Palestinian youth fight Israeli occupation in West Bank
Dozens of Palestinian youth in the West Bank city of Hebron threw rocks and a pipe bomb at Israeli soldiers July 10. The clash occurred hours after Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would never divide Jerusalem and refused to withdraw troops from Hebron. The prime minister was speaking to the U.S. Congress, which gave a standing ovation for his comments.

The Israeli government has occupied Jerusalem since the 1967 war, and the area is one of the points put forward by the Palestinian Liberation Organization as part of the "land for peace" effort. Netanyahu also said that he will expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and ruled out allowing a Palestinian state. Tel Aviv has been building up Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem, preventing Palestinians from building on their own property, constructing roads between settlements and Jerusalem, and revoking Arabs' Jerusalem residency cards.

The Washington Post called the recent clashes "reminiscent of the days of the Palestinian intifada," or uprising, in the late 1980s. "There will be a new uprising in Hebron," said Ali Qawasmi, a Palestinian legislator from Hebron. "We don't want violence, but with their actions, the Israelis will be obliging the people to refuse what they are doing to us."

German gov't pushes cutbacks
The German parliament voted in Bonn July 11 to raise the retirement age necessary for workers in Germany to receive full pensions. The day before, the German cabinet approved cutting the 1997 budget 2.5 percent. The plan includes reducing unemployment benefits and postponing an increase of benefits for workers with children, cutting sick pay, slashing health-care benefits, and eroding job security.

Finance minister Theo Waigel said the moves are necessary to bring Germany's deficit down below the ceiling of 3 percent of its gross national product set by the European Union. In mid- June 350,000 workers had marched in Bonn in a national protest against the government's austerity drive.

EU continues British beef ban
The highest court of the European Union ruled July 12 that it was within its rights to ban worldwide sales of British beef. The ban was imposed March 27 on grounds that the meat could be contaminated with "mad cow disease." The decision rules out the immediate end to the beef ban, despite a June vote by the EU to gradually lift it. Some members of the British Parliament demanded that London retaliate and stall the additions of new members to the EU from Eastern Europe.

Cease-fire ends in Chechnya
Less than a week after the reelection of Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Russian forces resumed pounding villages in Chechnya. Up to 38 civilians were reported killed and more than 60 wounded in four days of fighting that ended the cease-fire agreements of May 28 and June 10. The Russian forces have used air and artillery attacks and rocket launchers against the Chechens. Retired Gen. Alexander Lebed, Yeltsin's new national security chief, endorsed the offensive, saying that Chechnya must remain within Russia and that the Russian army will "fight to the victory."

The fighting began after a bomb went off in Moscow - which no organization claimed responsibility for - and a senior Russian general was killed by a land mine in Chechnya. In Chechnya, a Russian commander told the Interfax news agency that the Chechen fighters "would be eliminated," and that "ruthless moves must be made against those bastards." Chechen fighters retaliated with an attack on a Russian military unit July 12. More than 30,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since Yeltsin sent troops to Chechnya to smash its declaration of independence 19 months ago.

Turkish gov't squeaks into office
Turkey's parliament endorsed Necmettin Erbakan, leader the conservative Welfare Party, for prime minister by a close vote of 278 to 265 on July 8. Erbakan formed a coalition agreement with former prime minister Tansu Ciller's True Path Party. Erbakan has since dropped his campaign promises to pull Turkey out of NATO and to create an Islamic United Nations. Instead, he reaffirmed Turkey's status as a "democratic, secular and social state of law."

U.S. officials told Erbakan that Washington is willing to work with his government as long U.S. military interests in the region aren't threatened. Turkey's parliament is set to vote on renewing the mandate of "Operation Provide Comfort II" - a U.S.-British-French air force that patrols northern Iraq from bases in southern Turkey - later in July.

Kenyan cops attack strikers
Police attacked hundreds of striking city employees and bystanders, including women and children, with clubs on July 11 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Hundreds of the 17,000 striking workers were at the demonstration on the second day of the strike. The workers blocked the streets with stones, guard rails, and overturned kiosks.

The city employees were demonstrating at city hall in Nairobi demanding $8 million in back pay. The back pay has accumulated over five years following a labor settlement that increased city worker's salaries.

Tamil attacks Sri Lanka officials
A member of the independence group Tamil Tigers exploded a suicide bomb at a Sri Lankan government minister's motorcade in the city of Jaffna July 5, killing herself and 21 others, including a senior army commander. It was the first major attack by the Tamil Tigers on the Jaffna peninsula since the government captured it seven months ago.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The Tamils have been discriminated against in education and jobs. Although the government forces have controlled the city of Jaffna since last December, and announced it had driven the Tamils off the Jaffna peninsula, the resistance continues almost daily.

Guatemalan peasants occupy embassy demanding housing
Almost 1,000 peasants in Guatemala peacefully occupied the Costa Rican embassy July 12 to put pressure on the government of Alvaro Arzu' in their demands for housing. A spokesperson of the group said that they targeted that embassy as president Arzu' was in San Jose', capital of Costa Rica, attending a meeting of heads of state from Central America and Chile.

"We are asking the intervention" of the embassy representatives to have the government listen to the peasants, who live around the cliffs of the metropolitan area, about their demands for housing, added the spokesperson. They are also asking for the legalization of the lands they have occupied in the metropolitan area. "We want the government to meet our demands because people are starving and freezing to death around the cliffs," said the spokesperson after he asked, "Where is the peace" that Arzu' is talking about.

Wall Street takes a tumble
The Dow Jones industrial stock average plunged nearly 200 points between July 4 and July 12, sending Wall Street into a frenzy. As of July 12, the market had not recovered and was down 5 percent from its record closing high of 5,778 achieved in late May. The latest tumble came after reports by technology giants Motorola and Hewlett-Packard of slowing growth and increasing price competition.

"Everybody is panicking," one investment boss told the Wall Street Journal. "We are watching the lemmings fly out the window." According to the London Financial Times, investment officials "point out that the pattern of stock market movements over the past year is potentially even more ominous than in the run-up to the 1987 stock market crash."

-Megan Arney  
 
 
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