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International News
April
22 to 30,2000
April
18 to 21,2000
April
11 to 17,2000
April
1 to 10,2000
March 2000
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Asian
nations agree to currency plan to stave off future crises
May
7, 2000
CHIANG
MAI, MAY 6 (AP) - Thirteen Asian nations agreed Saturday
to support each other's currencies to stop an economic crisis
like the one that devastated the region in 1997 and 1998 from getting
out of control again.
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more....
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Putin
to be sworn in as Russia's second president amid Kremlin Fanfare
May
7, 2000
MOSCOW,
MAY 6 (AP) - Russia will inaugurate the stern, careful
Vladimir Putin as its second
democratically elected president Sunday, handing the
former spy a mandate to restore national pride and economic health
after decades of decline.
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Ten
new EU members possible by 2005
May
7, 2000
BERLIN,
MAY 6 (AP) - The official in charge of European Union enlargement
says new members from eastern and southern Europe may join
only in 2005, but that the list could then comprise 10 countries,
a German magazine reported Saturday.
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more....
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Reformists
win majority of seats announced in Iran's run-off polls
May
7, 2000
TEHRAN,
MAY 6 (AP) - In another boost for Iran's moderate president, reformists won
three-quarters of the 46 parliamentary seats for which run-off results were
declared Saturday, according to winners announced by Tehran Radio.
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Spectacular
planetary grouping obscured by sun's glare
May
6, 2000
LOS
ANGELES, MAY 5 (AP) - All five bright planets, the sun and the crescent
moon are tightly grouped together in the sky for what would be
a rare celestial spectacle if it were not completely obscured by the
sun's glare.
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Feelings
split on migrant workers bill
May
6, 2000
WASHINGTON,
MAY 5 (AP) - Allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal foreign
migrant workers to remain in the United States legally would be
better than allowing the abuse the workers endure now, lawmakers say.
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London
voters cast ballots for capital's first elected mayor
May
6, 2000
LONDON,
MAY 5 (AP) - Londoners chose their first elected mayor Thursday, with
the man Prime Minister Tony Blair clumsily tried to sideline - political
outcast Ken Livingstone - the apparent winner, according to
exit polls.
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Albright
warns Iran over treatment of Jews
May
6, 2000
WASHINGTON,
MAY 5 (AP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned Iran
on Thursday that the outcome of its trial of 13 Jews on spy charges
could have international repercussions.
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One
of three Japanese high school students wants to assault parents
May
6, 2000
TOKYO,
MAY 5 (AP) - One out of three Japanese high school male students feel
to an impulse to beat up their parents, according to a government
survey published Friday.
Some
25 percent of female students in the survey said they had at times
felt an impulse to hit their parents, according to the Management
and Coordination Agency's survey on juvenile attitudes toward
violence, the first of its kind.
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India's
lower house of Parliament approves budget
May
5, 2000
NEW
DELHI, MAY 4 (AP) - Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government
refused to backtrack on unpopular cuts in subsidies for food and fertilizer
on Thursday as the lower house of Parliament approved the 2000-2001 federal
budget.
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Russian
president ratifies START II treaty
May
5, 2000
MOSCOW,
MAY 4 (AP) - President Vladimir Putin signed the START II treaty on
Thursday, affirming the Russian parliament's approval of the plan to cut
U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, the presidential press service
said.
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India
rules out supply of arms to Sri Lanka in northern war
May
5, 2000
NEW
DELHI, MAY 4 (AP) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
ruled out helping Sri Lanka with arms in its battle against Tamil rebels,
but offered food and medicine if it was required.
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Malaysian
opposition tabloid expands fight against press curbs
May
4, 2000
KUALA
LUMPUR, MAY 3 (AP) - Muzzled by press curbs, Malaysia's top opposition
newspaper announced Wednesday it was sprucing up its website by adding video
images even as it launched a court battle against the restrictions.
Hishamuddin
Yahya, managing director of the popular Harakah tabloid, said his
publication had spent over 20,000 ringgit (dlrs 5,263) so that visitors to
its website could watch exclusive
interviews
with opposition leaders.
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Russia
reports budget surplus for first four months of 2000
May
4, 2000
MOSCOW,
MAY 3 (AP) - In another sign of gradual economic recovery, Russia reported a
budget surplus of 24 billion rubles (dlrs 850 million) for the first four
months of this year, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.
Total
government income was 311 billion rubles (dlrs 11.1 billion).
The budget surplus was 1.4 percent of gross domestic product, First Deputy
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told Interfax
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Koreas
report progress in preparations for June summit
May
4, 2000
PANMUNJOM,
Korea, MAY 3 (AP) - Negotiators from North Korea and South Korea moved one
step closer to a formal agreement on an agenda for a historic summit between
their leaders, officials said after a third round of talks Wednesday.
