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International News
April
1 to 10,2000
March 2000
|
Ministers
say Palestinian state to be set up, settlers protest
April
17, 2000
JERUSALEM,
APR 16 (AP) - Two Cabinet ministers said Sunday that peace negotiations
with the Palestinians will result in a Palestinian state,
but no specific proposals have been made about how to divide the
West Bank.
Reacting
to media reports that Israel is offering the Palestinians
up to 80 percent of the West Bank, Jewish settlers demanded
that Prime Minister Ehud Barak refrain from signing any agreements
until they have been approved in a referendum.
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more....
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Slovenia:
New alliance nominates candidate for a new PM
April
17, 2000
LJUBLJANA,
APR 16 (AP) - A newly formed political alliance of the
People's Party and the Christian Democrats have nominated Andrej Bajuk
as their candidate for the position of prime minister, a party statement
said Sunday.
The
new alliance is currently the strongest force in parliament.
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more....
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Japanese
bomb squad defuses World War II explosive
April
17, 2000
TOKYO,
APR 16 (AP) - Japanese disposal experts on Sunday defused an unexploded
bomb believed to have been dropped by U.S. forces during World
War II, a Tokyo city official said.
The
500-pound (230-kilogram) bomb was unearthed in March at a construction
site along the Sumida River in northeastern Tokyo, said spokeswoman
Hiromi Tojima.
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more....
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Murdoch
is attacked by prostate cancer
April
17, 2000
LOS
ANGELES, APR 16 (AP) - Media baron Rupert Murdoch has prostate cancer
and will receive several weeks of radiation
treatment, his company announced
Saturday.
Murdoch,
chairman of News Corp., learned last week after undergoing
routine medical tests in Los Angeles that he had "low-grade"
prostate cancer, said News Corp. spokesman Howard Rubenstein.
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more....
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South
Korea reports another outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease
April
17, 2000
SEOUL,
APR 16 (AP) - Hundreds of more cattle were slaughtered
in South Korea after another outbreak of the foot-and-mouth
disease was discovered, quarantine officials said Sunday.
One
cattle on a farm in Hongsong, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of
Seoul, was found to have the deadly animal disease, the National Veterinary
Quarantine Service said.
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more....
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German
conservatives assail government's nuclear plans
April
17, 2000
BERLIN,
APR 16 (AP) - Seeking to move beyond a campaign financing scandal,
Germany's conservatives broadened their attack on the government
Sunday and took aim at its plans to phase out nuclear power.
Angela
Merkel, the newly elected head of the main opposition Christian
Democrats, said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag that the
government's strategy was "wrong," partly because it ignored
concerns by the opposition and Germany's states.
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more....
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Albright
Central Asian tour continues in Kyrgyzstan
April
17, 2000
BISHKEK,
APR 16 (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
on Sunday arrived in Kyrgyzstan on a visit intended to urge the
former Soviet republic to improve its human rights standards and help
it cope with external security threats.
Kyrgyzstan,
a poor mountainous country of 4 million people, had been
considered the most democratic country to emerge from former Soviet
Central Asia. But President Askar Akayev, who has led the country
since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, has increasingly cracked
down on dissent in recent months.
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more....
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Militants
gun down six policemen in Kashmir
April
17, 2000
JAMMU,
APR 16 (AP) - Armed separatists on a mountain peak shot dead
six policemen preparing to raid a village in Jammu-Kashmir, officials
said Sunday.
The
militants ambushed the policemen on Saturday night in Lassana,
a village in Poonch district, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north
of the state's summer capital, Jammu.
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more....
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Troops
kill 13 Tamil rebels in clashes
April
17, 2000
COLOMBO,
APR 16 (AP) - Government troops shot dead 13 Tamil rebels
during clashes in the north, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.
The
soldiers killed 12 guerrillas Saturday in Kovilkadu in the northern
Jaffna peninsula, the ministry said in a statement. Jaffna is
300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Colombo.
