EVENTS
IRAN FEARS IT IS NEXT US TARGET Iran's fiercely critical reaction to the US missile strike on its traditional enemy, Iraq, reflects growing apprehension in Tehran that the Clinton administration may use similar tactics against it, diplomats said yesterday. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Sunday the United States had violated the UN charter and international law, and that it "would only result in promoting a culture of violence and state terrorism." Diplomats in Tehran said Iranian leaders were smarting from a new US policy of "dual-cont ainment" that regards Iranian hostility toward Washington as equal to that of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Some of Washington's Western allies have not shown enthusiasm for the new policy of outright hostility toward Tehran. But diplomats said the allies were expected to come under pressure to endorse it at the Group of Seven summit in Tokyo July 7. Redistricting challenged
State legislatures may violate white voters' rights when they create congressional election districts containing majorities of minority voters to comply with the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The 5-4 decision revived a challenge to a congressional redistricting plan for North Carolina that created two majority-black districts. The challenged plan was drawn to satisfy a Justice Department objection to a previous plan the state Legislature drew. The decision could jeopardize other majority-minority districts as well.
The North Carolina districts are among about two dozen districts in the US with black or Hispanic majorities created under Justice Department pressure following the 1990 census. As a result, 13 additional blacks and six more Hispanics were elected to Congress last year. Mississippi flooding
Fast-moving debris carried by flood waters that forced the closure of more than 500 miles of the Mississippi River is making a dangerous situation worse, authorities said. The flooding and the debris, which includes everything from tree limbs to picnic tables to dead deer, have halted commercial and most recreational use of the river from St. Louis, Mo. to St. Paul, Minn. The Army Corps of Engineers was forced to close dams and locks along the 500-mile stretch of river over the weekend. Indian premier accused
A stockbroker charged in a huge financial scandal in India played a tape recording that he said proved his claim that Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao accepted a $325,000 political donation. Although it is not clear such a donation would violate election law, Rao could be forced from office by public outrage if it was shown he took money from a man accused in one of India's worst financial crimes. Stockbroker Harshad Mehta, a suspect in a $1.2 billion scheme involving illegal trading in stocks b y banks, called a news conference yesterday to buttress charges he made earlier against Rao. German violence
Police suspect neo-Nazis set two fires at the home of a sleeping Moroccan family yesterday in the latest outbreak of rightist violence against foreigners. And in Berlin on Sunday, three men who gave Nazi salutes beat and robbed a Japanese tourist at a commuter train station, police said.
A Moroccan woman who had been sleeping in the burning house in Monchengladbach was revived by firefighters, but suffered smoke inhalation. Her four children and sister escaped after a passer-by raised the alarm. Turkish bomb blast
A bomb thrown onto the lawn of a boarding house in the Turkish Mediterranean resort town Antalya Sunday night injured 26 people, including 12 European tourists, the governor of Antalya province said yesterday. Within a few minutes of the boarding house blast, another explosion damaged a car outside the Sheraton Vogager Hotel. No one was hurt.
Twelve people were arrested immediately after the blasts; nine were later released. Newspapers blamed the attacks on the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, which last month declared all-out war on Turkey.
