Five die as Russian helicopter crashes in Antarctica
     MOSCOW - June 1, 1998 2:44 p.m. EDT - A Russian helicopter
 crashed in Antarctica on Monday, killing five people and
 seriously injuring four others, Itar-Tass news agency said.
     It said the Mi-8 helicopter, bound for the Russian Antarctic
 station of Novolazarevskaya, crashed onto the ice 15 minutes after
 it took off from the research vessel Akademik Fyodorov.
     The three crew members and two scientists died. Four other
 passengers suffered multiple injuries and were taken to a hospital
 on board the ship, the agency quoted the Russian meteorological
 office as saying.
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 Air France pilots' strike paralyzes transportation as World Cup
 approaches
     PARIS -- June 1, 1998 Web posted at: 10:51 a.m. EST -- Nine days
 before the start of the World Cup, pilots for the international soc-
 cer tournament's official airline have walked off their jobs. Air
 France officials at Paris' two main airports said the airline ex-
 pected to cancel 90 percent of its international flights and up to
 80 percent of its medium and short-haul flights for the coming week.
     Pilots at the state-run airline were striking against a plan to
 cut their salaries by 500 million francs (US$83.5 million) a year to
 help fund an expansion program.
     Passengers were stranded across the country, scrambling to find
 alternative means of transportation, although most received enough
 advance notice to make other plans before the midnight Sunday start
 of the strike.
     Those left waiting by the strike lined up at ticket counters try-
 ing to switch airlines, while railway stations reported that express
 trains heading out of Paris were full of passengers originally plan-
 ning to fly Air France domestically.
     Some 98 percent of the airline's 3,200 pilots were expected to
 strike, but Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon pledged the airline
 would do what it could to ease any problems.
     "Our goal is definitely to try to do whatever we can for the
 customers," he said. "So if we can find other aircraft or if other
 airlines are willing to help us by any means, we will do that and we
 are already trying to find some aircraft."
     The month-long World Cup soccer tournament begins June 10, and
 will be played at 10 cities across France. The strike -- which is
 scheduled to last through Thursday but could be extended -- would
 disrupt travel for the lucrative sporting event.
     "They use an international event to bother everyone," said
 Nicolas Minvelle, who was trying to leave on vacation to Senegal.
 "It's too bad. That's not the image of France."
     France's Transport Minister, Jean-Claude Gayssot, urged the two
 sides to return to the negotiating table.
     "The future of the company is at stake at a time when the eyes
 of the world are going to be turned on us," he said.
     Other airlines flying in and out of France are not being affected
 by the strike, but train workers have threatened to stop work later
 this week.
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
    Copter crash kills 10 Mexican soldiers fighting forest fires
     MEXICO CITY - June 1, 1998 11:14 p.m. EDT - Ten Mexicans who had
 been battling a plague of forest fires died on Monday after their
 army helicopter plummeted into a mountain range in the country's
 northeast, the Defense Ministry said.
     The worst drought in decades and the Nino weather pattern have
 fanned fires largely caused by slash-and-burn farmers clearing land
 before the rainy season.
     The United States has sent help, and the army has been called
 in to halt the destruction of virgin rain forest.
     "It is with great sorrow that we announce that this morning 10
 members of the military lost their lives as the result of an acci-
 dent of an Mi-8 helicopter belonging to the Mexican army," the
 ministry said in a statement. (Soviet made helicopter.)
     It said the crash occurred in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain
 range in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas but its cause had yet
 to be determined.
     President Ernesto Zedillo said earlier he feared for the lives
 of those on the aircraft.
     Monday's deaths bring to more than 60 the number of people killed
 fighting some 12,600 fires that have scorched 950,000 acres (380,000
 hectares) so far this year.
     On Sunday alone, the Environment Ministry (Semarnap) tallied 168
 fires, affecting 42,890 acres (17,365 hectares). Eighty fires were
 classified as under control and 27 as large, priority ones.
     Satellite images from a U.S. agency showed devastating blazes in
 the east of the southern state of Oaxaca, whose Chimalapas forest is
 one of Mexico's most biologically diverse.
     Less than 5 percent of the country's original rain forests
 remains. Chimalapas is home to orchids found nowhere else and rare
 birds like the horned wuan and the colorfully plumed quetzal.
     Smoke from the blazes across the country has blanketed Mexico
 and the southern United States, prompting smog alerts in several
 Mexican cities and health alerts in Texas.
 By MARTIN ROBERTS, Reuters
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