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more....
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Malaysia
wonders where democracy went wrong
April
17, 2000
KUALA
LUMPUR, APR 16 (AP) - The police sirens were shrieking for
hours as security forces beat, handcuffed and dragged supporters of
jailed Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim across the capital's Independence
Square.
The
"Black 14th" had been intended as a peaceful rally to mark the
first anniversary of Anwar's conviction on Saturday. It turned into
a melee of clashes between the demonstrators and police.
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more....
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Chinese president
meets with Yasser Arafat
April
16, 2000
BETHLEHEM,
APR 15 (AP) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the
Palestinian lands Saturday, amid hopes by Palestinians that China will seek
a say in the U.S.-mediated talks on the terms of their independence.
Jiang's
limousine drove into the courtyard of Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's presidential palace in the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem,
Jesus' traditional birthplace.
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more....
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China's army warns
of war following Taiwan official's remarks
April
16, 2000
BEIJING,
APR 15 (AP) - China's military, adding its weight to a tide of official
outrage targeting Taiwan's vice president-elect, warned on Saturday that the
"abyss of war" awaits the island if it declares independence.
The
commentary in the Liberation Army Daily topped a week of vitriolic
rhetoric aimed at Annette Lu by China's state-run media, which labeled her
"scum of the nation," a lunatic and traitor for reportedly telling
Hong Kong media that Taiwanese are distant relatives or neighbors of the
mainland Chinese, rather than close family.
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more....
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Third World summit
ends with demand rich nations share wealth and power
April
16, 2000
HAVANA,
APR 15 (AP) - The leaders of the world's poor nations are uniting to
demand a greater say in the global economic system, insisting on greater aid
and trade and a role in financial decisions that often shake their
countries.
"From
now on we will play our part in shaping this (world) order into
one that is just, fair and mutually beneficial to all sides,"
said
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, chairman of the South Summit that
closed late Friday night.
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more....
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Pulitzer
prize: Short stories are seeing a renaissance
April
16, 2000
NEW
YORK, APR 15 (AP) - When Jhumpa Lahiri discovered this week
that her first book, a collection of short stories, had won a Pulitzer
Prize, she didn't believe it.
After
all, her work, "Interpreter of Maladies," had been turned down
by one literary agent who told her, "Call me back when you've got a
novel." Then the book was accepted by a second agent only after a stern
warning that she shouldn't expect much, since short story collections
usually don't sell.
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more....
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Intelligence files
from Argentina's military era found in vault
April
16, 2000
BUENOS
AIRES, APR 15 (AP) - Rare intelligence files dating
to the past military dictatorship have been found in a musty
bank
vault, shedding new light on the regime's crackdown on leftist opponents.
The
cache of yellowing papers was found by Interior Ministry workers
cleaning the vault of a now-defunct state development bank in Buenos Aires,
La Nacion newspaper reported Friday. The ministry has offices there.
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more....
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Clinton
says his South Asia trip ignited fatal violence
April
16, 2000
ATLANTA,
APR 15 (AP) - President Clinton said Friday his recent trip
to South Asia was the impetus for a massacre of "40 perfectly innocent
people" in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
"I'm
sure they were murdered because I was there," Clinton said during
a fund-raising luncheon for Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney.
"Those people lost their lives because I went to India and to
Pakistan."
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more....
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Bush breaks dlrs 80
million mark
April
16, 2000
WASHINGTON,
APR 15 (AP) - George W. Bush has broken the dlrs
80 million mark in his Republican presidential campaign, adding to his own
fund-raising record while replenishing his war chest after an expensive
primary effort.
The
campaign raised around dlrs 7 million between March 1 and April
6, spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday, three-quarters of the goal of dlrs
10 million by the end of April. Bush's total for the campaign is now more
than dlrs 81 million.
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more....
