Northern Ireland," but his intense, lyrical verse transcends politics.
--By Melissa August, Lina Lofaro, Alice Park, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart