Informed Sources

Arms Control in Somalia

Washington -- U.N. forces are debating what to do about the huge arms caches maintained by all the major clan leaders in Gaalkacyo, a city more than 300 miles north of Mogadishu. In the wake of General Mohammed Farrah Aidid's facing down the U.N. and the U.S., other clan heads are feeling more courageous about holding onto their weaponry, and the U.N. is considering seizing the supplies by force. Included in the caches are armed personnel carriers, artillery pieces, mortars and the type of antitank weapons that have been effective in shooting down U.S. Blackhawk helicopters.

The Secret Negotiations to Lift Iraqi Sanctions

Cairo -- Syrian President Hafez Assad has been refusing to negotiate the transfer of the Golan Heights from Israel to Syria until the U.N. lifts sanctions against Iraq. Saddam Hussein is Assad's sworn enemy, but Assad feels a growing isolation from his neighbors -- Iran, Turkey and Iraq -- and so is doing Iraq this favor. The Clinton Administration wants a Syrian-Israeli agreement on the Golan by the end of this year, and has initiated secret talks with Iraqi officials at the U.N. aimed at lifting the sanctions.

No President Solzhenitsyn

Washington -- Although 48% of the respondents to a recent poll in St. Petersburg said they would like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to be President of Russia (only 18% picked Boris Yeltsin), the writer's wife Natalya has told TIME that he has no plans to enter politics. Despite the turmoil in Russia last month, the couple still plans to return in May after 17 years of exile in Vermont. "The decision has been made," Natalya says.