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Teen
gives birth to baby after long abortion fight in Mexico
April
16, 2000
MEXICALI,
Mexico, APR 15 (AP) - A teen-age girl pressured by state and religious
officials to drop a request for a legal abortion after she was raped has
given birth to a little boy.
Paulina,
a 14-year-old from the state of Baja California, delivered
a 3 kilo, 500-gram (7-pound, 12-ounce) baby by Caesarean
section
on Thursday night.
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more....
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Sixty percent of
Japanese favor revising constitution
April
16, 2000
TOKYO,
APR 15 (AP) - A record 60 percent of Japanese support the long-taboo
idea of revising the nation's U.S.-written constitution, according to a
newspaper poll released Saturday.
The
daily Yomiuri's survey of 1,935 citizens nationwide broke the record
of 53 percent set last year.
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more....
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Troops kill 15
Tamil rebels
April
15, 2000
COLOMBO,
APR 14 (UNB/AP) - Government troops killed 18 Tamil Tiger rebels in northern
Sri Lanka as the guerrillas in counter attacks killed one soldier and
wounded 54, the defense ministry said Friday.
The
rebels exploded a land mine Friday near the northern military controlled
town of Vavuniya wounding 15 soldiers, who were returning from a search
operation, a ministry statement said.
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Proposals
of South Summit of developing nations
April
15, 2000
UNDATED,
APR 14 (UNB/AP) - The 133-nation Group of 77 developing countries is
proposing sweeping changes to help poor countries ease poverty and join the
global technology revolution.
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Lower house approves bill to cut jobless insurance
April
15, 2000
TOKYO,
APR 14 (UNB/AP) - Japan's lower house of Parliament approved
a bill Friday meant to slash unemployment benefits despite growing
joblessness blamed on the prolonged economic slump.
Benefits
would be cut by more than 20 percent under the bill, and premiums
would be raised.
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more....
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Foreign
journalists, unionists detained at Belgrade
April
15, 2000
BELGRADE,
APR 14 (UNB/AP) - A group of foreign journalists and representatives
from a Spanish trade union remained detained Friday at
Belgrade's international airport after authorities denied them entrance
into the country, the independent Beta news agency
reported.
The
journalists - including four Japanese, one Canadian and one German
reporter - landed Thursday at the capital's Surcin airport, hoping
to cover a Serbian opposition rally scheduled for Friday afternoon
in Belgrade.
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more....
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Anwar
supporters vow to march
April
15, 2000
KUALA
LUMPUR, APR 14 (UNB/AP) - Authorities began arresting opposition
leaders before dawn Friday and riot police, some toting machine
guns, hit the streets in an apparent attempt to prevent a rally
in support of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim.
At
least three opposition leaders were arrested and police said they
had orders to arrest another four, described as the main organizers
of a rally on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of
Anwar's
conviction on charges of abuse of power.
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more....
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Talks
between uneasy SA neighbors saves train service
April
15, 2000
WAGAH,
Pakistan, APR 14 (UNB/AP) - After six hours of talks, South Asia's uneasy
neighbors, Pakistan and India, reached an agreement on Friday that
will retain the only rail service between the two countries, said
Mohammed Aurangzeb, chairman of Pakistan Railway.
The
talks marked the first significant contact between the two countries
since last October when the military seized power in Pakistan
in a bloodless coup throwing out the civilian government of
Nawaz
Sharif.
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Pakistan
frees Indian soldier caught spying after 26 years
April
15, 2000
LAHORE,
APR 14 (UNB/AP) - After spending 26 years in prison in Pakistan
on spying charges, an Indian soldier, Roop Lal, returned home
to India Friday, Pakistani officials said.
"This
is my dream, to go home to see my daughter," Lal told reporters
at the Lahore International Airport before boarding a commercial
airliner to the Indian capital of New Delh.
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more....
