Prime minister is elected in Israel
Labor Party candidate Ehud Barak, a former army chief of
staff, was elected prime minister of Israel May 17, defeating
former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing
Likud Party by a vote of 55.9 to 43.9 percent. Described as a
"dovish hawk," Barak "spent 35 years fighting the Arabs,"
reported London's Financial Times, referring to the Zionist
efforts to crush the Palestinian struggle for self-
determination. The campaign reflected increasing polarization
in Israel, where the right-wing religious Shas party went from
10 to 17 parliamentary seats, making it the third-largest
party.
Barak has promised to end the 21-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, which has become increasingly unpopular in the face of resistance by Lebanese fighters. Barak has made no statement indicating he would honor the 1993 agreement Tel Aviv signed with the Palestinian leadership in Oslo, Norway, however. That pact limited Palestinian self-administration to clumps of land in the West Bank and Gaza, with Tel Aviv retaining overall sovereignty, control of all borders, and authority over disputes on land and water usage. Meanwhile, the Zionist settlers have rushed to expand land grabs. On May 18 bulldozers began clearing ground in Arab east Jerusalem for 132 Israeli homes in an area inhabited by 11,000 Palestinians.
Yeltsin appoints another premier
Sergei Stepashin was confirmed as prime minister of Russia
May 19, one week after President Boris Yeltsin abruptly dumped
Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. This was the third dismissal
of a prime minister by Yeltsin in 15 months. "The situation in
the economy is still not improving," said Yeltsin, citing his
reason for dumping Primakov.
Last September Yeltsin appointed Primakov as prime minister nearly one month after Moscow devalued its currency and defaulted on some $40 billion in domestic debt. Russia's gross domestic product fell 6 percent in 1998, leaving national output 45 percent below its level in 1989. Stepashin promised to bring "stability in the economy" by championing unpopular "economic reforms" sought by imperialist investors through the International Monetary Fund.
Russian sailors demand back pay
Russian sailors on two ships, the Trunovsk and the Kutuzovo,
launched a hunger strike May 16 after sitting for nine months
in the port of Kuwait. The crews are demanding the
Vostoktransflot Vladivostok joint stock shipping company pay
back wages and allow them to go home. They have worked in the
Arab Persian Gulf since early 1998. The vessels have been held
up since August last year for nonpayment of ship repairs.
Some 40 percent of Russian workers have gone weeks or months without payment of wages. Last year a strike wave rocked the country involving miners, rail workers, oil field workers, and others. Back wages owed to the toilers stood at $11 billion in 1998.
Japan joblessness rises
Kanematsu, the ninth-largest trading company in Japan,
announced May 18 a three-year plan to eliminate more than half
its workforce of 17,000 people. Gripped by heavy debts,
Kanematsu's president, Masao Yosomiya, said he would request
banks to write off more than $3 billion of the company's debt.
Japan's eight largest banks announced May 21 steep fiscal year
losses. The banks held some $1 trillion in bad loans since the
opening of 1999.
The move by Kanematsu indicates the country's jobless rate, which has reached a record high nearly every month since the beginning of the year, will most likely keep soaring.
Hidden unemployment reached the double digits, as the grinding economic crisis hit Japanese workers harder than at any time since the post-World War II boom.
U.S. gov't arrests alleged `terrorist' on secret charges
Ihab Ali was taken into custody during a closed hearing in
the Federal District Court in Manhattan May 19. The charges
against him are not listed in public records. Ali was brought
in for questioning before a federal grand jury that has been
investigating the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania last year. According to the New York Times,
investigators are trying to link Ali with Osama bin Laden, the
Saudi businessman accused by Washington of masterminding the
explosions. So far, U.S. government officials have presented no
evidence against bin Laden. Two U.S. citizens, Wadih el-Hage
and Ali Mohamed, were already in custody on charges of
"conspiring with bin Laden to kill Americans abroad."
Mohamed was indicted publicly May 19 after he was secretly imprisoned for eight months. He was arrested last September as government officials unsuccessfully tried to coerce him into cooperating with their attacks on democratic rights. Six people are known to be jailed in connection with the conspiracy charges. While targeting those with Arab names fsor now, the "terrorism investigation [has been] focusing increasingly on the role of United States citizens," the Times reported May 22.
Death row inmate is exonerated
Prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, dropped rape and murder
charges against death row inmate Ronald Jones May 17 - the
fourth time this year that a prisoner facing execution in
Illinois had been cleared. Jones's 1989 conviction was
overturned two years ago after DNA tests cleared him of the
crime. He remains in custody pending extradition to Tennessee
for allegedly running from a work-release sentence in 1980.
Jones said at his murder trial that torture by the cops forced him to "confess" to a crime he didn't commit. Even after his conviction was thrown out two years ago, Jones waited an additional 22 months in jail while officials debated whether to order a second trial based on a claim that he was working with an accomplice.
Customs accused of racist abuse
Janneral Denson, a U.S.-born Black woman, charged U.S.
Customs Service agents with racist abuse at a Congressional
hearing May 20. Denson was detained for two days in 1997 on her
return home from Jamaica after Customs agents accused her of
drug smuggling. They took Denson to a Miami hospital,
handcuffed her to a bed rail, and forced her to drink four cups
of a laxative.
Denson, who was nearly seven months pregnant at the time, said they told her "the only way I was going to get out of here was to drink the laxative."
Amanda Buritica, a Latina witness, testified that her detention in 1994 was "the most degrading, humiliating thing I have been through." She was held for 25 hours, also forced to take laxatives, and watched by agents during bowel movements. Buritica was awarded $450,000 in a lawsuit against the Customs Service.
- MAURICE WILLIAMS