Three constitutional judges, who ruled that the law precluded a third term for the Peruvian president, were removed from office on charges of exceeding their authority and violating the constitution. The regime deployed police who fired tear gas in their attempts to defuse the action, but protesters responded by hurling stones at the cops. Two other demonstrations were organized during the five-day OAS meeting.

Jury votes to execute McVeigh
A federal jury voted June 13 for Timothy McVeigh to be executed for allegedly bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, which killed 168 people and injured 850 others. McVeigh's conviction and death sentence came after a barrage of media hype and daily testimony from survivors and relatives of those killed in the April 19, 1995, blast, who prosecutors paraded on the witness stand to tell the jury of their pain and suffering.

"Mr. McVeigh never shed a tear during heart-wrenching testimony that had men and on the jury weeping and reaching for their handkerchiefs," the New York Times complained. McVeigh's mother, Mildred Frazer, who denounced the verdict, explained, "For two years now, since my son .. the day he was arrested .. he was convicted and sentenced to death by the media and the government."

Attica inmate win vindication
After nearly a quarter-century of court battles, ex- prisoner Frank Smith won a $4 million lawsuit against former deputy warden Karl Pfeil, which the government must pay. In September 1971, Smith, then an inmate at Attica Correctional Facility, was brutally beaten and tortured by cops, during the government-sanctioned slaughter that answered a prison rebellion there. He became a leader of the rebellion, was captured, and forced to lay naked on a table suspending a football under his chin. The prison guards threatened to castrate or kill him if the ball fell, while they struck his testicles with a baton. They also subjected him to Russian roulette. Smith and other prisoners were forced to run nude over broken glass, while correction cops bludgeoned them with night sticks. Police officers deemed these actions were necessary to establish control over the inmates.

Forty-three people were killed and more than 90 were injured in the rebellion, as state troopers and guards bombarded the facility for four days with tear gas and fusillade. Smith was the first to win damages in a 1974 civil liability suit. The claims of the other 1,280 prisoners are still pending. Pfeil's attorney said he will appeal the verdict.

Palestinians protest U.S. resolution on Jerusalem
Palestinian youth rallied in the streets and threw rocks at Israeli soldiers in Hebron June 16 for the second day of protests against a "nonbinding resolution" adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives that called on President William Clinton to affirm that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel. The June 10 resolution also allocated $100 million to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being confronted with another crisis over a law proposed by Orthodox Jews requiring that conversions to Judaism must be conducted by Orthodox rabbis to be valid. Jews from the United States residing in Israeli attacked the bill as a humiliating attempt to reduce them to second-class status in the country. Conversion to Judaism is one step toward obtaining Israeli citizenship and the benefits accrued with that status.

BY BRIAN TAYLOR AND MAURICE WILLIAMS  
 
 
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