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Philippine
Muslim extremists demand release of Arab terrorists
April
15, 2000
ZAMBOANGA,
Philippines, APR 14 (UNB/AP) - Muslim extremist rebels
are demanding the release of Arab terrorists jailed in the United States
before they will free 29 hostages in the southern Philippines, a rebel
spokesman said Friday.
The
demand by the Abu Sayyaf group was contained in a letter addressed
to President Joseph Estrada presented by the rebels to movie
actor Robin Padilla, who has been negotiating for the release of
the hostages being held in Basilan provin
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more....
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U.S.-Russian negotiators ready to kick off START
III
April
15, 2000
GENEVA,
APR 14 (UNB/AP) - Top U.S. arms negotiators are ready to kick
off a new round of talks for strategic arms cuts when they meet Russian
counterparts here next week, officials said Friday.
Teams
from both countries have already met at least five times since
last summer to lay the groundwork for START III, but Moscow's long-delayed
ratification of START II today clears the way for a new beginning,
said U.S. officials.
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French
journalist expelled from Vietnam for working without proper visa
April
15, 2000
HANOI,
Vietnam, APR 14 (UNB/AP) - A reporter for a French magazine, who entered
Vietnam without a
journalist visa, has been as expelled from the country, a French
Embassy official said Friday.
Evelyne
Pasquier of the Paris magazine L'Express was seeking to interview political
dissidents when she was detained Thursday in the southern commercial capital
of Ho Chi Minh City, according to the embassy official who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
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more....
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Russian
forces claim capture of top Chechen commander
April
15, 2000
GROZNY,
APR 14 (UNB/AP) - Russian commandos captured the
Chechen president's military chief of staff in a special operation and
brought him to Moscow for questioning, officials said Friday.
Apti
Batalov, a brigadier general in the rebel army and Chechen President
Aslan Maskhadov's chief of staff, was seized by a special squad
of Federal Security Service troops in the town of Shali on Thursday,
an agency spokesman said.
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Survivors
say no life vests available on boat that capsized, killing at
least 87
April
15, 2000
JOLO,
Philippines, APR 14 (UNB/AP) - No life vests were available for scores of
illegal passengers on an overloaded Philippine boat that capsized, killing
at least 87 people, survivors said Friday.
Dozens
of other passengers remained missing more than a day after the wooden-hulled
Annahada capsized shortly after leaving Jolo, the capital of remote Sulu
province, en route to Malaysia's Sabah state.
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more....
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IMF, World Bank
plan reforms
April
14, 2000
WASHINGTON,
APR 13 (AP) - The International Monetary Fund and World Bank say
they are responding to growing calls for reform demanded by their member
governments, aid agencies, churches and activists who oppose economic
globalization.
The
IMF and the bank, which lend billions of dollars each year to poor
and middle income nations, have come under increasing pressure in recent
months to pay more attention to the effects of their policies.
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more....
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South Koreans vote
in parliamentary elections
April
14, 2000
SEOUL,
APR 13 (AP) - South Koreans voted Thursday for a new
Parliament in an election that could affect the two trademark policies of
President Kim Dae-jung: economic reforms and engagement with North Korea.
In
balmy spring weather, voters stood in long lines at polling stations
in Seoul and surrounding areas. Radio and television stations repeatedly
broadcast instructions urging people to vote.
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more....
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Peru's
presidential race will require a second round
April
14, 2000
LIMA,
APR 13 (AP) - Official results from Sunday's election show President
Alberto Fujimori fell just shy of the majority needed to avoid a runoff for
an unprecedented third term, setting the stage for a showdown with
international economist Alejandro Toledo.
Thousands
of Toledo's followers massed in the Plaza de San Martin in
downtown Lima broke into wild cheers when they heard the news. Toledo came
out onto the balcony of a hotel overlooking the square, waving a red and
white Peruvian flag, which sent the crowd into even
greater
ecstasy.
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more....
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Singaporean women
making professional inroads
April
14, 2000
SINGAPORE,
APR 13 (AP) - The number of Singaporean women working in traditionally
male-dominated professions is increasing, the government said in a study
released Thursday.
