Government officials have been debating how to press austerity measures at a time when unemployment has jumped to nearly 8 percent and the annual inflation rate is 10 percent. The country's public debt was nearly 90 percent of gross domestic product last year. In early September Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed through the cabinet a proposal to cut government spending by $658 million, saying that would reduce the budget deficit to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product.

South Korea auto workers strike
Some 22,000 auto workers at Kia Motors in south Korea launched a two-day strike September 29 to protest bankruptcy proceedings that would lead to job losses. The workers have given up summer holidays, bonuses, and other concessions demanded by the company. They called for the government to take measures to halt the bankruptcy moves.

Meanwhile, the U.S. auto barons are pressing the Clinton administration to squeeze the south Korean regime into opening its auto market for U.S. companies. U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky said the Big Three auto giants - Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors - have less than 1 percent of market share in south Korea, despite a 1995 trade pact to provide greater market access there.

Currency crisis deepens in Asia
The Indonesian rupiah dropped 9.3 percent against the dollar October 3, the Malaysian ringgit plunged 1.9 percent, and the Philippine peso plummeted to another new low before rising slightly as currency turmoil remains unabated in the region. The Banker Association of the Philippines has discussed reinstating a currency band as a way to restore stability to the exchange rate. Several companies in the Philippines announced problems with debt payments, reflecting the deepening economic crisis engulfing Southeast Asia.

"You're definitely going to see a surge in bad debt," declared Seema Desai, regional economist at Schroders Securities in Singapore. On October 1 Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad renewed his call to "do away with trade in currency as a commodity" at an economic conference in Santiago, Chile. The currency instability was triggered July 2 when bank officials in Thailand released the Thai baht from any set relation with the dollar and it immediately plunged 17 percent against the U.S. currency. Other currencies in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines went through similar devaluations in the following weeks.

U.S. officials defend AIDS study in underdeveloped countries
Harold Varmus, a doctor and the director of the National Institutes of Health, and David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, defended as morally ethical their experiments on more than 12,000 pregnant women in Third World countries who are infected with the H.I.V. virus. In this research half the women are given a dummy pill, while the others receive the drug AZT, which can reduce by two-thirds the transmission of the virus from mothers to infants. The women live in Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Thailand, Dominican Republic, and other underdeveloped nations, where researchers claim the full treatment with AZT is too expensive. They are experimenting to see what impact smaller doses have.

Instability stalks regime in Italy
The Olive Tree coalition government of Italy faces possible collapse after members of the Reconstructed Communism (RC) party in parliament opposed a budget that would chop $2.9 billion from the country's pension and heath- care systems. State pension expenditures are 14 percent of the gross domestic product - double the average of other countries in Europe. Prime Minister Romano Prodi seeks to impose the austerity measures as part of meeting requirements for entering the European Monetary Union in 1999. Prodi, who relies on 35 deputies from the RC for his majority in parliament, could be forced to resign. Parliament scheduled a vote of confidence in the 18-month- old government for October 7.

More protests demand social services in Dominican Republic
In cities across the Dominican Republic, residents have been pressing demands for improved living conditions. In the town of Dajabón, a general strike paralyzed all production and social services. Organizers called a halt to the work stoppage September 27, after agreeing to a two-week "waiting period" for government officials to resolve the problems of water, electricity, schools, and for the dismissal of the governor, Santiago Batista Morel, who they called "incompetent." The coalition organizing the mass actions included unions, peasant organizations, youth and cultural groups.

Earlier, cops attacked demonstrators in the towns of Naguabo and Salcedo September 17, wounding six. The protesters, who had blocked roads pressing demands for improved services, fought back with homemade bombs. The day before, one cop was killed and another wounded during protests in Salcedo, which is 110 miles north of the capital, Santo Domingo.

Mexican citizen executed in U.S.
Mario Murphy, a Mexican citizen, was killed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia September 17, despite a request from the Mexican government for clemency. Murphy was the only person to receive the death penalty among five other people who were also convicted in a 1991 murder conspiracy plot.

He was one of 61 foreign death row inmates in the United States who were not informed of their rights under the 1963 Treaty of Vienna that requires the U.S. government to inform them that they have the right to consult their national embassies for help. Last June, the execution of Mexican national Irineo Montoya in Texas sparked protests in Mexico.

Continental pilots reject contract
The Independent Association of Continental Pilots at Continental Airlines and Continental Express announced October 3 that the union had rejected the company's contract offer. The 5,000 pilots say their average pay is 38 percent less than the average salaries of pilots at other airlines and are demanding parity. The union officialdom has delayed initiating strike action and will continue to negotiate through October.

Meanwhile, pilots at United Parcel Service voted 1,861 to 39 to reject the company's contract proposal. They stated UPS did not pay their wages on a scale with major airlines and the company's rival, Federal Express. Officials of the pilots union said they would not strike this year, however. During the UPS drivers strike in August, the pilots honored the Teamsters picket lines and threatened to walk off the job during the busy holiday season over their own contract.

N.Y. cop is convicted in choking
Former New York cop Francis Livoti was found guilty October 1 of slapping and choking Steven Resto in 1993. He faces a maximum one year prison term. Livoti was acquitted of criminal charges in the 1994 killing of Anthony Báez, but under the pressure of protests he was fired for using an illegal choke hold in that case.

- MAURICE WILLIAMS  
 
 
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