Haitians may still be deported
U.S. courts are continuing nearly 4,000 deportation hearings against Haitian immigrants, despite a December 23 presidential order granting some 20,000 Haitians a one-year exemption from deportation under draconian new immigration laws. Haitian refugees and supporters called for immediately dropping the proceedings, which result in deportation roughly 85 percent of the time. Thousands of people demonstrated in Miami and Washington, D.C., in October, pressing the White House to grant the exemption. Haitians were not included in earlier legislation that exempted many Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran immigrants from deportation. Honduran immigrants are now demanding this provision be extended to them.

Executions restored in Bahamas
The Bahamian government - in the name of fighting crime - will reinstate the death penalty in mid-January for people convicted of murder. Four inmates have already been sentenced to death this year. The governments of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are also moving to legalize executions.

Canadian gov't issues `insulting' apology to Native peoples
On January 7 the Canadian government expressed "regret" to 1.3 million Native residents for 150 years of racist "assistance programs" and residential schools, but some indigenous leaders say the hollow apology is too little, too late. As part of its so-called amends, Ottawa promised to establish some social and economic development plans, which include a $245 million "healing fund" for Natives who were removed from their homes and forced into schools where they were forbidden to speak their own languages and practice their beliefs. These reparations fell far short of the demands put forward by indigenous activists. Native peoples face the highest unemployment and infant mortality rates in Canada.

The Canadian government also claimed it wanted to reverse its characterization of Louis Riel, who led a Métis rebellion against Canadian colonialists and was hanged for treason in 1885. But Ottawa did not revoke the treason charge. The government also left the status of the Métis people - those of mixed Native and European ancestry - unresolved, preventing them from making land claims and filing for some support programs. While leaders of the Assembly of First Nations and some other Native groups hailed the declaration as a victory, others disagreed. Marilyn Buffalo, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, said, "The federal government is insulting aboriginal people with this response."

German cops can `bug' homes
Helmut Kohl's ruling coalition government in Germany and the opposition Social Democrats reached an agreement January 7 to alter the German constitution by granting cops the authority to electronically peep into private homes to investigate "serious crimes" for the first time since the Nazi regime. In 1995 Kohl's former justice minister resigned over the proposed measure.

The agreement gives Kohl the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution, and the law is expected to pass January 16. The cops are to get permission from a judge before bugging a house, and conversations with doctors, tax advisors, and journalists must be reviewed by a court before being allowed as evidence. Herman Lutz, chairman of the so-called police union, complained that the law isn't strong enough because of these limits and because priests, defense attorneys, and some government officials will be excluded from bugging.

Demonstration demands release of Basque independence fighters
Tens of thousands of people came into the streets of Bilbao December 27 to demand that the Spanish government release 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna (Popular Unity), the Basque pro- independence political party. They have been sentenced to seven years in jail, charged with collaborating with the ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), an armed Basque liberation organization. Several Herri Batasuna supporters addressed the demonstration. The Basque leaders' so-called collaborative crime consisted of attempting to show an election campaign video on television that included the ETA's proposal for a process leading to self- determination for the Basque people, an oppressed nation in northern Spain and southern France.

Workers to Hong Kong gov't: `you killed chickens, you pay us'
On January 4 about 700 poultry workers demonstrated in downtown Hong Kong with signs that read, "No chickens, No Income" and "Give Us Back Our Jobs." The Tung Chee-hwa government, following growing hysteria around a flu that scientists say is probably linked to chickens, organized a slaughter of 1.3 million birds. As of the beginning of the year, 13 people were known to have the flu called A H5N1. The massive destruction of the chickens has left hundreds of poultry workers and truckers jobless. Small vendors have also suffered a big blow. The Hong Kong government promised to reimburse farmers for their chickens and cancel vendors' rent on the public markets for three months.

Apartheid ex-ruler faces trial
P.W. Botha, a former apartheid president in South Africa, faces criminal charges for refusing to answer a summons to testify before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission was designed to expose the atrocities carried out under the apartheid regime. Botha, who headed the government for more than a decade, denied any knowledge of or consent for the assassinations, torture, and bombings carried out by racist government security forces against South African freedom fighters. He ignored several subpoenas to come before the commission last year and instead submitted a 1,700-page denial of any direct involvement. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, commission chairman, filed the charges. Botha could be fined or get two years behind bars for ignoring the subpoena. Meanwhile, the state is considering halting its funding of Botha's attorney fees - which so far total more than $100,000 - for refusal to appear before the commission.

Death penalty record in Texas
A record-breaking 37 inmates were executed in the state of Texas in 1997. No state has put so many people to death in a year since 1930. Across the United States, 74 people behind bars were executed last year - the most in more than four decades. Seventeen of the 38 states where the death penalty is legal used it in 1997.

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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