News In Brief
NATO officials could not agree that the air war against Yugoslavia had ended, with spokesman Jamie Shea insisting it hadn't and Germany's Defense Minister claiming it had. Meanwhile, the head of the Yugoslav delegation negotiating details of the Serb pullout from Kosovo with NATO commanders left the talks for the third time in 24 hours. But an unspecified number of Serb police reportedly left Kosovo on orders of the Army high command.
Euphoria over Monday's national election in Indonesia turned to worry at the glacial pace of vote-counting. There were growing suspicions of fraud as the ruling - but widely unpopular - Golkar Party surged from a distant third place to second behind the opposition Democratic Party for Struggle, with 6 percent of the returns tallied. Elections officials appealed for patience and the military leadership warned against overreaction by competing political parties that could set back Indonesia's democratic process.
A plan to combat record unemployment with "several hundred thousand" temporary jobs - mostly in the public-service sector - will be announced by Japan's government, reports said. The move, expected by Friday, is intended to replace jobs lost in the recent wave of corporate cost-cutting, with still more layoffs due in the coming year. Just under 5 million Japanese were unemployed in April.
China has made the first arrests of followers of the movement whose silent demonstration in Beijing April 25 caught the government by surprise, reports said. The Wall Street Journal and Agence France Press said dozens of adherents of Falun Gong were detained following weeks of official pressure to quit the movement. The Journal also quoted members as saying the government has labeled Falun Gong a cult, opening its leaders to prosecution. The turnout by an estimated 10,000 people sought legal protection for the movement.
Despite low expectations for their success, Pakistan's foreign minister said he'd go to India Saturday for talks on the fighting in disputed Kashmir. On the ground, Indian forces said they won back two positions held by Islamic guerrillas they claim are largely regulars in Pakistan's Army.
The third bomb explosion in less than a week aimed at an Iranian opposition movement operating from exile in Iraq killed seven people. Thirty-seven others were hurt. The Mujahideen Khalq has thousands of guerrillas in camps near the border and reportedly enjoys a close relationship with the Iraqi government. It often attempts sabotage against Iranian targets and claimed responsibility for assassinating a senior Army commander in April.
Defying the Supreme Court, the House of Commons in Canada overwhelmingly adopted a declaration that marriage is a union of a man and a woman. The 216-to-55 vote angered homosexuals, who've lobbied for legalized same-sex marriages. On May 20, the high court threw out the heterosexual definition of marriage in a case involving alimony payments between former lesbian partners.
