The UN report stated that the concentration of firepower was "inconsistent with a normal overshooting of the declared target by a few rounds, as suggested by Israeli forces," who claimed they were responding to mortar fire from Hezbollah guerrillas fighting Tel Aviv's occupation of southern Lebanon. Israeli foreign minister Ehud Barak called the report "absurd." A spokesperson for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Madeline Albright, said Washington was "disturbed that the [UN] Secretary General chose to draw unjustified conclusions about this incident that can only divide and polarize the environment."

Serbs strike over unpaid wages
At the Serbian electronics group EI-Nis, 10,000 workers went on strike for a second day to demand payment of overdue wages. Workers at some of the 42 companies in the EI-Nis conglomerate have not been paid since before December. The strikers are also demanding a restructuring of the state-owned group, to give the workers at least 51 percent ownership. On May 8, thousands of strikers gathered in the center of Nis, an industrial town south of Belgrade. Police blocked them when they tried to enter the town assembly hall.

U.S. to hold war games in Baltics
Pentagon officials reported May 6 that U.S. military units will conduct maneuvers in Latvia in July. The "Baltic Challenge" exercises will include forces from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Washington has been urging the expansion of the NATO military alliance eastward, and supports the efforts of the Baltic governments to join the European Union.

At a new conference praising the Baltic states for what the Associated Press described as "progress toward democracy," U.S. ambassadors to the region also commented on the upcoming elections in Russia. "They [the Baltic states] have a stake in Russian democracy," said Larry Napper, the U.S. envoy to Latvia.

Cops attack nuclear protesters
German police used truncheons, tear gas, and water cannon against more than 3,000 protesters May 8. The demonstrators were protesting the transportation of nuclear waste to a storage plant near Gorleben, Germany. More than 30 people were injured.

Protesters along the route from France slowed the truck's pace, as it took six hours for an 11-mile trip from the Dannenberg train station. Three thousand police in riot gear jogged in formation along the truck and 60 escort vehicles. Protesters have demonstrated against the transportation of nuclear waste for weeks.

Ex-CP-led bloc wins in Italy
A coalition dominated by the Democratic Party of the Left - formerly the Communist Party - won a clear majority in Italy's April parliamentary elections. The Olive Tree alliance has put forward bourgeois economist Romano Prodi as its candidate for prime minister. For a voting majority, it will depend on 35 seats won by Reconstructed Communism (RC), also formed out of the old Communist party. The social democratic coalition beat out the right-wing grouping led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi

Umberto Bossi's Northern League, campaigning on a secessionist, anti-Rome, and anti-migrant worker platform, won 59 seats. Bossi has implied he was not eager to cooperate with the new government.

Meningitis kills 10,000 in Africa
West Africa has experienced one of the largest epidemics of meningitis in recent times, killing more than 10,000 people in the last three months. The disease causes inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, and is caused by airborne bacteria. Meningitis can be treated in its early stages with antibiotics, but once it invades the bloodstream, death comes quickly.

In Nigeria about 10 percent of the 50,000 cases reported have resulted in deaths. Children, the elderly, and women are most vulnerable to dying. Meningitis has turned up in 14 African countries. Frustrated doctors treat patients in conditions where large stocks of vaccine are too expensive to maintain and health care is often unavailable. "It is not normal that in the 20th century, people should be dying of meningitis, just as if we were living in the 18th century," said Dr. Idrissa Ouedraogo, a hospital director in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Cop victim dies in Montreal
A taxi driver never gained consciousness after being beaten by Montreal police 29 months ago. Richard Barnabe, 41, died May 9 from internal bleeding. In December 1993, he collapsed in a cell after being arrested for allegedly breaking a church window. Barnabe was admitted into the hospital unconscious and remained in a vegetative state until he died.

Four Montreal police officers were convicted of assault causing bodily harm. Two were given 90 days in prison, one 60 days and one 180 hours of community work. Now appealing the verdicts, the cops have not served any time. Under Montreal law, the upgrading of charges to manslaughter or murder can only be filed if the victim dies within a year and a day of the assault.

Baseball owner defends Hitler
Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinnati Reds, believes that Hitler "was good in the beginning but he went too far." Sparking yet another controversy, the Reds owner's remarks are under consultation of the baseball commissioner. In an interview with an ESPN TV reporter at Riverfront Stadium offices, Schott said of Hitler, "Everything you read, when he came in, he was good. They built tremendous highways and got all the factories going. He went nuts, he went berserk."

Schott was suspended and fined $25,000 in 1993 for repeated racist and ethnic slurs, using phrases like "million-dollar niggers," and "money-grubbing Jews". When asked about the swastika she kept at home, Schott said it was memorabilia.

Congress OKs `Megan's Law'
Both the Senate and the House passed a measure that requires all states to notify communities when a person convicted of a sex offense move into their neighborhoods. The legislation is modeled after the New Jersey statute known as Megan's law, but is considered a tougher version. It is named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl from Hamilton Township, New Jersey, who was kidnapped, raped and killed in July 1994. A neighbor who lived across the street from the girl was charged in the killing.

Community warnings after a person convicted of a sex offense is released from prison range from telling local schools and youth groups to ordering visits with each neighbor, depending on the state's determination of the supposed danger level. The new legislation also requires that if states fail to establish a system by September 1997, they would lose some federal anti-crime funds. Fifteen states already require some community notification when someone convicted of child molestation is released.

- Megan Arney  
 
 
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