World
Northern Ireland's main Protestant leader David Trimble said he can't back a London-Dublin plan to revive the province's peace process unless the Irish Republican Army begins disarming immediately. Speaking after a meeting of his Ulster Unionist Party in Belfast, Trimble (above) said an IRA proposal to disarm "verifiably beyond use" did not go far enough, though it's been widely viewed as a major breakthrough in saving Northern Ireland's peace accord. Trimble quit as first minister of the province's power-sharing government last month. If the parties can't agree on a new first minister by Aug. 12, Britain must call new elections or suspend the home-rule government. (Story, page 10.)
Efforts to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for the deaths of 1.7 million people during the 1970s took a step forward when Cambodia's Constitutional Council approved a revised draft law that establishes the framework for a UN-assisted tribunal. Surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are accused of crimes against humanity. King Norodom Sihanouk must now sign the measure. After that, the government and UN would have to agree on details of a tribunal, which could take several months. (Story, page 1.)
Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami was to take his oath of office today for a second, four-year term after the country's reformist parliament ended a stand-off with the hard-line judiciary over the election of two legal experts to the Guardian Council, which vets all legislation. Khatami was due to be sworn in Sunday, but conservatives argued all 12 council members had to be present. Parliament originally rejected the nominees as politically biased, but yesterday it elected two hard-liners after the voting process was altered to make it hard for them to be rejected.
The Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels signed a cease-fire, a major step toward ending decades of fighting in the southern Philippines. The agreement, signed by President Gloria Arroyo and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, leaves one Muslim group, the Abu Sayyaf, fighting for independence from the largely Catholic country. The extremist group is holding dozens of hostages, at least two of them Americans.
Violence flared in the Macedonian capital Skopje as well as in Tetovo, dealing a new blow to peace talks already stalled by a sudden demand that ethnic Albanian rebels be disarmed before a peace deal is finalized. Macedonian police said they killed five Albanian rebels in a raid in Skopje, and the army fired at rebels who attacked checkpoints in and around Tetovo.
A methane gas explosion deep in a coal mine in western Romania killed at least 14 miners and injured two others in the country's worst mining accident in more than a decade. The cause of the explosion was not yet known. Miners were working at a depth of 1,115 feet when the explosion occurred in the Vulcan, Romania's main coalfield some 185 miles northwest of the capital, Bucharest.