
The hard sell is on in the North of Ireland, leading up to next month’s vote on the peace accord reached last week. Several hundred thousand glossy copies of the agreement landed on people’s doorsteps throughout the North today, only the start of a sales pitch that could also include a visit from President Clinton. The British government has also begun an ad campaign on radio and television, but has avoided calling outright for a yes vote in the May 22 referendum. The anti-agreement forces are also mobilizing. Protestant leader Ian Paisley is leading a campaign urging public rejection of the accord. We’ll have that story later in the show.
Citing concerns about protecting Americans traveling abroad, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has asked Virginia Governor James Gilmore to delay tonight’s execution of a citizen of Paraguay who says an international treaty was violated in his case. Albright wants Virginia to wait until the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, has a chance to rule on Paraguay’s claim that Ángel Francisco Breard, who’s 32 years old, deserves a new trial. Breard’s, attorneys argue he was not told he had a right to meet with a representative of Paraguay’s Consul at the time of his arrest. Gilmore’s spokesperson said last night the governor is reviewing the letter and awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether it will hear an appeal of the case. The World Court ordered the United States on Friday to delay the execution, but it has no enforcement power. The Justice Department advised the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday not to halt today’s scheduled execution. The Solicitor General’s Office said in a 52-page brief that the World Court order doesn’t justify stopping the execution.
The trial of former South African President P.W. Botha was postponed today to give lawyers time to negotiate a possible settlement and halt the court case, this according to Botha’s lawyer. Botha has been charged with refusing to appear before the statutory Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is investigating human rights abuses committed by all sides during the apartheid conflict. TRC Chair Archbishop Desmond Tutu told reporters that negotiations were continuing, but he could not say when they were likely to be completed.
U.N. weapons experts said today their most recent inspections of sites in Iraq, including formerly off-limits presidential buildings, have revealed no signs that Iraq possesses prohibited nuclear weapons or material. These findings by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency seem likely to rekindle debate about whether the Security Council should conclude that Iraq has complied with its orders issued after the '91 Persian Gulf War to get rid of its nuclear warfare program. Elimination of Iraq's programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is a precondition for ending the crippling economic sanctions the U.N. imposed on Iraq in 1990. The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission, meanwhile, issued a report charging that President Saddam Hussein’s government continues to engage in widespread human rights violations, including summary executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Kurds.
This news from Iran: Riot police wielding batons broke up a protest today in Iran by thousands of students demonstrating in support of Tehran’s detained mayor. Fistfights erupted between supporters of Mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi and his opponents outside Tehran University, and a few of the protesters were arrested. About 300 riot policemen closed off streets near the university, where 4,000 students were protesting, and then charged the demonstrators. Karbaschi’s arrest has turned into a showdown between supporters of President Mohammad Khatami and his powerful, hard-line opponents inside Iran’s government.
A small dissident group in Cuba said yesterday the 36-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the island has only helped Fidel Castro justify his tight grip on power. The Cuban Democratic Socialist Current, which observers describe as a social democratic group focused on human rights, said other dissident groups should join what it called a growing worldwide rejection of the embargo. The group said the embargo has “allowed the Cuban government to present itself as the only defender of the interests of a threatened nation.”
This news from Burma: The army there tortured and killed hundreds of people from the Shan ethnic minority and forced at least 300,000 others to flee their homes in the last two years, this according to a new Amnesty International report.
The tobacco industry today made available to the public thousands of documents it has had to surrender in the state of Minnesota’s $1.77 billion damage suit against cigarette makers. About 11,600 boxes stacked to the ceiling, containing more than 26 million pages, were housed in an unassuming building in an industrial area north of downtown Minneapolis.
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