From: covici@ccs.covici.com (John Covici)
Reply-To: covici@ccs.covici.com
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: News 08/15/92
Date: 20 Aug 92 23:17:59 GMT
Organization: Covici Computer Systems

Russian military issues 
   resolution against Japan
   
At closed-door hearings of the
Russian Parliament Constitutional
Committee on July 28, the Russian
military issued a ``Resolution of the
Russian Federation's Armed Forces General
Staff on the problem of territorial
delimitation between Russia and Japan.''
The statement criticized Russia's Foreign
Ministry and stated that no compromise is
possible with Tokyo over the Kurile
Islands. 
   The resolution criticizes the
Japanese for ``tying up the question of
... financial help ... extension of
economic cooperation, and signing a
peaceful treaty between Russia and Japan
with the resolution of the `territorial
issue.'|'' 
   After detailing the importance of
the Kuriles for Russia, the resolution
notes: ``The Japanese possession of the
southern part of the Kuriles may create,
should there be a war with Japan, a
serious threat to the rest of the
islands, when seizure or at least control
over them would completely preclude the
deployment of the naval forces in the
Pacific Ocean, would considerably
complicate'' the defense of Kamchatka
Island, and ``would provide the adversary
with an important superiority.'' The
resolution adds, ``The military-political
leadership in the U.S. and Japan regard
Hokkaido Isle as a main launching pad for
deploying landing groupings against the
Russian Far East.'' 
   The document warns that the Kuriles
should not be traded for ``a transient
economic profit.'' 

   Argentine-Chile border 
   pact meets resistance 
   
A border agreement which Argentine
President Carlos Menem wants to sign with
Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, by
which Argentina would cede 1,057 square
kilometers of territory in the Patagonian
province of Santa Cruz to Chile, has
provoked intense resistance in Argentina.
A statement published in the Aug. 7 {La
Prensa,} signed by former Presidents
Arturo Frondizi and Juan Carlos Ongania,
asserts that by moving the border
eastward, as the agreement contemplates,
Argentina would not only lose control of
the Santa Cruz River basin, but that this
would also affect Argentina's claims to
the Antarctica ``to the exclusive benefit
of Great Britain and Chile.'' 
   Argentine Defense Minister Erma@aan
Gonza@aalez has emphasized that
resolution of this dispute, which most
Argentines recognize as having already
been resolved in a 1902 Papal edict, will
guarantee the demilitarization of both
nations. 
   However, there is not yet sufficient
support inside Congress for the bill that
Menem is supposed to present in Chile on
Aug. 27. There have been mass protests in
front of the Congress and frantic
attempts by Foreign Minister Guido Di
Tella to muster the necessary votes. 
   In a statement on Aug. 7, Col.
Mohamed Ali@aa Seineldi@aan, the
nationalist leader imprisoned after the
Dec. 3, 1990 uprising against the Army
high command, attacked Menem's giveaway
as a ``scandalous and shameful'' decision
coherent with his policy of dismantling
the Armed Forces.
   Seineldi@aan warned Menem that,
unless he changes his policies, ``with an
ignored population, dispossessed
territory ... and violated sovereignty,
there can be no state or nation.'' 

   Russian paper praises
   pope for his leadership
   
{Nezavisimaya Gazeta,} an
independent Russian newspaper, called
Pope John Paul II ``the friend of freedom
and the foe of despondency,'' in a story
on Aug. 4 about the pope's latest
illness. It noted that Russians, even
Orthodox Christians, were concerned about
his health. ``What is the secret of John
Paul II?'' the publication asked. 
   The article stressed the pope's role
within the Catholic Church and the way he
affected processes of change in eastern
Europe. ``For those who were waiting for
changes, for those who during all these
years followed the activities of the pope
... John Paul II is the friend of freedom
and the foe of despondency.... It is
possible ... to recall many of his
prayers, speeches, and addresses in which
he talked about the fact that pessimism
and despondency cannot be justified....
Many followed his everyday activities as
well as the activities of Solidarnosc
which in our historic conscience is
connected with its spiritual (and not
only spiritual) father--the pope.''
Despair, despondence, and pessimism were
rejected by John Paul II not only ``in
words, but in practice.'' 
   The article claimed that because of
the strength the Catholic Church has
shown under the pope's leadership, the
Russian Orthodox Church has also grown in
numbers and developed a new internal
strength. ``Without all that has been done
by John Paul II it is impossible to fully
comprehend the history of Europe in the
20th century--including ... the history
of the return to Christianity in Russia
... at the end of this century.'' 

