News reports indicate the morale of government troops, who are paid as little as $1 per month, is waning. Some 300 foreign mercenaries who recently arrived in Kisangani have not been faring too well either. A New York Times report cited "one person close to the presidential entourage" stating, "The Belgian officers say that the Serbian soldiers just want to give up on this. Their men are getting sick in this climate, they don't speak the right language, and they have never been in a war like this." Several of the mercenaries have already been killed, and others have complained of being paid with counterfeit currency. Mobutu, who has ruled Zaire with Paris's backing since 1965, returned from France February 7, where he was being treated for cancer.

Plane crash raises debate over Israeli occupation of S. Lebanon
Two Israeli military helicopters collided en route to Lebanon February 4, killing all 73 soldiers on board. The crash has stirred debate in Israel over Tel Aviv's continued military occupation in Southern Lebanon. Israeli officials claimed the soldiers were simply being rotated. But Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, an organization fighting against the Israeli forces in Lebanon, said, "There is no doubt that the Israelis were planning an aggressive action against the resistance and Hezbollah."

Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the release of all female Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails February 7. This was supposed to have happened in 1995 under accords between Tel Aviv and the Palestine Liberation Organization. But authorities had refused to free four women accused of killing Israelis. Other female prisoners had rejected release in solidarity with the four. About 25 of the 5,000 Palestinians incarcerated in Israel are women.

Washington, Tokyo debate trade
Conflict between Washington and Tokyo over the auto trade is heating up again. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, together with officials of the United Auto Workers, issued a statement February 6 describing the depreciation of the Japanese currency in relation to the dollar as "a serious problem." The statement asserted, "The yen's continuing fall is translating into more sales for Japanese manufacturers at the expense of U.S. automakers and their American workers." The yen reached a four-year low against the dollar February 7. It has dropped 38 percent since last May, making Japanese imports cheaper in the United States.

The Big Three U.S. automakers complain that their share of the U.S. market fell 3.7 points in January, to 71.1 percent, while the sales of Japanese car companies rose a comparable amount. U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky declared that Tokyo wasn't living up to an agreement intended to boost U.S. auto parts sales in Japan.

Corsicans fight Paris's rule
The Corsican National Liberation Front Historic Wing, which calls for separation of Corsica from France, claimed responsibility for setting off 58 bombs February 2. Reuters said the group intended to "show that it has not been crushed in a crackdown by the French police." The bombs damaged the post office, tax offices, and other symbols of French rule. No one was injured by the blasts. Three leaders of the group had been detained by French authorities in the weeks prior to the incident.

Colombian gov't facing crisis
Colombian coffee growers have threatened to go on strike if they do not receive higher prices for the current harvest. The mere announcement of the possibility sent coffee prices to the highest point this year. Colombia is the world's second-largest coffee producer after Brazil. The coffee industry there suffered blows from the dock workers already on strike. Meanwhile, guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia overran the Las Delicias military base on the Ecuador border and took 70 soldiers captive, demanding a pullout of government troops from a southern outpost.

The economic crisis in the South American country and the antidemocratic measures of the government have caused much criticism for Colombian president Ernesto Samper. The Colombian Congress recently granted broad powers to a regulatory commission to take television news programs off the air on the basis of their content. Many journalists say the move is intended to shut off programs that have investigated suspected ties between traffickers and prominent politicians, including Samper.

State workers strike in Honduras
Tens of thousands of government workers walked off the job February 7 demanding higher wages. Strikers took over many government buildings, occupying some and putting padlocks on the doors at others. The National Association of Public Employees, with a membership of 100,000, is demanding an average 50 percent wage increase; the government says it will only give 13 percent. The average salary for government workers is currently $80 per month, and two-thirds of the population of 6 million are officially living in poverty.

The strike is a challenge to the austerity drive of President Carlos Reina. Since 1994 his administration has eliminated many subsidies for basic necessities, including food, electricity, water, and telephone service. Prices have shot up as much as 20-fold.

Paltry safeguards for poultry
The Clinton administration issued new food safety regulations that allow poultry producers to check just 10 birds for fecal materials twice per eight-hour shift. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman deemed the new rules a "strengthening" of his department's so-called zero- tolerance policy, which says that soiled birds are "not allowed to enter" chilling tanks as they could contaminate other birds with fecal bacteria. "We've got plants producing 67,000 birds per shift, and they are going to sample only 20 birds per shift," national food inspection chairperson David Carney told the Wall Street Journal. "It sounds to me like this zero-tolerance rule is a big smoke screen."

Benefits for unwed partners stir debate in San Francisco
The city of San Francisco has implemented an ordinance that mandates all businesses that have contracts with the government to provide health benefits for unmarried partners. This ordinance has been the topic of much debate in that city. United Airlines threatened not to sign a 25- year contract with the city, if forced to comply with the measure.

Mayor William Brown, portrayed as a hard-line supporter of the ordinance in the bourgeois press, initially even refused the Roman Catholic Church an exemption, rejecting grounds that personal religious belief was reason enough to deny benefits. Over the first week of February, though, Brown retreated and now says that amending the ordinance to allow employers more flexibility is not "out of the realm" of possibility.

- BRIAN TAYLOR AND NAOMI CRAINE  
 
 
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