January 10, 1997 – BBC World Service News – BBC –
January 10, 1997 – Opposition protests in Sofia, Bulgaria took another violent turn as police clashed with protestors outside the Parliament. Reports that Police waited until 2 in the morning when the protestors were exhausted enough and cold enough to break up a stalemate that resulted in the release of members of parliament prevented from leaving the building for several days. It was the worst violence in the Bulgarian capitol since the protests at the fall of Communism in 1990. The protests against the governing Socialist Party created a constitutional crisis. Thousands of opposition demonstrators threw stones and smashed windows at the Parliament building in Sofia today as they demanded early elections and an end to Socialist rule in Bulgaria. The state-run BTA news agency reported a group of demonstrators managed to break through the police cordon and enter the building. The demonstrators set fire to one room and police fired tear gas to try to evict them. An emergency session was underway in Parliament to discuss the situation on the streets.
Meanwhile – the situation at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru was continuing. A surprise ambush and seizure of the Japanese ambassador’s residency was the highest profile operation of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in its 15-year history. The attack propelled Peru in general, and the MRTA in particular, into the world spotlight for the duration of the crisis. Guests reported that the guerrillas blasted a hole in the garden wall of the ambassador’s residence at around 8:20 pm the night of 17 December.
In search for a peaceful solution, Fujimori appointed a team to hold talks with the MRTA, including the Canadian ambassador Anthony Vincent, who had briefly been a hostage, Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani, and a Red Cross official. Fujimori even talked with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, raising media speculation that a deal was being worked out to let the MRTA guerrillas go to Cuba as political exiles.
And doctors treating Russian President Boris Yeltsin for Pneumonia said he should have been admitted to the hospital sooner but he resisted because he had only been back at the Kremlin for two weeks. The Russian leader returned to work after spending nearly 6 months away for treatment of a heart condition. He was already facing calls to step aside in favor of a younger, more physically fit leader.
And that’s just a bit of what was going on in the world this January 10th in 1997 as presented by The BBC World Service.
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