At the hearing, Bent Sorenson, who runs a torture victim's rehabilitation center, noted an admission by late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin that 8,000 prisoners were subjected to severe torture.

Seoul textile company goes broke
The Yusung company - one of south Korea's largest textile companies - filed for bankruptcy May 7. Amassing huge debts beyond their means, they joined two major steel producers and several banks, including the country's 19th-largest conglomerate, the Jinro Group, which have collapsed under the capitalist economic crisis there.

Foreign bankers are comparing the economic crisis in south Korea to the conditions in Mexico in 1994 that lead to the devaluation of the peso. Seoul's external debt increased by 33 percent, reaching $104.5 billion in 1996. The government estimates it to surge to $144 billion in 1997.

Chile miners protest pit closures
Nearly 1,000 coal miners marched in Santiago, Chile, May 5 to protest the closing down of the state run pits that operated for 150 years. They came from Lota, some 545 kilometers (215 miles) south of the capital. As demonstrators approached the presidential palace, they were blocked by a solid chain of 1,200 military cops.

Cops attacked the demonstrators, leaving seven activists injured and 30 detained. Six of the protest leaders made it to the palace. Initially removed from the palace, the unionists, accompanied by Roberto Alarcón, president of the Central Union of Workers (CUT), and Christian Democratic congressman Rodolfo Seguel, were let in to voice their demands.

Honduran chorti's demand rights
On May 5, some 3,000 chorti's (native Hondurans) began a march to Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. They were protesting the killing of Cándido Amador and Ovidio Pe'rez, two of their leaders, and demanded the regime carry out reforms it promised.

They vowed not to leave until the government responds to their demands for educational and medical supplies, roads, technical assistance, government issued credits to allow them to work the land, and other reforms.

States ban late-term abortions
In a bipartisan move, the New Jersey Assembly overwhelmingly voted to ban a type of late-term abortion. The Senate is expected to also pass the measure. Nearly a dozen states have passed laws that outlaw the intact dilation and evacuation procedure for late-term abortions. Michigan, South Carolina, Utah, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, and South Dakota are among those states included. Twenty-one other states have bills pending.

The anti-choice legislation was voted down in eight states. Some capitalist politicians who supposedly support abortion rights are backing the ban. Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings, touted as a longtime supporter of abortion rights, justified his flip-flop by saying his "role up there in Washington is to represent the South Carolina view." Meanwhile, Congress is relaunching proposals for a federal ban to outlaw the procedure, defeated last year.

Clinton's "no sex" education
Under the proposed budget, the Clinton administration has offered $250 million dollars to states that will teach "the virtues of abstinence" exclusively for sex education in classrooms. To qualify, no education of condom use or other forms of contraception would be permitted. Local governments must also agree to teach, among other things, that sex outside of marriage "is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects." It is unclear how many states will accept the funds due to the restrictions.

Black church burned in Georgia
A church largely attended by Blacks in Marietta, Georgia, was set on fire on the early morning of May 7. Ignited in six different places, the 108-year-old cinder-block building was scorched in the front, and the rest of the church had smoke damage. The fire officials who put out the blaze, notified the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI, who are "investigating" arsons of Black churches. Their findings: while some of the fires set are racially motivated there is no pattern behind them.

Court whittles at Fourth Amendment rights
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously April 28 that cops would get no blanket exemptions from the constitutional rule that requires them to knock on doors and announce their presence before bashing in on a search warrant.

The ruling was in response to a decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court that would give police the right to forcibly enter any place they have a drug-related search warrant. At the same time, the high court upheld a Madison, Wisconsin, court ruling deciding that cops there who forcibly entered a man's house on drug possession suspicions were justified because alleged evidence could be destroyed as soon as cops knock on the door.

WTO ruling favors U.S. bosses
U.S. capitalists scored a blow against European Union (EU) bosses in a recent ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO), when it deemed the EU ban on U.S. hormone treated beef was outside the bounds of multilateral trade rules. U.S. officials are hoping the EU will lift the ban, opening up a $100 million annual market for U.S. beef barons. The WTO argued that EU gripes about the health hazard of hormones has no scientific basis. The EU has the option of paying a fine instead of lifting the ban.

Washington is seeking a precedent that it can lever against other such trade barriers, like the one placed on imports of U.S apples in Japan. Some trade officials argue that the ruling could backfire on Wall Street in relation to U.S. restrictions on southeast Asian imports of shrimp, which Washington insists are not harvested according to U.S standards. One Clinton administration official noted, "On the essential questions, the WTO panel is on our side."

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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