Lisbon
Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, the most flamboyant of the "young captains" who overthrew Portugal's dictatorship on April 25, 1974, goes on trial next week in Lisbon for attacks carried out during the early '80s by the FUP/FP-25, an extremist organization that he is accused of leading. Otelo, who has already spent five years in prison on similar charges, is now a prosperous businessman and a member of the prestigious 25th of April Association, which includes all of the former officers who participated in the 1974 revolution. He maintains that he is innocent and was framed by the Portuguese Communist Party.
Paris
French Minister for Schools Ségolène Royal announced that nurses in public schools will be allowed to issue the "morning after" contraceptive pill to students. Royal stressed that the pill will be dispensed only in "urgent" cases and that all recipients will be referred to a doctor or family planning clinic. Although the decision was hailed by health workers, some parents protested that the measure could encourage unprotected sex among young people. There are 10,000 unwanted teen pregnancies in France each year, and 6,700 end in abortion. The morning after pill is available without prescription in French pharmacies.
Stockholm
The names and photographs of 62 Swedish neo-Nazis and biker gang members were published last week by four leading Stockholm newspapers, in an unusual concerted action to highlight what the journals described as a threat to the nation's democracy. The article, researched and published jointly by Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet and Expressen, exposes the leaders, working methods and goals of the main neo-Nazi organizations, and describes in detail how these groups target attacks against police, politicians and journalists. Recent murder victims include a well-known trade unionist and two policemen. The newspapers concluded that 90% of Sweden's policemen and 59% of its 650 state prosecutors have received threats, and 37% of the prosecutors acknowledge that they have dropped charges because they or witnesses were threatened.
Monte Carlo
Renowned banker Edmond Safra, one of the world's wealthiest men, suffocated when armed intruders broke into his home in Monte Carlo late last week and set it ablaze. A nurse, Viviane Torrent, also perished. Born into an old banking family in Lebanon's tiny Jewish community, Safra was the founder and chairman of the Republic Bank of New York, in which he retained a 29% stake. The takeover of Republic and its sister company, Luxembourg-based Safra Republic Holdings, by Britain's HSBC was delayed recently when Japanese regulators began investigating alleged securities improprieties. The deal was reportedly in its final stages and Safra, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, had been planning on retiring once the takeover was complete.
Arusha
African heads of state meeting in Tanzania named former South African President Nelson Mandela to succeed the late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania as mediator in peace talks aimed at bringing about an end to Burundi's six-year civil war. The bitter ethnic conflict between Hutus, who form about 85% of the country's population, and the Tutsi-led government has ravaged the central African nation and resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people. The Burundian government and the country's main opposition parties welcomed Mandela's appointment, but even so there were reports last week of renewed fighting. Hutu refugees arriving in Tanzania told the U.N. refugee agency that the government is arming Tutsi civilians.
Tripoli
In a trip that marked another milestone in Libya's quickening emergence from international isolation, Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema became the first Western leader to visit the oil-rich North African country in eight years. Italy imports about 30% of its oil from Libya. Earlier this year, just one day after the U.N. suspended sanctions it had imposed following the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Scotland, the Italian Foreign Minister flew to Tripoli in a first step at re-establishing good relations. A joint statement issued by D'Alema and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi "underlined the necessity of denying protection to those responsible for terrorist acts." Italy has also led the way in extending diplomatic and economic overtures to Iran and Algeria.
Kuwait City
The only elected legislature in the conservative Arab Gulf states opted last week to deny women the right to vote. By a margin of 32 to 30, Kuwait's all-male parliament rejected a bill allowing women to vote and to stand for election. Last May, after dissolving parliament, Kuwait's Emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, issued a decree granting women the same political rights as men. The decree was rejected two weeks ago by the newly reconvened assembly, but following that defeat five liberal legislators introduced a new bill with similar provisions, and its prospects had seemed promising. Instead, the measure was narrowly defeated, hampered by the last-minute loss of support from an outspoken legislator and cleric who decided to abstain and from a moderate who reportedly changed his mind and voted against it.
Pyongyang
A Japanese delegation led by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama ended a three-day visit to the North Korean capital with an announcement that the two countries have agreed to begin talks aimed at establishing official diplomatic ties. Relations between Japan and North Korea have been tense since previous talks were suspended in 1992, and declined even more precipitously when North Korea launched a missile that flew over Japan last year. That incident prompted Japan to suspend food aid to impoverished North Korea, which has been struggling with extreme harvest shortages.
