Rightist to form gov't in India
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was named prime minister in India May 15. The BJP won 190 seats in the 545 seat parliament in the recent elections, the highest total for any party. The Congress Party, which has ruled India for all but four years since the country won independence, took 139 seats, its worst showing ever. The National Front-Left Front bloc tried but failed to put together a coalition government before President Shankar Dayal Sharma named Vajpayee prime minister. After naming a cabinet, the BJP government will still need to win a vote of confidence.

The BJP has pledged to openly acquire nuclear weapons, threatened to revoke a constitutional amendment granting autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir on the border with Pakistan, and demands the return of parts of Kashmiri territory that India lost to Pakistan in war. Its leaders have a long history of scape- goating Muslims, claiming they are more loyal to Pakistan than to India. BJP supporters were among those who organized the destruction of a 16th-century mosque at Ayodhya in 1992 and subsequent anti-Muslim riots that killed 3,000. Vajpayee said his government will accelerate the privatization of state enterprises and continue implementing social cuts to reduce the fiscal deficit.

Shell ignored pollution of Nigeria
The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell ignored internal reports that its Nigerian refineries had caused huge amounts of environmental damage and broken international environmental standards, according to Bopp van Dessel, who worked for Shell in 1992. "They were not meeting international standards. Any Shell site that I saw was polluted," Van Dessel said. He added that for 35 years Shell Nigeria had no waste treatment facility, no adequate land fill site, and no incinerator.

Recently Shell has been linked to the Nigerian government's execution of Ken Saro-wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists who were fighting for land and against the environmental destruction of their region by the oil industry. Shell Nigeria has a 45 percent stake in a plant on Ogoni land.

Libya responds to U.S. threats
The General Congress of the World Islamic People's Leadership announced May 15 that Libya will send "millions of Muslims" to guard a site that Washington alleges is an underground chemical weapons plant. The group said the presence was necessary "to confront the hostile threats by America to strike at this tunnel with nuclear bombs." U.S. defense secretary William Perry has repeatedly stated that Washington will not let Tripoli start up the plant, and has threatened using military force to stop it. The Libyan government insists the facility is part of an irrigation network.

Washington, Tokyo again reject food aid for North Korea
Washington and Tokyo announced May 14 they would not provide any food aid to North Korea until the Pyongyang government agrees to participate in talks that include the South Korean regime. The North Korean government appealed for international assistance after severe flooding destroyed much of the rice crop last summer. Pyongyang announced in April it no longer would respect the armistice agreement that ended the Korean war in 1953, citing provocations by Washington and Seoul, and called on Washington to hold bilateral negotiations.

NATO debates ousting Karadzic
"As long as [Radovan] Karadzic remains in power, we can't expect the elections to come out the way we want," Michael Steiner, a top official in charge of implementing civilian components of the Dayton accords in Bosnia, said in mid-May. Karadzic is the chauvinist Bosnian Serb leader who heads the "Republika Srpska" carved out of Bosnia. Steiner asked the Belgrade government, Washington, and the other NATO powers occupying Bosnia to remove or sharply limit the power of Karadzic.

On May 15 Karadzic fired the prime minister of Republika Srpska, Rajko Kasagic. Within 24 hours NATO officials met with Kasagic and indicated they support him as head of the Bosnian Serb government. Karadzic is under indictment for alleged war crimes, but has not been arrested. An article in the May 17 New York Times stated, "Although Dr. Karadzic's critics can be withering in their attacks, they do not control the police, the ruling party or the military, the three main power bases in Serb-held Bosnia." The Times also cited unnamed "western diplomats" as having warned the Serbian president that he risks renewed sanctions if he lets Karadzic into Serbia.

Bulgarian gov't to shut plants
The government of Bulgaria announced the closure of 67 companies employing 29,000 workers May 13, and raised interest rates to 108 percent, saying these moves would shore up the national currency. Job losses could reach 60,000 when the restructuring of companies that cannot be shut down, like the state railways, is taken into account. Bulgaria has traditionally been an exporter of wheat, but there are reports now of shortages of bread in some parts of the country.

There have been protests at some of the threatened enterprises. In one case, workers and managers at Bulgaria's second largest oil refinery held a rally the second week of May to protest the shutdown of their plant.

Italian airline to cut 3,000 jobs
The chief executive of the Italian state airline Alitalia, Domenico Cempella, announced plans to cut about 3,000 jobs over the next five years - 17 percent of the workforce. He told unions that the airline "might not survive 1996" without cutting costs and receiving new capital. Cempella outlined other "restructuring" proposals. Union officials said that the announcement contained "many very negative elements" and warned that making employees work more hours will jeopardize safety. Workers at Alitalia have taken a number of job actions over the last year, including walkouts by pilots and flight attendants.

Family farms plummet in France
The number of family farms in France has declined by 66,000 since 1993, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. At the end of 1995 there were only 734,800 farms. One million people farm in France - less than 2 percent of the population. A century ago, nearly half of Francés population made their living by farming. The ministry's survey showed that the size of an average farm in France is increasing due to buyouts by larger landholders. Farms in France are now 10 percent larger than in 1993.

Nicaragua gov't deploys troops
Gen. Joaquin Cuadra announced May 11 a plan to send 5,000 troops to northern Nicaragua to put down small and scattered armed groupings in the region. Cuadra said this was needed to enable the region's 300,000 residents to register and vote in the October 20 elections. He said the troops will be deployed immediately and stay at least until the end of the year to protect the coffee harvest. About 1,000 former rebels of the 1980s war between the revolutionary Sandinista government and the U.S.- backed Contras have rearmed.

- MEGAN ARNEY  
 
 
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