Word: maseru
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sooner had cheering crowds welcomed Pope John Paul II to tiny Lesotho (pop. 1.6 million) last week than the cool night air erupted in explosions and flashes of light. But these were not fireworks welcoming the Pontiff. Blocks from the route the Pope's motorcade had taken through Maseru, the capital, South African commandos were storming a hijacked bus on which a band of antigovernment Lesotho guerrillas had been holding 71 Catholic pilgrims for 29 hours. When the gunfire ended, three of the four rebels lay dead. So did a 14-year-old girl, one of 31 children on board...
...tragedy came amid a week of turmoil -- and a few gestures of amity -- in strife-prone southern Africa, a region of guerrilla conflicts and racial hostilities. John Paul had arrived in Lesotho via a circuitous route. Bad weather forced his chartered Air Zimbabwe jet to veer from Maseru and land at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg. The unscheduled stop was a public relations windfall for South Africa, which had been pointedly excluded from the Pope's five-nation tour. While John Paul did not kiss the ground at the airport, as is his custom on first visiting a country...
...MASERU, Lesotho--Guerrillas hijacked a bus yesterday carrying 60 nuns, schoolgirls and other people traveling to see Pope John Paul II, who was expected in this tiny mountain kingdom, diplomats and sources said...
...said the bus was carrying eight nuns, seven teen-age schoolgirls, six teachers and other pilgrims who had been picked up on the way to Maseru, the capital...
Police and soldiers put up roadblocks on streets leading to the British Embassy, which is next to police headquarters on a hill in Maseru...