Kuwait Trade

Kuwait Rejoining Ranks of Oil Exporters: Kuwait said it would start exporting crude oil again this weekend, almost a year to the day after Iraq's Aug. 2 invasion choked off production. Senior officials at Kuwait Petroleum Corp. reported that the emirate had chartered a number of tankers to load crude at the al-Ahmadi terminal. The officials refused to give details of the shipments but said an announcement was likely this weekend.

Kuwait Rejoining Ranks of Oil Exporters: Kuwait said it would start exporting crude oil again this weekend, almost a year to the day after Iraq's Aug. 2 invasion choked off production. Senior officials at Kuwait Petroleum Corp. reported that the emirate had chartered a number of tankers to load crude at the al-Ahmadi terminal. The officials refused to give details of the shipments but said an announcement was likely this weekend.

The U.N. trade embargo is depriving Iraqi civilians, including children, of critically needed medical supplies, a U.S. doctor who recently toured the region said Monday. "We found that sanctions are working, and working brutally, right now," Dr. Bernard Lown of the Harvard University School of Public Health said in an interview on NBC-TV's "Today" program.

A Chicago-based group of mostly pacifists faces fines totaling $163,000 for delivering medical supplies, toys and other goods to Iraq, but its defiant leaders said Wednesday that their violations of a U.N. trade embargo will continue. Kathy Kelly, who returned Tuesday night from Baghdad, alleged that the sanctions are designed to keep Iraqi oil off world markets so Saudi Arabia and Kuwait can sell more and use the revenue "to buy our cash crop: weapons."

Foreign Trade Minister Bela Kadar returned to Hungary in a nervous fluster from his most recent U.S. visit. American banks and investors, he informed his worried countrymen, seem to be writing off Eastern Europe as a bad risk. In neighboring Czechoslovakia, a much-touted visit by President Bush lifted spirits only fleetingly on the first anniversary of the "Velvet Revolution." Deflated crowds dispersed in silence after learning there was little money inside the Americans' birthday card.

U.S. authorities are probing allegations that cigarette makers R.J. Reynolds and Japan Tobacco Inc. have violated trade sanctions against Iraq by channeling billions of dollars worth of cigarettes into the country through intermediaries, sources have told The Times. The allegations of illegal shipments to Iraq first surfaced publicly in a civil lawsuit by the European Union, which accused Reynolds, Japan Tobacco and Philip Morris Cos.

Four hundred American business executives landed here like an in vading army last week, along with three plane loads of merchandise--from trinkets to cake mix to high technology. They were ready to battle for the $20 billion in business to rebuild and resupply Kuwait. The disappointed retreated to the airport Monday morning. But under the bluest skies to grace this oil-smeared emirate in a month, the victors were digging in to stay.

In a historic vote, the U.N. Security Council on Thursday authorized war to oust Iraq from Kuwait. It was only the second time since the United Nations was founded in 1945 that members of the world body voted to use military force. But unlike measures adopted at the start of the Korean War recommending the immediate commitment of troops, Thursday's resolution gives Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at least until Jan. 15 to withdraw his forces from Kuwait.