   Azeri forces step up 
   aerial bombardments 
   
Azerbaijani forces have stepped up
aerial attacks against Armenians in the
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in
Azerbaijan, including the first-ever air
attacks on the Karabakh capital of
Stepanakert. At least 20 Armenians were
killed and 50 wounded in an air attack in
early August. In protest, the Armenian
delegation has stormed out of the
multinational talks on Karabakh which are
now taking place in Rome. 
   In an interview with BBC on Aug. 7,
Britain's Baroness Cox gave an account of
the devastation in Karabakh, many details
of which have been independently
confirmed by {EIR.} She said, based on a
trip to the region, that the situation
has ``deteriorated very seriously since
June.'' The Armenians are feeling more
and more desperate, as they are faced
with constant bombardments, food
shortages, refugee flows, and masses of
people living in underground shelters.
Azeri forces have adopted a ``scorched
earth'' strategy against the Armenians in
towns or villages they have conquered,
including using incendiary bombs to burn
down houses. The Azeris have ``an
enormous preponderance of weaponry,'' and
are now subjecting the Armenians to
``fearful aerial bombardments.'' The
Armenians have no capability to
retaliate by air, and no intention, in
any case, of doing so. 
   Baroness Cox said the mood in
Karabakh was one of ``great despair,'' with
the Armenian population faced with
``enormous suffering.'' She warned, ``They
are in danger of being annihilated, and
the world is in danger of looking away.'' 

   British monarchy moves 
   to restore censorship
   
The recent uproar in England over
press leaks on alleged sexual escapades
of minister John Mellor, which culminated
in stern warnings by the Press Council,
is part of a campaign by the British
monarchy to gag the press and prevent
further indiscretions as to their
financial and other evil-doings,
according to Irish sources. 
   This assessment coheres with actions
taken recently by the intelligence
services against the press. On July 31,
for example, the High Court in London
held Channel 4 television in contempt for
refusing to disclose its sources for a
documentary alleging that the British
military in Northern Ireland was linked
to loyalist death squads, and was fined
@bp75,000. These sources would most
certainly be murdered were their names to
become known. All leading journalists in
the country have denounced the court's
decision as, as one journalist put it,
``the end of investigative journalism in
this country.'' 
   This ruling is of the greatest
importance in the light of the new
directive by Miss Remington, head of
MI-5, that British security forces may
engage in domestic terrorist operations
as ``stings.'' 
   Similarly, Alan Muir of {The Sun}
and Ron MacKay of {Scotland on Sunday}
were arrested in raids on their homes in
England and Scotland, after they
published a report on a mysterious
break-in to Edinburgh police headquarters
on July 18 which was highly critical of
police security and claimed that stolen
information had been passed on to
terrorist groups. McKay was charged with
reset, a Scottish term for receiving
stolen goods, although it appears that
neither of the journalists ever saw or
received the files. 

   Austrian paper warns
   against `new Versailles'
   
A realization of U.N. plans for a
new Kuwait-Iraq border would be ``a new
Versailles at the Persian Gulf,'' the
Aug. 6 Austrian daily {Die Presse} wrote.
The paper warned of a repetition of the
blunders of 1919 that brought no peace to
Europe after the First World War. 
   The result of the U.N. border plan
would be the implantation of instability
and revanchism in the region for the long
term, thus increasing the potential for new
conflicts in the future. This is also the
analysis of Arab diplomats who are
critical of Saddam Hussein but are at the same
time criticizing the U.N. scheme which is
backed, in their view, by a ``shortsighted
policy of the Americans,'' the paper
reported. 
   Even opposition Iraqis such as Gen.
Hassan al Naqib, who is living in exile
in Damascus, oppose the U.N. border plan
as a ``time bomb'' against stability in the
Persian Gulf region. This indicates, {Die
Presse} wrote, that the problem will
remain under a post-Saddam regime. 
   Meanwhile, opposition to the use of
force to oust Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein has been growing. Malaysian Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad said, ``We will
not support any action to invade Iraq
just to unseat Saddam. Our stand is clear
as we are against military aggression,''
the Aug. 8 {New Straits Times} reported.
Mahathir said Iraq's neighbors could
build up their defenses with foreign help
if they felt Baghdad threatened their
sovereignty. 
   Russian President Boris Yeltsin said
after his meeting with Ukraine President
Leonid Kravchuk in Yalta on Aug. 3, that
there is no need for special action
against Iraq since it is currently
meeting all U.N. conditions. 

   MALAYSIAN
Foreign Minister Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi expressed grave concern over
China's moves in the South China Sea, the
government news agency Bernama reported
Aug. 1. We are getting ``uneasy signals''
from China with its moves in the area, he
said. ``It is important that they do not
send the wrong signals,'' he warned. 