"The
two sides have offered drafts for an agreement for the inter-Korean
summit. We've agreed on many parts of them," said Yang Young-shik,
South Korea's chief negotiator.
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U.S.
jets bomb Iraqi air-defense system in no-fly zone
May
4, 2000
ISTANBUL,
MAY 3 (AP) - Responding to Iraqi fire, U.S. warplanes bombed
Iraq's air-defense system Wednesday in the northern no-fly zone, the U.S.
military said.
Iraqi
forces targeted allied planes with radar and fired anti-aircraft
artillery from a site near Bashiqah, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north
of Baghdad, according to a statement from the Germany-based U.S. European
Command.
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East
German statehouse to debate neo-Nazi violence
May
4, 2000
ERFURT,
Germany, MAY 3 (AP) - Lawmakers in eastern Thuringia state called a special
session of parliament Wednesday to debate ways of combatting neo-Nazi
violence in the wake of last month's attempted arson attack on a synagogue
in the state capital of Erfurt.
The
session was intended to send a signal that the state will do everything
legally possible to combat far-right extremism, said Christine Lieberknecht,
president of the state parliament.
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Ex-vice
president interrogated over 1984 killings
May
4, 2000
JAKARTA,
MAY 3 (AP) - A former vice president was interrogated
Wednesday by a human rights panel investigating the massacre of Muslim
demonstrators 16 years ago in the capital.
Try
Sutrisno, vice president under former dictator Suharto, was Jakarta
commander when troops shot dead at least 18 Muslim protesters during a
protest in Sept. 12, 1984 in Jakarta's poverty-ridden Tanjung Priok port
district.
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India,
Pakistani officials meet to reduce tension along their border
May
4, 2000
WAGHA,
India, MAY 3 (AP) - Indian and Pakistani officials met Wednesday to discuss
steps to reduce tension along their border, where gunfire is exchanged
almost every day.
The
meeting is held twice a year. On Wednesday, a 30-member delegation of
Pakistani Rangers headed by Maj. Gen. Zarar Hussain and Maj. Gen. Ghulam
Qadir, director-general of the Punjab and Sindh regions respectively, were
given a warm welcome at the Wagha border post.
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Suu
Kyi could face death penalty for treason
May
3, 2000
YANGON,
MAY 2 (AP) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
her followers could face the death penalty or life imprisonment for
committing high treason because of alleged links to outlawed rebel groups, a
government newspaper said Tuesday.
A
commentary in the Mirror daily accused Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize, of being "power crazy," bent on blocking
foreign aid and investment and trying to foment disunity among the country's
ethnic minorities.
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Mahathir
had planned to double salaries for Malaysians
May
3, 2000
KUALA
LUMPUR, MAY 2 (AP) - If Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had
had his way nearly two years ago, he might have doubled the salaries of all
Malaysians living in the Southeast Asian nation.
In
an article published in Tuesday's New Straits Times, Mahathir disclosed
that he had wanted to resort to drastic measures to battle the Asia's
financial crisis, which threatened to sink the Malaysian economy and
currency.
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Americans
who drafted Japanese Constitution raise national debate in Parliament
May
3, 2000
TOKYO,
MAY 2 (AP) - In 1946, Richard Poole and Beate Sirota Gordon worked day and
night as part of the U.S. Occupation to help write Japan's pacifist
constitution after World War II and make sure the nation never embraced
militarist aggression again.
More
than a half-century later, they spoke Tuesday before a parliamentary
committee grappling with possible revisions to the Japanese
Constitution amid growing criticism, both at home and
abroad,
that the document is preventing Japan from doing its share in international
peacekeeping.
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New
talks aimed at unblocking Northern Ireland peace process
May
3, 2000
LONDON,
MAY 2 (AP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart,
Bertie Ahern, met Tuesday with the three largest parties in Northern
Ireland, seeking a way out of the disarmament deadlock that has stalled the
peace process.
Blair
and Ahern were scheduled to hold separate meetings at Blair's
Downing Street offices with representatives of the province's main
pro-British Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, and the major Catholic
forces, the Social Democratic and Labor Party and Sinn Fein, the party
associated with the Irish Republican Army.
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Crop
institute trying to halt advance of deserts in Asia
May
3, 2000
NEW
DELHI, MAY 2 (AP) - Expanding populations and poor use of water are turning
more than 40 percent of Asia into desert and causing drought, but it can be
halted through better use of science, experts said Tuesday.
Semiarid
regions of Asia and Africa are home to some 800 million people,
nearly one half of them so poor that they don't get enough food to eat, said
William Dar, director-general of the International Crops Research Institute
for the Semiarid Tropics, or ICRISAT.
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ASEAN
meeting with China, Japan, South Korea termed a "success"
May
3, 2000
YANGON,
MAY 2 (AP) - Economic ministers from Southeast Asia, China, Japan and South
Korea discussed deepening regional cooperation Tuesday, part of a drive for
greater East Asia to hold its own on the global trading stage.
