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A U.S. military policeman, Martin John Begosh of Rockville, Md., became the first American injured in the Bosnia peace mission when he drove over a land mine. But the mission is being delayed by a more powerful adversary than mines: Mother Nature. Efforts to build a pontoon bridge across the Sava River, so that the bulk of the U.S. deployment could proceed from Croatia into Bosnia, were swamped by the swollen river's floodwaters, which rose more than 5 ft. in 24 hours, sweeping away materiel, stranding trucks and soaking G.I.s.
TALK ABOUT BUILDING PEACE
Moving swiftly to establish authority, Major General William Nash, commander of the American forces in Bosnia, gathered leaders of the region's three warring factions to talk peace. The general met with a Bosnian Serb, a Bosnian Croat and a Bosnian army leader, of whom he said, "All of them focused on peace and pledged their determination to succeed with respect to the peace accord." Bosnian Serbs in Sarajevo, meanwhile, were rebuffed by Admiral Leighton Smith, overall commander of the nato-led force, when they sought to delay the reunification of the Bosnian capital; the peace treaty demands that areas controlled by Bosnian Serbs be turned over to the Bosnian government.
U.S. DROPS SERBIA SANCTIONS
President Clinton suspended the sanctions imposed three years ago against Serbia and Montenegro, declaring they had done their job in forcing the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table. Clinton also said he had directed Secretary of State Warren Christopher to end the arms embargo against all three of Bosnia's warring parties.
ISLAMISTS SPARK CRISIS
Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller resigned, and the country's two secular, pro-Western center-right parties scrambled to form an unlikely coalition, after the Islamic-oriented Welfare Party won Turkey's parliamentary elections with 21% of the vote. Although Ciller's True Path Party and the Motherland Party have long been bitter foes, the victory by the Islamists was enough to spur the former enemies to try to cooperate in forming a government. All other major parties have rejected the idea of creating a coalition with Welfare.
POPE MISSES CHRISTMAS MASS
Nausea and fever from an apparent flu forced Pope John Paul II to miss the Christmas Day Mass at St. Peter's Basilica and cut short the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas message. Working on just three hours' sleep after his Christmas Eve midnight Mass, the 75-year-old Pontiff told the crowd in St. Peter's Square, "Even the Pope has his weaknesses. Yet I try to resist."
NORTH KOREA FAMINE FEARED
The United Nations warned that a severe food shortage in North Korea this winter endangers more than 10% of the country's 23 million people, based on firsthand observations made by U.N. workers in December. Pyongyang's strict system of food rationing has been further tightened to cope with an expected shortfall of more than 3.5 million tons of grain.
YELTSIN ENDS "SOJOURN"