- dan
>-----Original Message-----
>From: The Economist [SMTP:null@postbox.co.uk]
>Sent: Thursday, February 13, 1997 10:37 AM
>To: economist-politics@postbox.co.uk
>Subject: Politics This Week (February 7th - February 13th 1997)
>
>
>********************************************************************
>Welcome to Politics This Week (February 7th - February 13th 1997)
>A summary of the world's main events from The Economist
>Also available at http://www.economist.com/
>********************************************************************
>
>Contents
>1. Politics This Week
>2. Information about this newsletter
>
>CRUMBLING
>Three people died in Albanian disturbances sparked by the collapse of
>pyramid schemes, which have ruined many thousands.
>
>Bulgaria's president, Petar Stoyanov, set parliamentary elections for
>April 19th and appointed a caretaker cabinet, led by Sofia's mayor,
>Stefan Sofianski, to govern until then.
>
>Serbia's parliament passed a law restoring opposition victories in 14
>municipal elections held last November. But opposition leaders said
>protests would continue until the government introduced more democracy.
>
>One Muslim died and 22 were hurt in fighting between Muslims and Croats
>in Mostar, a Bosnian town split between the two groups.
>
>President Boris Yeltsin's national security adviser, Ivan Rybkin, said
>Russia should be ready to use nuclear weapons against even a non-
>nuclear attack.
>
>Boris Berezovsky, a businessman who is deputy head of Russia's security
>council, sued Forbes, an American magazine, for suggesting he had links
>with Russia's mafia.
>
>Mr Yeltsin's former bodyguard, Alexander Korzhakov, won a parliamentary
>by-election at Tula, south of Moscow. He said he had "a great deal of
>compromising material" on public figures.
>
>A new president, Aslan Maskhadov, took office in Chechnya, amid growing
>confusion in Russia about how to deal with the republic's claim to
>independence.
>
>ETA, a Basque separatist movement, was blamed for killing a judge in
>Madrid, an air-force employee in Granada and a businessman in the
>Basque country.
>
>The loyalists' ceasefire in Northern Ireland was further strained after
>a British soldier was shot dead, apparently by the IRA.
>
>Catherine Megret, candidate for France's xenophobic National Front, won
>the mayoral election in Vitrolles, a town in the south.
>
>ZAIRE STILL MIRED
>Rebels in eastern Zaire advanced westwards towards the key city of
>Kisangani. President Mobutu returned home from treatment for cancer,
>and the opposition brought the capital, Kinshasa, to a halt with a
>general strike.
>
>Ethiopia, once a by-word for hunger, has increased its food security
>reserve ninefold in the past four years. In a famine, the country could
>feed 4m for six months.
>
>Following redeployment in Hebron, Israel released 31 Palestinian women
>prisoners, as agreed, then long delayed, in an earlier deal. Some 3,000
>male prisoners are still held.
>
>Iran's 15th Khordad Foundation, a semi-official body, raised its bounty
>on Salman Rushdie's head from $2m to $2.5m.
>
>A FORM OF JUSTICE
>O.J. Simpson was ordered to pay $25m in punitive damages to the
>relatives of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron
>Goldman, on top of the $8.5m in compensatory damages already assessed.
>Mr Simpson, hinting at an appeal, said the case was "far from over".
>
>In New York, a jury convicted two black men of violating the civil
>rights of a Hasidic Jew who was stabbed to death in race riots in 1991.
>One of the men had been previously tried for the murder and acquitted.
>
>In a show of bipartisan unity at the Capitol, President Clinton and
>congressional leaders agreed to try to balance the budget by 2002.
>
>In Ecuador, last week's widely supported strike against price rises led
>to a coup: Congress--dominated by opposition parties--voted out
>(unconstitutionally) the country's eccentric but elected president,
>Abdala Bucaram. Then, with muted army backing, it allowed his vice-
>president two days in the hot seat before voting in
>(unconstitutionally)
>its own chairman, Fabian Alarcon. He has 12 full months to call a fresh
>presidential election.
>
>Might Colombia follow suit Public-sector unions there launched an
>indefinite strike over pay. Left-wing guerrillas cheered, called for
>violence and threatened it themselves. Unions called for public
>demonstrations on Thursday. But few saw President Ernesto Samper going
>the Ecuadorean way.
>
>ASIAN TENSION
>Rioting broke out in Xinjiang, China's north-western province, after 30
>Uighurs, an Islamic people, were reported to have been executed.
>
>Hundreds of Indonesians in western Kalimantan were reported to have
>been killed in clashes between Muslims and Dayaks, a mainly Christian
>ethnic group.
>
>Talks in Singapore between officials of the European Union and the
>Association of South-East Asian Nations produced differing views over
>human rights in Myanmar and East Timor. The two groups postponed a
>final communique.
>
>In Beijing, Hwang Jang Yop, a senior aide to the North Korean leader
>Kim Jong Il, defected to South Korea, arousing speculation that the
>North's regime is cracking.
>
>A South Korean cabinet minister, Kim Woo Suk, resigned after claims
>that he took bribes to secure loans for Hanbo, a failed steel company.
>The police later arrested Mr Kim and two other close political allies
>of President Kim Young Sam.
>
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