Police arrested Texas resident Wadih el Hage, who they claim served as bin Laden's secretary, and are holding him without bond. In addition, German cops detained Mahmduh Mahmud Salim in Bavaria September 16. Salim faces probable extradition to the United States. Dubbed a "top lieutenant" of bin Laden by the big-business press, Salim was seized by "special antiterrorist police" with no evidence of criminal intent, admitted Bavarian state interior minister Guenter Beckstein. The only basis for the arrest was a demand by Washington to arrest him. Salim says that he is innocent.
Israeli settler kills Palestinian
An Israeli settler in West Bank opened fire with M-16
rifles on a group of Palestinian teenagers returning home
from school September 17, killing one youth and injuring
another. The settler surrendered to the cops, claiming he was
retaliating for stones thrown at his car. But witnesses
insisted that the shooting was unprovoked. "There was no
stone throwing and no need for shooting," said high school
student Hassan al-Qadi. "They were shooting randomly." The
gunman, Avshalom Ladani, is being allowed to stay in a
Jerusalem hostel with his family while Israeli authorities
decide whether to pursue formal charges against him.
More layoffs in Indonesia
Rini Soewandi, president-director at PT Astra
International - Indonesia's largest automobile
producer - said she would lay off nearly a fourth of the
company's 100,000-plus employees in "restructuring moves."
Anticipating workers' reaction, Soewandi called for "law and
order." Protests and food riots spread across the island
nation in the first two weeks of September. The price for
basic foods like rice has more than doubled since July, as
the government pushes through more austerity measures,
including cutting price subsidies. According to the
government's food minister, at least 17 million Indonesians
suffer from food shortages. In the large industrial city of
Medan, 6,000 cab drivers are on strike.
Ecuador's currency is devalued
The central bank of Ecuador was forced to devalue the
national currency, the sucre, nearly 11 percent September 14.
Export prices of oil, bananas, and shrimp - primarily to
Asian buyers - have fizzled. Oil sales generated 30 percent
of Ecuador's export profits in 1997.
Claiming the government needs to respond to the currency meltdown, newly elected president Jamil Mahuad plans to cut government subsidies on electricity, natural gas, and oil - a $500 million annual expense. Mahuad will also cut funds to public services. At the same time, he promised a public- relief package averaging $16.40 a month to "shelter" poor families.
Senate fails to override veto of ban on abortion procedure
Opponents of a woman's right to choose narrowly failed to
muster enough votes in the U.S. Senate to overturn President
William Clinton's veto of a proposed ban on a type of late-
term abortion procedure. The 64-to-36 vote taken was three
shy of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a
presidential veto.
Black women face much higher maternal death rate than whites
According to a study announced by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention September 3, between 18 and 22 Black
women died from complications with pregnancy or childbirth
for each 100,000 live births - almost four times the rate for
women who are white. The rates remained essentially the same
over the course of the study, conducted from 1982 to 1996.
More than half of these deaths were caused by excess
bleeding, infection, pregnancy-induced high blood pressure,
or irregular pregnancies - problems that can usually be
prevented or treated with early diagnosis.
Basque fighters call cease-fire
The organization Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA), which
is fighting for independence of the Basque Country from Spain
and France, announced an open-ended cease-fire September 16.
A four-page statement issued by the ETA reads, "Taking into
account the situation of the Basque Country, as well as
present opportunity and longing for freedom, Euskadi Ta
Askatasuna [ETA] announces an indefinite, complete cessation
of military operations." ETA reserved the right to retaliate
against aggression and did not disarm. "We would not be
entering into this new situation" without the continued fight
from Basque people, the statement said. Spanish authorities,
who have framed-up, jailed, and murdered supporters of Basque
independence for decades, reacted cooly to the nationalist
initiative. Prime Minister José María Aznar said, "After 39
years of terrorist activity, we cannot give ETA the benefit
of the doubt." Meanwhile, on September 19, 23 political
parties, labor unions, and others called for unconditional
multilateral talks with the ETA.
UN backs Algerian dictatorship
A United Nations "fact-finding team" visited Algeria last
summer and issued a report September 16 blaming "Islamic
radicals" for most of the killing taking place in that
country and calling for the "world's sympathy" for the
government there. The report spoke in general terms about
"excesses" against civilians that the government has carried
out. Amnesty International called the report a "whitewash" of
that government's abuses, pointing out that the so-called
fact finders made no effort to meet with the Islamic
Salvation Front (FIS) or anyone else Algerian rulers consider
"security risks."
In 1992 the FIS was poised to win elections by a landslide. The vote was canceled after a military coup. The FIS was then officially dissolved and many of its leaders were jailed or killed. As the Algerian people began protesting the coup, the army turned on them setting off a civil war that resulted in the deaths of more than 75,000 people. While the Algerian government blames a splinter group of the FIS for most of the killings, mounting evidence points to the ruling class there as the creators of death squads.
Moscow issues rubles to pay debt
The Russian government began issuing billions of rubles in
loans to its all banks September 18 in an effort to pay
debts, setting aside dire warnings of hyperinflation by U.S.
and other officials. New Russian prime minister Yevgeny
Primakov's regime will allow Russian banks to repay the loans
with bonds that were frozen when that country devalued its
currency August 17. But foreign investors' bonds remain
frozen and can't be used to repay loans. Some of these
bankers sent Primakov a letter protesting unequal treatment.
According to the plan, after all the loans have been
distributed, those banks that cannot repay them, go under.
Meanwhile, as the ruble continues to fall, the value of
foreign-owned treasury bonds in Russia has plummeted from $11
billion in mid-August to $5 billion.
-BRIAN TAYLOR