Between
1991 and 1999 the female share of these occupations rose to
15 percent from 11 percent, or from 42,100 to 85,600, the Ministry of
Manpower said in its Occupation Segregation study.
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more....
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Cuba-Summit:
World's have-nots complain about the haves
April
14, 2000
HAVANA,
APR 13 (UNB/AP) - A procession of the world's poorest nations accused rich
countries of imposing heartless or misguided policies that have kept their
nations impoverished and technologically backward.
Cuban
President Fidel Castro opened the three-day summit Wednesday
with the fiercest attack, accusing the capitalist system of regularly
causing deaths on the scale of World War II by ignoring the needs of the
poor.
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more....
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Havana summit:
leaders of poor countries call for sweeping changes
April
13, 2000
HAVANA,
APR 12 (AP) - Complaining they have been left behind by the global
technology revolution, leaders of the world's poor nations begin a summit
Wednesday at which they plan to push for more aid, fewer debts and a greater
role in international decision-making.
About
40 heads of state or government - and delegations from 80 other
nations - are attending the first summit in the 34-year history of the Group
of 77, which has grown since its founding to
133
members.
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more....
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Protesters gather
for World Bank meetings
April
13, 2000
WASHINGTON,
APR 12 (AP) - Protesters with grievances against global capitalism
are turning their attacks on one of the top priorities of the Clinton
administration, granting China permanent normal trade relations.
The
AFL-CIO labor federation, which is leading the charge against the
China legislation, was hoping to attract 10,000 demonstrators to the U.S.
Capitol Wednesday for a rally aimed at showing labor's strong opposition to
the measure.
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more....
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Russia will stay
involved in International Space Station
April
13, 2000
MOSCOW,
APR 12 (AP) - On the 39th anniversary of the Soviet Union's
launching the first man into space, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday
that Russia will keep up its commitment to the long-delayed International
Space Station.
Putin,
meeting cosmonauts and space officials on the day set aside
to honor their profession, said Russia will keep its international
commitments but that "national production has to be
our
priority."
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Sri
Lankan president seeks further medical treatment for blind eye
April
13, 2000
COLOMBO,
APR 12 (AP) - President Chandrika Kumaratunga has left
for the United States and Britain to seek further medical treatment for her
right eye, blinded in a suicide bomber attack in December, a government
official said Wednesday.
Kumaratunga
left the island late Tuesday, said the official, speaking
on the condition of anonymity. He did not answer when asked whether
Kumaratunga would seek medical care in both countries and did not explain
what treatment she was seeking.
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Japanese legislator
begins maternity leave
April
13, 2000
TOKYO,
APR 12 (AP) - Member of Parliament Seiko Hashimoto on Wednesday became
the first Japanese legislator to take maternity leave after giving birth to
a baby girl.
The
252-member upper house of Parliament voted overwhelmingly last
month to include childbirth in the list of acceptable reasons for missing
legislative sessions after Hashimoto, 35, launched a campaign for the change
last fall.
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more....
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White
House: Clinton would not pardon himself
April
13, 2000
WASHINGTON,
APR 12 (AP) - President Bill Clinton would not pardon himself to
avoid prosecution in the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations, his
spokesman said.
White
House press secretary Joe Lockhart was asked Tuesday whether
Clinton might pardon himself before he leaves office on January 20.
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more....
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Latvia's
prime minister resigns
April
13, 2000
RIGA,
Latvia, APR 12 (AP) - Prime Minister Andris Skele resigned Wednesday
after two of the three parties in the ruling coalition withdrew their
support of him.
The
centrist Latvia's Way party defected Wednesday, as did the right-wing
Fatherland and Freedom party the night before. Both parties said they would
like to recreate a coalition government but with a different prime minister.
