O Calamity Jean Chretien, leader of the Liberal Party, will be the prime minister of Canada. He replaces Kim Campbell, whose Conservative Party was drummed out of all but two of its 157 seats. The Bloc Quebecois, which wants sovereignty for French Canada, will be the main opposition. Bill Clinton gave a carefully upbeat assessment of the American economy,saying that 'we are finally seeing signs of hope.' He was supported by subsequent news that GDP rose by an annualised 2.8% in the third quarter. The administration's health-care legislation was at last produced. It included an increase in the tax on each packet of cigarettes from 24 to 75 cents; a cap on health insurance premiums paid by individuals to 3.9% of their pay; and a revision of the deficit-reduction estimate for the package from Dollars 91 billion to Dollars 58 billion in 1995-2000. Sharon Pratt Kelly, the mayor of Washington, DC, asked for authority to call up the National Guard to deal with violent crime in the city. Mr Clinton said the decision rested with Congress, which he hoped would co-operate. Hopes dimmed for the peaceful return of democracy to Haiti. A UN-brokered plan calling for the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from exile was in tatters as the country's military rulers refused to resign. Deadly revenge An IRA bomb in Northern Ireland killed ten people, including a bomber, and injured more than 50. The British government banned Gerry Adams, the president of the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, from the mainland. He later attended the funeral of the bomber. Loyalist terrorists responded to the bomb by shooting Catholics. The Irish government announced a peace plan,though there was little new in it. European heads of government gathered for a summit meeting in Brussels to celebrate the ratification of the Maastricht treaty. The treaty comes into force on November 1st. Boris Yeltsin signed a decree permitting farmland to be traded freely in Russia for the first time since 1917. The Bosnian government cracked down on criminal gangs and warlords who had been terrorising Sarajevo, killing 18 people and arresting over 500. Constantine Mitsotakis, defeated in last month's Greek general election, resigned as leader of the opposition New Democracy party. Greece conducted another mass expulsion of illegal Albanian immigrants. This time it threw out 2,700.Ruling out the prospect of East European members until 'the distant future', NATO instead endorsed an American proposal to offer would-be applicants 'partnerships for peace'. These are bilateral deals allowing countries to participate in some NATO operations but without any security guarantees. As part of his attempt to revive the French centre-justify, Michel Rocard was overwhelmingly elected as secretary-general of the Socialist Party, which he has led provisionally since March. Come together Talks began in Indonesia between the Philippine government and Muslim separatists from the island of Mindanao. It was the first time the two sides had met formally since the insurrection began two decades ago. Reports in South Korea suggested that America might grant North Korea diplomatic recognition in return for permission for the IAEA to inspect the country's nuclear facilities. The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, refused to sign an agreement on dismantling nuclear weapons with Warren Christopher, the American secretary of state. He wanted a full-blown ceremony with Bill Clinton. Point of departure A mass exodus of foreigners from Algeria could follow President Mitterrand's warning that he might evacuate the tens of thousands of French nationals living there. This follows a spate of fundamentalist attacks on expatriates, including the kidnapping of three French consular officials. Israel released 617 Palestinian prisoners but dropped its plan to include some members of Hamas, the Muslim resistance movement. Two Americans, a Frenchman and an Egyptian were murdered in a Cairo hotel. The authorities, anxious to protect Egypt's shattered tourist industry, said the assassin was not a Muslim militant, but was deranged. The Angolan government and UNITA rebels met for secret UN-sponsored talks in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, to try to negotiate an end to the fighting. A coup in Burundi, in which the president, Melchior Ndadaye, was murdered, crumbled. Army generals called on the prime minister, Sylvie Kinigi, to come out of hiding and take control of the country.Thousands died in inter-ethnic fighting.
@AGNews 2003 |