The
gathering follows an informal summit of leaders of the 13 countries in
Manila in November. The region is seeking to grow stronger after the Asian
economic crisis of 1997 and increase its clout against the U.S.-led North
American Free Trade Area and the European Union.
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Taiwan’s
President announces new cabinet
May
2, 2000
TAIPEI,
MAY 1 (AP) - Taiwan's newly elected president named his top economic planner
and representative to Japan on Monday, rounding out his Cabinet about a
month after his stunning election victory.
Chen
Po-chih, 51, an economics professor at the elite National Taiwan University,
will serve as the chairman of the Council of Economic Planning and
Development, which maps out the government's economic policies.
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Tamil
Tiger rebels march toward Jaffna in Srilanka
May
2, 2000
COLOMBO,
MAY 1 (AP) - Tamil Tiger rebels overran another town in
their march toward their former capital, Jaffna, worrying some of the half a
million residents who see life again being disrupted.
The
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, said in a statement
from their London office that they took over Pallai, a town located between
the recently captured Elephant Pass and Jaffna.
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Prisoners
riot for water in eastern Indian state
May
2, 2000
BHUBANESHWAR,
MAY 1 (AP) - Thirsty prisoners rioted when they were
denied water for two days in a drought-hit eastern town, where thousands of
residents, carrying buckets and plastic pails, mobbed a water train when it
pulled into the station.
A
searing heat wave that brought temperatures of 48 C (118 F) last
week has dried up streams, ponds and wells in Orissa state, which was
covered with water last October after a cyclone killed about 10,000 people.
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Internal
politics overshadowed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
May
2, 2000
EILAT,
Israel, MAY 1 (AP) - Squabbling in Israel's ruling coalition and Palestinian
protests over the planned expansion of a Jewish West Bank settlement
overshadowed the latest round of negotiations for a final peace treaty.
Negotiators
began a second day of talks Monday in this Red Sea resort
after a strained opening round.
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Communists,
labor unions march in muted May Day parades in Russia
May
2, 2000
MOSCOW,
MAY 1 (AP) - Small parades of trade unionists and Communists marched Monday
in muted and chilly May Day celebrations across the former Soviet Union, but
for many people it was mainly a chance to plant vegetables.
With
the favorite target of past Communist parades, former President Boris
Yeltsin, in retirement, slogans tended toward demands for higher social
benefits and minimum wages.
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Camels
die of thirst in South Asia drought, few lessons learned
May
1, 2000
GYPSUM
HALT, India, APR 30 (AP) - As India mourned the deaths of 10,000 people
in a cyclone in the eastern state of Orissa last November, wells were drying
up and crops withering in the arid west as drought spread into Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
By
the time India lifted its eyes from one disaster to deal with another,
more than 80 million people were suffering from lack of water and hundreds
of thousands of animals were dead or dying in what the sufferers call the
worst drought in a century.
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Cuban-American
community rallies to protest Elian seizure
May
1, 2000
MIAMI,
APR 30 (AP) - Tens of thousands of angry Cuban-Americans marched peacefully
through Miami's Little Havana, protesting the raid in which armed federal
agents yanked 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of relatives.
Police
stayed visibly distant Saturday from the chanting demonstrators,
many of whom carried signs denouncing President Bill Clinton and Attorney
General Janet Reno for taking Elian from his Miami relatives and sending him
to his Cuban father.
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Wahid
denies report on truce with Aceh rebels
May
1, 2000
JAKARTA,
APR 30 (AP) - President Abdurrahman Wahid has denied a press report that a
ceasefire between government forces and separatist rebels in strife-torn
Aceh province is imminent.
"I
don't know anything about that," Wahid said late Saturday.
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Sri
Lanka on arms buying spree to tackle Tamil rebels
May
1, 2000
COLOMBO,
APR 30 (AP) - Sri Lanka is buying long-range artillery
and assorted military hardware from international arms suppliers to stop a
Tamil Tiger offensive to retake their former capital Jaffna, sources close
to the military said Sunday.
Earlier
this week, Sri Lankan military officials met with arms dealers from Russia,
Britain, Pakistan, Iran, the Czech Republic, Israel and Singapore in
Colombo.
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more....
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Philippine
military prepares to teargas tunnel where hostages believed held
May
1, 2000
ZAMBOANGA,
Philippines, APR 30 (AP) - Philippine forces prepared Sunday to shoot tear
gas into a tunnel in a sprawling rebel stronghold where Muslim extremists
are believed to have hidden at least some of the 27 hostages held captive
for six weeks, officials said.
Troops
were guarding the entries to the tunnel, where some rebels fled after the
military overran the densely forested Abu Sayyaf stronghold on southern
Basilan island, Col. Ernesto de Guzman said.
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