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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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. 

more....

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. 

more....

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. 

more....

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.

more....

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

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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. 

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....

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. 

more....

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.

more....

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.

more....