Sydney
Seven people were killed when a double-decker commuter train slammed into the rear of a slow-moving transcontinental train on one of Australia's busiest commuter rail routes in the Blue Mountains, some 50 km west of Sydney. Investigation into Thursday's accident will focus on a jammed signal on the New South Wales line. The commuter train is thought to have been traveling at up to 80 km/h when it passed through a red signal, something drivers are permitted to do if they proceed with caution, and crashed into the Indian Pacific, which was on its way from Sydney to Perth. All of the dead, including a young boy, were seated in the first car of the commuter train, which sustained most of the impact of the crash.
Victoria
The Canadian navy is trying to recover weaponry that was accidentally left on two decommissioned destroyers sold to a Florida man for $147,000. The buyer has refused to return the weapons and will not allow naval officers on board to take an inventory of what was forgotten. Both ships were originally outfitted with anti-submarine torpedo missile launchers. H.M.C.S. Kootenay, which was also equipped with electronic warfare systems, is known to still have its launcher on board. The weapons systems on H.M.C.S. Restigouche had been upgraded for the Gulf War, but a navy spokesman said that its anti-aircraft gun was dismantled before the sale. A spokesman for the Artificial Reef Society, whose organization has been purchasing decommissioned ships and sinking them, equipment and all, says the embarrassing oversight may have occurred because his group had discussed buying these particular vessels but was unable to raise the money.
Ciudad Juárez
Mexican authorities enlisted the assistance of some 200 American FBI agents to begin excavating a series of suspected mass graves around Ciudad Juárez, just south of the U.S. border. Juárez was home to Mexico's most notorious drug cartel, and the sites at two ranches are thought to contain the remains of many of the more than 200 people who have disappeared in the region in recent years. Mexican authorities conceded that corrupt security forces may have been involved in the killings.
Miami
Custody of a five-year-old boy who survived a harrowing journey from Cuba to the Florida coast became the center of an international controversy last week. Elian González, rescued by fishermen who found him floating in an inner tube, was one of three survivors of a boat wreck that killed 11 other Cubans headed for the U.S. Among the dead were the child's mother and stepfather. Elian's father in Havana has enlisted the help of the Cuban government to bring about his son's return. The Havana government has warned Washington that failure to return the boy to Cuba could damage already tenuous U.S.-Cuba relations. Elian is being cared for by relatives in Miami who want him to remain with them.
Lisbon
Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, the most flamboyant of the "young captains" who overthrew Portugal's dictatorship on April 25, 1974, goes on trial next week in Lisbon for attacks carried out during the early '80s by the FUP/FP-25, an extremist organization that he is accused of leading. Otelo, who has already spent five years in prison on similar charges, is now a prosperous businessman and a member of the prestigious 25th of April Association, which includes all of the former officers who participated in the 1974 revolution. He maintains that he is innocent and was framed by the Portuguese Communist Party.
Paris
French Minister for Schools Ségolène Royal announced that nurses in public schools will be allowed to issue the "morning after" contraceptive pill to students. Royal stressed that the pill will be dispensed only in "urgent" cases and that all recipients will be referred to a doctor or family planning clinic. Although the decision was hailed by health workers, some parents protested that the measure could encourage unprotected sex among young people. There are 10,000 unwanted teen pregnancies in France each year, and 6,700 end in abortion. The morning after pill is available without prescription in French pharmacies.
Stockholm
The names and photographs of 62 Swedish neo-Nazis and biker gang members were published last week by four leading Stockholm newspapers, in an unusual concerted action to highlight what the journals described as a threat to the nation's democracy. The article, researched and published jointly by Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet and Expressen, exposes the leaders, working methods and goals of the main neo-Nazi organizations, and describes in detail how these groups target attacks against police, politicians and journalists. Recent murder victims include a well-known trade unionist and two policemen. The newspapers concluded that 90% of Sweden's policemen and 59% of its 650 state prosecutors have received threats, and 37% of the prosecutors acknowledge that they have dropped charges because they or witnesses were threatened.
Monte Carlo
Renowned banker Edmond Safra, one of the world's wealthiest men, suffocated when armed intruders broke into his home in Monte Carlo late last week and set it ablaze. A nurse, Viviane Torrent, also perished. Born into an old banking family in Lebanon's tiny Jewish community, Safra was the founder and chairman of the Republic Bank of New York, in which he retained a 29% stake. The takeover of Republic and its sister company, Luxembourg-based Safra Republic Holdings, by Britain's HSBC was delayed recently when Japanese regulators began investigating alleged securities improprieties. The deal was reportedly in its final stages and Safra, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, had been planning on retiring once the takeover was complete.
