World briefs 02/06/03

U.S., France send Ivory Coast reinforcements

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- The United States sent a small military team to conflict-torn Ivory Coast on Wednesday, and France announced it was increasing its force to more than 3,000 troops, amid often violent protests against a Paris-brokered peace accord.

In the latest of more than two weeks of protests, 10,000 government supporters massed in front of the French Embassy to vent their outrage at a French-brokered peace plan they say gives too much to rebels who hold more than half the country.

The U.S. team of about 20 men arrived at Abidjan's international airport in a U.S. Air Force transport plane.

In Paris, an army spokesman said France was sending 450 soldiers this week to join more than 2,500 troops and 200 paramilitary police already in this former French colony.

Israeli troops kill five Palestinians in West Bank

JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops killed five Palestinians, one of them an elderly woman, and two Palestinians infiltrated an army base early Thursday in the West Bank and attacked soldiers.

The Israeli military operations came as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was conducting negotiations to form a new government on Wednesday, possibly a hawkish team that would crack down even harder on the Palestinians.

An Israeli helicopter firing a machine gun killed two Palestinians at the eastern edge of Gaza City early Thursday, across from an Israeli village, Palestinians said. Militants often set up rockets there to fire at the village, Nahal Oz, outside Gaza. Doctors said the two men, in their 20s, were working at a nearby home for the aged.

Nine jailed in Rwanda for killing rare gorillas KIGALI, Rwanda -- Nine people, including three park rangers, have been jailed and fined for killing two adult mountain gorillas and stealing a baby gorilla, an official said Wednesday.

The three park rangers, who were supposed to protect the endangered gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, were each sentenced to four years in jail and fined $6,000 for the May 2002 attack, said Claude Seruhungu, who manages the rangers at the park.

Four other men -- all from a town bordering the park in northeastern Rwanda -- were each sentenced to two years in jail and fined $3,000 for the killings and theft, Seruhungu said.

Mexican president says he'll help farmers

MEXICO CITY -- Softening his assertion that "there is no crisis" in the Mexican countryside, President Vicente Fox acknowledged the extreme poverty of thousands of farmers Wednesday and reiterated his promise to develop a national policy to help them.

Fox's comments, delivered during a speech to commemorate the 86th anniversary of the Mexican constitution, downplayed remarks from the day before, when Fox said: "The country is advancing and advancing well. There is no crisis as some have wanted to assert."

Those remarks Tuesday to a government-backed credit organization raised eyebrows in the news media and the hackles of thousands of farmers who have waged massive protests to demand re-negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Head of Marine Corps visits troops in Kuwait

IN THE KUWAITI DESERT -- Shouts of "Hoorah!" greeted the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps on Wednesday as he told some 1,300 Marines and sailors they were ready to fight if needed in a war against Iraq.

"There should be no doubt in your mind that you are ready if the president decides military action is required," said Gen. Michael Hagee.

"Send us forward!" shouted one of the men gathered for the general's pep talk.

"That's up to our president," Hagee responded.

At least 30,000 U.S. troops have arrived in Kuwait and tens of thousands more are expected before a war that Washington says will be launched soon unless Saddam Hussein proves Iraq has done away with all biological, chemical and nuclear weapons the Bush administration insists it still possesses.

-- From wire reports