   EVIDENCE
of massive dope trading by
U.S.-backed Afghan rebel groups has been
suppressed by the U.S., the Pakistani
daily {The News} reported Aug. 2. When
the news first broke some time ago, U.S.
officials in Islamabad intervened to
cover the affair up, the daily reported. 

   AFGHANISTAN
security forces head
Gen. Abdul Rasul Parwani died Aug. 2 when
a bomb placed under his car detonated,
according to reports from Kabul. No group
has yet claimed authorship of the attack.
Afghani security services have come under
attack in Anglo-American intelligence and
media circles recently for cooperating
too closely with Iran. 

   THE ZIMBABWE
weekly newspaper {The
People's Voice} reported on Lyndon
LaRouche's illegal prosecution for a
second time, in its June 28 edition.
The article, entitled ``Bush `Prisoner'
Wins North Dakota Primary,'' covered his
proposal to nationalize the Federal
Reserve and create 6 million jobs. 

   AZERBAIJAN
is establishing
diplomatic relations with Iraq, Radio
Moscow reported Aug. 8. A full embassy is
soon to be opened, and an ambassador will
be dispatched to Baghdad. 

   INDONESIA
halted sales of
the {Wall Street Journal} and
{International Herald Tribune} on Aug. 7
after the government demanded they
apologize for publishing an ``unethical''
advertisement. DHL International Ltd., a
courier firm, on Aug. 5 apologized for
its advertisement, which showed portraits
of five Asian leaders with Indonesian
President Suharto next to that of a DHL
employee. 

U.S. churches: Iraq 
   needs humanitarian aid 
   
Leaders of 15 national church bodies
on Aug. 3 called on Washington to work
with the United Nations to ensure that
humanitarian aid reaches the Iraqi
people. The church officials stressed in
a joint statement that the world community
``and in particular the United States, is
also to be held responsible for the
continuing humanitarian consequences of
the air war against Iraq.'' They
continued that ``as a matter of
principle, humanitarian relief should be
unconditional.... We express our deep
concern that the United Nations Security
Council is violating this principle in
the case of Iraq, thereby making the
health of many Iraqi children apparently
contingent on the fulfillment of
political requirements of some Security
Council members.'' 
   Denominational leaders signing the
statement included Episcopal Presiding
Bishop Edmond Browning. Denominations
represented included the United
Methodist Church, the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, and the
Quakers. 

   Center to study Southern
   culture created in N.C.
   
The University of North Carolina
said Aug. 3 that it was establishing a
Center for the Study of the American
South to oversee research on the
nation's most populous region, according
to the {Washington Times.} This
``culture'' that the university center
will be studying includes everything
from ``Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King
and Tennessee Williams to the War Between
the States, the War on Poverty and the
`cola wars' between Coca Cola and its
rivals.'' 
   The {Washington Times} reported that
sociologist John Shelton Reed, interim
director of the center, wants to promote
``analysis and an understanding of the
interaction among ... political,
economic, environmental, medical, social,
and cultural [factors] that shape the
history and future of the South.'' A
scholarly journal 
will focus on topics such as ``politics
of faith in the South,'' and ``Southern
and country music.'' The center will
pattern itself on a number of other such
centers, like the one at the University of South
Carolina, which have turned the
U.S. South into a separate ``cultural
studies'' discipline. 
           
   More OSI victims sue
   Justice Department 
   
The American Ukrainian Political
Action Council of the United States,
along with William Nezowy, its president,
and Frank Walus, Radoslav Artukovic, and
Anu Linnas, filed suit July 27 in federal
court, challenging the constitutionality
of the so-called ``Holtzman Amendment''
to the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The complaint, filed in the District of
Columbia, names as defendants Attorney
General William P. Barr, the Department
of Justice, the Justice Department's
Office of Special Investigations (OSI),
Neal M. Sher, Director of OSI, and the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. 
   The Holtzman Amendment was named for
then-Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, who was a
prime mover, along with the
Anti-Defamation League and the {New York
Times}, behind the creation of the
Justice Department's so-called
``Nazi-hunting'' unit, now headed by Neal
Sher. 
   The action charges that the Holtzman
Amendment was unconstitutionally applied
by the Justice Department, OSI, and Sher,
which selectively and improperly enforced
its provisions for political
considerations against only those
American citizens of eastern European
origin. The complaint points out that, of
the approximately 40 actions brought by
OSI under the Holtzman Amendment, only
two were against citizens whose nation of
origin was any other area under Nazi
occupation or control. 
   The complaint further challenges the
procedures and methods used by OSI in
enforcing the Holtzman Amendment as
violating American constitutional
guarantees, by denying to defendants of
OSI denaturalization and deportation
proceedings even the appearance of due
process. 

