Jordanians protest bread prices
More than 2,000 people demonstrated in Karak, Jordan, in mid- August, burning four banks and government buildings over a nearly three-fold hike in bread prices. The price jumped overnight to 34 cents from the state subsidized 13 cents. The Jordanian government said the measure was needed to lower the budget deficit and bring down the foreign debt ratio - about 100 percent of Gross National Product - to meet demands from the International Monetary Fund.

The government unleashed riot police who tear gassed demonstrators, imposed a curfew, arrested some 300 people, and cut electricity in an attempt to curb the protests. King Hussein has vowed to quell further unrest with an "iron fist," while blaming the unrest on the Jordanian Arab Socialist Baath Party.

Bavaria passes anti-abortion law
On August 7 the government of Bavaria, one of the 16 states in Germany, approved a new law that violates federal legislation on abortion in two key areas. Women will have to give a reason for seeking to terminate pregnancy. The law also sets a limit of 25 percent on the proportion of the income doctors may earn from abortions.

Women in East Germany won the right to state financed abortions in 1972. The procedure remained heavily restricted in West Germany. In 1992, following reunification of the country, months of discussions and demonstrations in favor of legalizing the abortion won a national abortion rights law. The Constitutional Court ruled in 1993 that abortion is not constitutionally legal, citing an 1872 law. Last year a second compromise was approved maintaining the overall unlawful status of abortion that still exists in the former West Germany. The law in Bavaria is due to take effect in September.

Strikes in UK hit six-year high
According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics in Britain, the last year has seen the most working days lost to companies by striking workers in six years. The number of strike days since June 1995 totals 592,000. Official strike statistics in Great Britain only cover disputes that are connected with terms and conditions of employment. The Liverpool dockers strike, which began last September, has not been recorded because the workers were locked-out. In June of this year alone, some 228,000 working days were withheld by strikers.

De Klerk claims `rogue cops' responsible for apartheid abuses
F.W. de Klerk, the former president of South Africa, formally apologized for human rights abuses and oppression of the Black majority carried out under his administration of the apartheid system. Speaking before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he said rogue security forces had committed atrocities, but that he himself had never issued an order for murder or torture.

He acknowledged that the governments of his National Party had authorized "unconventional" actions which "created the environment within which abuses and gross violations of human rights could take place." But he said, "No president... can know everything which takes place."

Cops attack Colombia farmers
Police attacked some 75,000 peasants in the state of Caquetá August 20 as the farmers protested the government order to eradicate their coca crops by fumigation. The conflict extends through the states of Guaviare, Putumayo and Caquetá, where more than 100,000 peasants make their living on coca harvest that covers 40,000 hectares (1 hectare= 2.471 acres) of land. The confrontation with the army in these three states has left six dead and 120 wounded in the past 30 days.

In Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo, nearly 20,000 peasants occupied local government buildings, including the mayor's office. Representatives of the Colombian government and the peasants in Putumayo signed an agreement to substitute the coca plantations and end the protest against the destruction of that crop. The government says it will grant the peasants credit, farming land, and sustenance prices for the crops that would replace coca.

Company to continue Cuba deal
Grupo Domos, a Mexican telephone company, defied a U.S. government warning August 21 to halt its investment plans in Cuba. The company stated it "will continue with its original plans respecting investment in Cuba." The Clinton administration said that about a half dozen executives of Grupo Domos will have their visas revoked unless Domos divests or complies with U.S. laws concerning investment in Cuba.

Under the so-called Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, which was signed by Clinton in March, stockholders, executives and their families, companies that do business in Cuba on property confiscated from Americans after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, are no longer entitled to U.S. visas.

Haiti gov't pushes privatization
Some 20 ex-members of Haiti's army were arrested in mid- August for the attack on governmental buildings and the assassination of two rightist politicians. Newly elected president Rene Preval said the attacks were carried out in opposition to his proposals of privatization. The proposals include the privatization of several major state enterprises, cutting 15 percent of civil service jobs and a wage freeze for public service. Haiti already has a jobless rate of at least 60 percent.

In a show of force, Washington sent another 49 soldiers to Haiti August 21 for what it said were training exercises. Three hundred U.S. combat engineers are stationed in Haiti, along with a 1,500-member United Nations force installed following a 1994 U.S. invasion. U.S. Army Capt. Michael Doubleday said government opponents should realize Washington is "watching very closely what's going on."

Racists pleads guilty to arson
Two former Ku Klux Klan members face up to 55 years in prison for torching two predominately Black churches last year. Gary Cox and Timothy Welch pleaded guilty August 14 for burning Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville, South Carolina and the century- old Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville, S.C. More than 70 predominantly Black churches have been arsoned since the beginning of 1995.

N.Y. cop indicted in killing
On August 15, a Bronx grand jury has indicted a New York City transit cop on charges of first-degree manslaughter. Officer Paolo Colecchia is accused of repeatedly and deliberately shooting at an unarmed man as he fled down a deserted subway platform. Only moments before, Colecchia had frisked Nathaniel Levi Gaines Jr., 25, for weapons. Gaines died hours after the shooting. Colecchia, who has pleaded not guilty, said there was a struggle for the gun during the arrest and the gun went off. However, Gaines, who is Black, was shot in the back at six to eight feet away.

Racist city ordinance challenged
A city ordinance that restricts the number of people, related by blood or marriage, who could live together has been challenged by the Justice Department. The ordinance permits only a husband and wife, their children and no more than two additional relatives to live in one home regardless of size. The Justice Department reported that Waukegan, Illinois city officials repeatedly made known their racist attitudes toward new Latino residents and "declared that they intended to prevent Latinos from `taking over' Waukegan." Since it was enacted June 6, city records show that all those evicted under the ordinance have been Hispanic. City housing inspectors have repeatedly inspected the homes of Latino families in compliance with the ordinance, and these families have been required to sign pledges of future compliance.

- MEGAN ARNEY

Birgitta Isacsson in Stockholm, Sweden, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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