Mexico's inflation rises
Consumer prices in Mexico rose 8 percent in April, a faster pace than in previous months. The April inflation works out to an annualized rate of 151 percent. Tax increases and fuel-price hikes implemented as part of government austerity measures spurred the jump. Before the economic crisis that began with the devaluation of the peso in December, then-president Carlos Salinas predicted inflation for 1995 would be kept to a single digit.

Caracas youth demand justice
Students in Caracas, Venezuela, protested the high cost of living May 8 and demanded justice in the police killing of a classmate during a similar protest a year earlier.

No police officer has ever been charged in the shooting of 15-year-old Germán Sotillo, who died after receiving two gunshots to the chest on May 5, 1994.

This year's protest, which went on for four hours, closed businesses and forced the suspension of classes. Police responded to the demonstration with tear gas and rubber bullets. At least 10 students were detained and taken to the police station.

Chilean general admits abuses
A Chilean air force general admitted April 29 that the military committed human rights abuses during almost 17 years of military rule under Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Gen. Fernando Rojas said, "The families find it hard to reach a reconciliation due to some cases of abuse." Pinochet caused a stir two days earlier when he said an Argentine general exposed atrocities of the dirty war there because, "he was never under fire, as we were."

Moreover, a Chilean navy commander responded to the dirty-war revelations by saying that the navy "does not have to provide any explanations" about what happened during Chile's military dictatorship between September 1973 and March 1990.

Guyana gov't allows abortions
Guyana's Parliament threw out a 134-year-old law governing reproductive rights May 4 and legalized abortion under certain circumstances. The new bill makes Guyana the second Caribbean Community member with laws allowing modern medical abortions.

After six hours of debate, Parliament passed the law by a vote of 32 to 21. Dr. Hughley Hanoman, a disgruntled member of Parliament, accused supporters of the measure of "bringing western immorality into this country."

Ireland abortion ruling
Ireland's Supreme Court affirmed legislation May 12 granting women access to information on abortion services outside the country. Abortions are illegal in Ireland except when a woman's life is in danger. The new law implements part of a 1992 referendum to change the constitution guaranteeing the right to information on abortion services and travel to seek the procedure.

The vote followed street mobilizations demanding a 14- year-old rape victim be allowed to travel to Britain for an abortion. An estimated 5,000 Irish women a year journey to Britain to have abortions.

The legislation does not permit abortion providers to advertise on billboards or in unsolicited publications. Doctors are also barred from making arrangements for or recommending the procedure.

British union denounces anti-immigrant plan
The National Union of Civil and Public Servants in Britain condemned London's recent proposal to turn thousands of public officials and employees into de facto immigration agents.

The union called the proposal "a license for racism and a recipe for disaster." Under the plan government staff would be encouraged to identify immigrant workers and their families to immigration officials, who could then use the information to block access to public housing and training courses to workers suspected of being undocumented.

Miners protest in South Korea
The Pyongyang Times reported more than 5,000 people protested in Sabuk, South Korea, earlier this year to demand an end to government restructuring of the coal industry. Since 1988, 303 of the country's 347 mines have been closed, the newspaper reported. The number of working miners dropped from 62,000 to about 15,000.

Burmese youth sentenced
Nine young people were sentenced to seven years in prison each in Burma for praising U Nu, the country's only elected prime minister, at his funeral in February. The youths were among about 50 people, many of them students, arrested at the February 20 burial.

U Nu became Burma's first prime minister after the Southeast Asian country won independence from British colonialism in 1948. A military coup ousted him in 1969; the nation has been under army control since.

Parents face fines
Starting next school year, parents of every child in Virginia's public schools must sign and return a copy of school rules or pay fines of up to $50. Gov. George Allen signed the law May 5, which also allows fines of $500 against parents unable to meet with school officials to discuss their children. "If parents don't try, then there are penalties, and I don't think that's unfair," said Marian Van Landingham, the Democratic legislator who sponsored the bill.

Meanwhile, the government in Tennessee empowered judges to fine parents $50 if their children miss what officials consider too many days of school. The government in Maryland increased penalties against parents whose children are truant to $100 a day or 30 days in jail, and judges have begun enforcing the measures.

Food stamp rolls fell
The number of people receiving food stamps in the United States fell by more than 1 million from February 1994 to February 1995. Analysts credit the drop to government restrictions on the program and an upturn in hiring. More than 10 percent of the U.S. population relies on some food stamp assistance.

The number of food stamp recipients rose to nearly 28 million in March of 1994, three years after the economy went into a recovery, as incomes for many workers continued to erode.

Alabama inmate files suit
An inmate at the Limestone Correctional Facility in Athens, Alabama, filed suit against Gov. Fob James and prison officials, arguing that working on one of the state's chain gangs violates his civil rights.

Michael Austin, 29, is one of 320 prisoners forced to work on Limestone's recently reinstituted chain gangs. Austin cites the 8th Amendment, which prohibits slavery and cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the 14th Amendment, which protects the right to due process of the law, in demanding compensation from the state.

- PAT SMITH  
 
 
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