Thousands of people in Finland risk their lives daily drinking or washing with radioactive well water. Health officials say more than a third of Finland's 2,000 yearly lung cancer cases stem from radon.
Ankara authorizes war
Turkey's Parliament June 8 authorized the government to
declare war on Greece following ratification by Athens of
the international Law of the Sea treaty, which authorizes
territorial waters to 12 nautical miles. Ankara has warned
that it will wage war to prevent the Greek government from
extending its territorial waters beyond six miles. A
government spokesperson said the resolution was intended
"with friendly sentiments."
Many Greek islands are within 3 to 10 miles of the western coast of Turkey. The Turkish and Greek governments organized simultaneous military exercises in the Aegean Sea at the time the Law of the Sea treaty took effect in November last year. In 1987 the two countries threatened war over mineral rights and exploration in the Aegean.
Caspian oil route plans delayed
The governments of Russia, Iran, and Georgia forced the
delay of plans to open a transportation route for shipment
of Caspian Sea oil being extracted from offshore fields in
Azerbaijan. A consortium that includes large British, U.S.,
and Russian oil companies is involved in the $8 billion
project, but its plans are being stymied by fierce
competition over the export route for Azeri oil.
The governments of Russia, Iran, and Turkmenistan have joined forces to insist that any extraction from the Caspian Sea must be subject to the approval of all the surrounding states. U.S. companies hold a 44 percent share of the oil consortium.
Indian troops fire on marchers
Indian security forces fired at least 250 tear gas
shells June 9 to stop thousands of Muslims from
participating in a religious procession through Srinagar,
the capital of Kashmir. Yasin Malik, a leader of the Jammu-
Kashmir Liberation Front, was arrested as he tried to lead
2,000 people in the march. Kashmiris have been waging a
campaign for self-determination in opposition to New Delhi's
rule. Some 20,000 people have died in the conflict over the
past six years.
Seoul says no rice to N. Korea
The South Korean government urged Tokyo to withhold
emergency rice shipments requested by Pyongyang until the
North Korean government agrees to meet Seoul officials on
food aid policies. According to the Financial Times, Seoul
views Pyongyang's rice shortage as a way to pressure the
North Korean government into negotiations.
Vietnamese protest squelched
Malaysian riot police used tear gas and water cannons
June 5 to crush a demonstration by Vietnamese refugees. The
refugees, who were protesting forced repatriation, also say
conditions in the Sungei Besi refugee camp are
deteriorating. The Malaysian government said it intends to
close the camp by the end of August.
More than 254,000 Vietnamese refugees made their way to Malaysia between 1975 and 1990, with many going on to other countries. They are among more than 1.6 million people who fled South Vietnam after the U.S.-backed Saigon regime fell in 1975.
Rwanda: `No more UN troops'
"We don't need any more military," said Manzi
Bakuramutsa, Rwanda's representative at the United Nations.
Bakuramutsa said his government could protect its own
citizens without UN help.
Rwandan government authorities said that the UN force is costly, useless, and undisciplined. "It's cheaper in the long run to support reconstruction and reconciliation than to sustain refugee camps,"
Bakuramutsa told the New York Times. In a compromise, the UN Security Council voted June 10 to reduce the 5,600 UN troops to 1,800 within four months.
Transplants hard for poor
According to a report in the New York Times, whether a
person gets on a list for an organ transplant depends on how
rich they are and how well they can manipulate the organ
transplant system. "You have to pass the critical wallet
biopsy," said Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for
Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Among the factors that could be used to exclude someone from receiving an organ transplant are having a criminal record, being mentally retarded, and having suffered a recent death or loss of someone close to you. In one case the family of a man in Tampa, Florida, who was a Ku Klux Klan sympathizer, instructed that his organs not be given to Blacks. The local organ procurement agency agreed to the condition, arguing that to do otherwise would deprive needy patients.
Abortion ban reinstated
The U.S. House of Representatives National Security
Committee May 24 voted to reinstate a near ban on abortions
at overseas military facilities.
In 1984, a ban on abortion funding was added to the Department of Defense's authorization act. An assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration interpreted the funding ban to prohibit nearly all abortions at overseas military facilities. In 1993, President Clinton issued an executive order allowing abortions when not funded by the government. The latest congressional move would reinstate the ban on providing abortions at overseas military facilities even if personnel use their own funds to pay for the procedure.
Tear gas use in Waco questioned
The U.S. government's actions in firing hundreds of
rounds of a military-style tear gas into the Branch Davidian
compound near Waco, Texas, two years ago has come under
increased scrutiny. "All of those young children who
breathed that gas for hours and didn't have masks would have
been in intensive care if they had survived," said Dr. Alan
Stone, a Harvard University professor who was chosen by the
Justice Department to review its actions at Waco. Another
reviewer said he found a Justice Department's report on the
Waco episode full of glowing appraisals. "That is appalling
to me when children die in a fire and there is a precedent
for it," he said, referring to the five children who burned
to death in 1985 when city officials dropped a bomb on the
MOVE community building in Philadelphia.
- MAURICE WILLIAMS