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           More
          International News
            April
          1 to 10,2000
            March 2000
        
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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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           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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           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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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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     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.
      
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           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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     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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           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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           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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     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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     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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           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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