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Leaders
of poor nations arrive in Havana for major summit
April
12, 2000
HAVANA,
APR 11 (AP) - Seeking a united voice in facing rich nations,
dozens of leaders from the
world's developing countries were gathering
in Cuba to call for a greater share of the world's power and
wealth.
|
|
It
is the first time that the 133-nation "Group of 77," founded
in 1964, is holding a summit
at the level of heads of state. Until now,
the organization has been a bloc within the United Nations. Working
meetings of lower-level officials began Monday. Talks by heads
of state were to take place Wednesday and Thursday.
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more....
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Japan
praises environment ministers talks for global warming
April
12, 2000
TOKYO,
APR 11 (AP) - Environment ministers from top industrialized countries
have made progress towards the ratification of a 1997 global warming pact,
despite the failure to set a deadline, a Japanese official said Tuesday.
Environmental
officials from the G-8 nations met over the weekend in western Japan,
issuing a communique promising to ratify the Kyoto protocol "as soon as
possible."
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more....
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AIDS
to slash South Africa's economic growth, reports find
April
12, 2000
JOHANNESBURG,
APR 11 (AP) - The AIDS crisis will cut South Africa's
economic growth, increase inflation and exacerbate the country's shortage of
highly skilled labor, according to newspaper reports Tuesday.
A
new report from ING Barings concluded that the epidemic will cut South
Africa's annual growth rate by .3 to .4 percentage points over the next 15
years, the Business Day daily reported.
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more....
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UNESCO
sponsors world education conference in Senegal in late April
April
12, 2000
PARIS,
APR 11 (AP) - A UNESCO-sponsored summit later this month on worldwide
education will look at ways to improve learning amid debilitating crises
such as widespread AIDS in Africa and gender discrimination, the group's
director said Tuesday.
The
World Education Forum, to be held in the Senegalese capital of Dakar from
April 26 to 28, is expected to draw leaders including U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan and the presidents of Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda.
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Judge
rules against controversial historian David Irving
April
12, 2000
LONDON,
APR 11 (AP) - Historian David Irving, who has outraged survivors of
Nazi death camps by challenging the scope of the Holocaust, on Tuesday lost
the libel suit he launched to save his academic reputation.
The
verdict, delivered at the start of a lengthy judgment was greeted
in near-silence in the High Court, packed with Holocaust survivors and
others who have closely followed the no-jury trial.
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more....
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Interim
government session begins, Serbs send observer
April
12, 2000
PRISTINA,
Yugoslavia, APR 11 (AP) - Ending a more than four-month boycott,
moderate Kosovo Serbs sent a representative on Tuesday to a session of the
province's interim government in a sign that they are ready to renew
cooperation with rival ethnic Albanians.
The
U.N.-supervised government meeting was attended by Bernard Kouchner,
the U.N. administrator of Kosovo, as well as ethnic Albanian leaders Ibrahim
Rugova and Hashim Thaci. Observing on behalf of Kosovo's moderate Serbs was
Rada Trajkovic. None of them spoke to reporters outside the meeting.
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more....
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Chechen
rebels stage hit-and-run attacks on Russian positions
April
12, 2000
NAZRAN,
Russia, APR 11 (AP) - Chechen rebels taking advantage of a lull in the
fighting are staging hit-and-run attacks on Russian positions in the
southern mountains of Chechnya, the military said Tuesday.
Despite
the comparative calm, Russian positions in the Nozhai-Yurt,
Vedeno and Shatoi districts came under attack on Monday night, the military
command press service said.
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Cycle
of famine and death set to continue in Ethiopia
April
12, 2000
GODE,
Ethiopia, APR 11 (AP) - Sakorey Faday and Adan Mohammed are young women
from two different African countries, but they share experiences as similar
as they are tragic.
Adan
spent 10 days walking 100 kilometers (60 miles) with her three children to a
feeding center in Gode, 580 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of the
Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The trek proved too much for her 4-year-old
daughter and 1-year-old son. Both died along the way.