Arusha
African heads of state meeting in Tanzania named former South African President Nelson Mandela to succeed the late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania as mediator in peace talks aimed at bringing about an end to Burundi's six-year civil war. The bitter ethnic conflict between Hutus, who form about 85% of the country's population, and the Tutsi-led government has ravaged the central African nation and resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people. The Burundian government and the country's main opposition parties welcomed Mandela's appointment, but even so there were reports last week of renewed fighting. Hutu refugees arriving in Tanzania told the U.N. refugee agency that the government is arming Tutsi civilians.
Tripoli
In a trip that marked another milestone in Libya's quickening emergence from international isolation, Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema became the first Western leader to visit the oil-rich North African country in eight years. Italy imports about 30% of its oil from Libya. Earlier this year, just one day after the U.N. suspended sanctions it had imposed following the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Scotland, the Italian Foreign Minister flew to Tripoli in a first step at re-establishing good relations. A joint statement issued by D'Alema and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi "underlined the necessity of denying protection to those responsible for terrorist acts." Italy has also led the way in extending diplomatic and economic overtures to Iran and Algeria.
Kuwait City
The only elected legislature in the conservative Arab Gulf states opted last week to deny women the right to vote. By a margin of 32 to 30, Kuwait's all-male parliament rejected a bill allowing women to vote and to stand for election. Last May, after dissolving parliament, Kuwait's Emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, issued a decree granting women the same political rights as men. The decree was rejected two weeks ago by the newly reconvened assembly, but following that defeat five liberal legislators introduced a new bill with similar provisions, and its prospects had seemed promising. Instead, the measure was narrowly defeated, hampered by the last-minute loss of support from an outspoken legislator and cleric who decided to abstain and from a moderate who reportedly changed his mind and voted against it.
Pyongyang
A Japanese delegation led by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama ended a three-day visit to the North Korean capital with an announcement that the two countries have agreed to begin talks aimed at establishing official diplomatic ties. Relations between Japan and North Korea have been tense since previous talks were suspended in 1992, and declined even more precipitously when North Korea launched a missile that flew over Japan last year. That incident prompted Japan to suspend food aid to impoverished North Korea, which has been struggling with extreme harvest shortages.
Sydney
Seven people were killed when a double-decker commuter train slammed into the rear of a slow-moving transcontinental train on one of Australia's busiest commuter rail routes in the Blue Mountains, some 50 km west of Sydney. Investigation into Thursday's accident will focus on a jammed signal on the New South Wales line. The commuter train is thought to have been traveling at up to 80 km/h when it passed through a red signal, something drivers are permitted to do if they proceed with caution, and crashed into the Indian Pacific, which was on its way from Sydney to Perth. All of the dead, including a young boy, were seated in the first car of the commuter train, which sustained most of the impact of the crash.
Victoria
The Canadian navy is trying to recover weaponry that was accidentally left on two decommissioned destroyers sold to a Florida man for $147,000. The buyer has refused to return the weapons and will not allow naval officers on board to take an inventory of what was forgotten. Both ships were originally outfitted with anti-submarine torpedo missile launchers. H.M.C.S. Kootenay, which was also equipped with electronic warfare systems, is known to still have its launcher on board. The weapons systems on H.M.C.S. Restigouche had been upgraded for the Gulf War, but a navy spokesman said that its anti-aircraft gun was dismantled before the sale. A spokesman for the Artificial Reef Society, whose organization has been purchasing decommissioned ships and sinking them, equipment and all, says the embarrassing oversight may have occurred because his group had discussed buying these particular vessels but was unable to raise the money.
Ciudad Juárez
Mexican authorities enlisted the assistance of some 200 American FBI agents to begin excavating a series of suspected mass graves around Ciudad Juárez, just south of the U.S. border. Juárez was home to Mexico's most notorious drug cartel, and the sites at two ranches are thought to contain the remains of many of the more than 200 people who have disappeared in the region in recent years. Mexican authorities conceded that corrupt security forces may have been involved in the killings.
Miami
Custody of a five-year-old boy who survived a harrowing journey from Cuba to the Florida coast became the center of an international controversy last week. Elian González, rescued by fishermen who found him floating in an inner tube, was one of three survivors of a boat wreck that killed 11 other Cubans headed for the U.S. Among the dead were the child's mother and stepfather. Elian's father in Havana has enlisted the help of the Cuban government to bring about his son's return. The Havana government has warned Washington that failure to return the boy to Cuba could damage already tenuous U.S.-Cuba relations. Elian is being cared for by relatives in Miami who want him to remain with them.