The bombing was the first assault on that country's capital since Tel Aviv's army invaded Lebanon in 1982. Israeli troops and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon have been exchanging fire across the border for the last few weeks.

The Israeli military has occupied what it calls a "security zone" in southern Lebanon since withdrawing some of its troops in 1985. Hezbollah has been waging a guerrilla war to oust the occupation force. "We have always acted in defense against what the army of conquest has done against villages and civilians in Southern Lebanon in western Bekaa," Hezbollah leader Sheik Nasrallah stated.

U.S. war jets to use Jordan base
For the first time since the Persian Gulf war, U.S. Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighter warplanes will launch missions from the Azraq air base in Jordan to enforce the no-flight zone imposed by Washington on Iraqi aircraft since August 1992. As part of this military operation, a 1,500-troop Air Expeditionary force began arriving in the first week of April.

Clinton administration officials said joint U.S. and Jordanian military maneuvers, including nearly 1,000 U.S. troops, will be conducted.

The F-15 and F-16 fighter jets will join with other U.S. warplanes that have carried out daily patrols to prevent Iraqi planes from flying over the southern third of their own country. Washington, Paris, and London conduct similar patrols over northern Iraq from bases in Turkey.

Paris gets $1.5 billion China deal
Chinese prime minister Li Peng signed a hefty $1.5 billion contract in Paris April 10 for 10 passenger jets from Airbus Industrie. That corporation, a consortium of British, French, German, and Spanish capitalists, is the U.S.-based Boeing Company's largest competitor in the Asian aircraft market. Competition has intensified between Boeing, Airbus, and McDonnell Douglas, the other major U.S.-based plane manufacturer.

"We're disappointed in China's decision to purchase Airbus aircraft," grumbled Cindy Smith, a Boeing spokesperson. After the France-China deal was announced, Boeing's shares on the stock market fell $1.37 the next day to $79. 12, while McDonnell Douglas shares dropped $1.62 to $87.

U.S. to vacate a base in Okinawa
Japan prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and U.S. ambassador Walter Mondale announced April 12 that U.S. military operations at the Futenma Air Base in Okinawa - where mass protests have erupted against the U.S. bases over the past year - will cease in five to seven years. The U.S. official also said Washington would return up to one third of the land it occupies on Okinawa. The nationally televised live news conference came four days before the arrival of U.S. president William Clinton.

Meanwhile, more than 3,100 residents of Tokyo suburbs near the Yokota military air base filed a lawsuit against the U.S. and Japanese governments, demanding a ban on night flights between 9 P.M. and 7 A.M. Elsewhere in Japan, the mayor of Iwakuni said he was "outraged" after learning that aircraft from Futenma would be shifted to the base there.

IMF reneges on Belarus loans
Istan Szalkai, an International Monetary Fund official, announced March 29 that the imperialist financial institution was reversing a $300 million loan agreement it made with Belarus in 1995. "There is no political will to continue market-oriented stabilization and structural reforms," Szalkai complained. "Instead of the invisible hand of the market, the very visible hand of the president allocates economic resources in this country."

Belarus has been economically drained by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The government has allocated more than 15 percent of its gross national product - $235 billion over the past 10 years - to pay for resettling tens of thousands of people. Some 25 percent of the country is uninhabitable as a result of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe, which released radiation 200 times that of the atom bombs Washington dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Rail strikers win in Slovenia
Rail workers in the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia won a 20 percent pay increase for Saturday work April 10 after waging a national strike for six hours. Union officials had already accepted a 6.2 pay hike.

The rail strike paralyzed 70 percent of the domestic trains in Slovenia. Meanwhile, the union representing doctors and dentists in that republic entered the fourth week of a strike demanding a 25 percent pay hike.

NY cops plan military operation
The New York Times reported that the administration of New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani plans to deploy up to 3,000 cops in Black and Latino neighborhoods in early April, outfitted with steel-plated bullet-proof vests and armed with hydraulic battering rams, under the pretext of battling drug dealers.

The six-month terror campaign is set to seize up to 15,000 people with outstanding warrants for violations for everything from "graffiti vandalism to robbery," with the assumption they are guilty of dealing drugs.

"We are going to surgically attack the problems and take out those people, those locations, those stores that are causing the problems," declared Deputy Police Chief Joseph Dunne, who will oversee the operation. Police officials said they plan to send cops to public high schools to prepare the groundwork for the crackdown, which may result in 10,000 arrests the first six months.

Boy must register as sex offender
A three-judge appellate court panel in New Jersey ruled April 9 that a 12-year-old boy who allegedly confessed to groping his 8-year-old step brother must register in the state as a sex offender. New Jersey's 1994 sex offender notification law, known as Megan's Law, is one of five in the country that includes children convicted of such charges. Enforcement of the law was halted March 15 until a federal court rules if it can be applied to people convicted before the law went into effect.

Federal judge Denny Chin of New York suspended that state's version of Megan's Law March 5 until hearings on the law's constitutionality are conducted. In response to Chin's ruling, the pro-cop Guardian Angels organization distributed a leaflet in Manhattan declaring its intention to "continue to notify residents of New York neighborhoods of the identities and addresses of registered `high risk' sex offenders who move into their community."

- MAURICE WILLIAMS  
 
 
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