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Gore,
Bush court Ohio voters
April
12, 2000
VANDALIA,
APR 11 (AP) - Al Gore said that Elian Gonzalez's relatives
should be allowed to work out
for themselves who should have custody of
the 6-year-old Cuban boy.
"With
tensions as high as high as they are and with both sides trying
to figure out a way to come to a resolution, I think that we need
to encourage the talks between the family members themselves. That's
the ideal solution," the vice president told about 250 people
at a town meeting Monday.
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North
and South Korea to hold first summit meeting
April
11, 2000
SEOUL,
APR 10 (AP) - The leaders of North Korea and South Korea
will hold a summit meeting in June in the biggest step toward
a lasting peace on the
tense Korean peninsula, the two countries announced
Monday.
In
Seoul, a South Korean minister said President Kim Dae-jung
will travel to North
Korea for a "historic meeting" with his counterpart,
Kim Jong Il.
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Greece
elections: socialists win third term
April
11, 2000
ATHENS,
APR 10 (AP) - Greece's governing Socialist may have won the
most closely fought parliamentary elections in recent memory,
but they failed to
emerge victorious in their quest for political supremacy.
Premier
Costas Simitis barely managed to shut out the conservative
New Democracy party, scraping into the 300-member parliament
with less than 1 percent of the vote for a third consecutive
four-year term. The Socialists have already governed for
16 of the past 19
years.
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Nationalists
agree to lend talent to new Taiwanese president
April
11, 2000
TAIPEI,
APR 10 (AP) - The Nationalists will allow one of their most popular
members to cross party lines and serve as premier for Taiwan's newly
elected president, a party spokesman said Monday.
The
decision to let Defense Minister Tang Fei head the Cabinet
ends two weeks of
debate within the party about whether it should lend
talent to the new leader, who trounced the Nationalist candidate
in elections last month.
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German
conservatives to name new leader
April
11, 2000
ESSEN,
Germany, APR 10 (AP) - Clawing back from a slush fund scandal,
Germany's opposition
conservatives anoint a new leader Monday who has
pledged to revive the party after the demise of former Chancellor
Helmut Kohl and pump up its fighting spirit.
Delegates
opening a two-day convention of the Christian Democrats are
due to elect Angela Merkel, 45, as the first woman to head a
modern German party -
and the first native of former communist East Germany
to lead one of the old West German parties.
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more....
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Big
animals to dominate debate at endangered species conference in Kenya
April
11, 2000
NAIROBI,
APR 10 (AP) - Big animals like elephants and whales will
probably steal the
limelight from smaller animals and plants during 10
days of discussions on endangered species at a Nairobi conference,
the head of the U.N. body that manages an agreement to protect
them said Sunday.
"Our
discussions on elephants, whales and sea turtles, I am sure,
at times are going to be difficult and heated, sometimes even
emotional," Willem
Wijnstekers, Secretary General of the U.N. Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna
and flora, said at the opening of CITES' 11th conference.
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War
orphans return to Vietnam to trace steps from past
April
11, 2000
HO
CHI MINH CITY, APR 10 (AP) - Timothy Hoye carries the photo
album everywhere. It
catalogues the important moments in his life: his
arrival in the United States, birthdays surrounded by family,
college graduation.
What's
missing are his first four months in Vietnam before he was
adopted. And that hole
in an otherwise complete picture has always haunted
him.
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Cambodia
still haunted by Khmer Rouge's brutal reign
April
11, 2000
PHNOM
PENH, APR 10 (AP) - Rocking gently in a cheap cloth hammock,
3-month-old Kim Sean sleeps away a steamy Cambodian afternoon.
Close
by, her grandmother, San Rin, keeps one eye on the baby and
another on the
legislature. The family from Kampong Chan province, 75
kilometers (45 miles) from Phnom Penh, have come to the capital
to beg for their land
back. Without it they will not survive.
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