   African-American mason
   hits Scottish Rite racism
   
Leaders of African-American
freemasonic organizations have attacked
white masonry, particularly the Scottish
Rite, as a center of racialism. The
attack is contained in the latest issue
of the {News Quarterly} (Spring, 1992),
the publication of the ``Supreme Council,
Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction,
Prince Hall affiliation,'' in an article
by editor Joseph A. Walkes. 
   Walkes exposes 19th-century Scottish
Rite Commander Albert Pike as the
national Chief Justice of the Invisible
Empire of the Ku Klux Klan, and the
organizer and alleged Grand Dragon of the
Klan in Arkansas. Walkes describes Albert
Pike as a ``traitor to his country.'' The
article carries a photograph of the
memorial statue to Pike that is on
federal property in central Washington,
D.C. under the care of the U.S.
Department of Labor. Walkes calls the
monument to the KKK founder and
Confederate general ``an affront'' to the
residents of the nation's capital, most
of whom are black. 
   The Prince Hall Masons' initiative
occurs during a similar, ecumenical
campaign by leaders of the Southern
Baptist Convention. The Baptists' June
1992 national meeting adopted an
anti-masonic resolution targeting the
``racial discrimination'' of secret
societies. Recent literature of the
Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, also
hits white masonry for racism against
blacks. 

   Milken gets reduced
   sentence, keeps loot
   
The prison sentence of junk-bond
king Michael Milken was reduced from 10
to 2 years on Aug. 5 because he
cooperated with federal prosecutors and
testified against former associates.
Milken and his family retain at least
half a billion dollars of his ill-gotten
gains. The stink of the Milken deal is
too much for even the {Wall Street
Journal,} which has a sharp nose for
police-state tactics--when they are
directed against Wall Street financiers
or Republicans. 
   Nationally syndicated columnist Mike
Royko praised Michael Milken and the
sentence reduction in a flagrantly racist
piece printed in the Aug. 7 {Chicago
Tribune.} Under the headline, ``Bald
Truth: Milken a Crook to Admire,'' Royko
argues that ``Milken is a financial
genius. And the crimes he is accused of
required a brilliant, creative mind. He
wasn't busting in store windows and
grabbing kitchen appliances or
wristwatches.... To do what he did,
Milken had to study hard ... and go on to
advanced degrees in economics and
business. Isn't education one of our
nation's top priorities?'' 
   Royko is an ally of the
Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith, to
which Milken contributed at least $1
million for its ``World of Difference''
campaign which has infiltrated schools
and police departments around the
country. 

   `Balkanization' hitting
   U.S., moots London daily
   
Events in California are helping
bring about the ``balkanization'' of the
United States, wrote Charles Laurence of
the London {Daily Telegraph} on Aug. 11.
Laurence was reporting on California
State Assemblyman Stan Statham's campaign
for California to be split up into three
states: North California, South
California, and Central California.
``This is northern California, and we are
a different country,'' Statham proclaims.
``We are a rural country, with rural
values, clean air, and low crime figures.
We want to be left to keep it that
way.... I tell you that by the year 2000,
there will be two more stars on the
American flag.'' 
   According to Laurence, ``what he is
talking about is the secession of all the
Californian counties north of Simi Valley
and the Los Angeles conurbation from the
Golden State, and not since the American
Civil War has such an idea of secession
been taken so seriously. On the day in
early June when Californians voted in the
presidential primaries, those in the
northern half were also invited to vote
on whether they would like to hive
themselves off from the south. For the
secessionists, it was the perfect moment.
Los Angeles had just been consumed by
race riots. The vote was overwhelming; 37
of 41 counties were in favor.'' 
   Wrote Laurence: ``The idea of U.S.
Balkanization, the negation of the old
code of the Melting Pot, has gained
strength for a decade.'' Parallel
movements are developing in Staten
Island, New York; in Florida; and
elsewhere in the United States. 

   Letter calls for troops
   to police inner cities
   
A signed commentary in the Aug. 8
{Baltimore Sun} called on 
Baltimore's Mayor Kurt Schmoke to request
the deployment of U.S. troops ``currently
stationed in Maryland to the worst
sections of the city.'' Declaring that
``Baltimore, Washington, and other major
cities are in a state of siege as a
result of drugs and ... monsters who do
not have any values,'' the 
letter from John Pantelides said the
``troops could be dressed in police
uniforms or be undercover.'' 
   The piece continues the recent
drumbeat emanating from the circles of
Mayor Schmoke. Schmoke is a leading
proponent for legalizing drugs and
``treating'' the problem as a ``public
health problem.'' 
   Pantelides' appeal for police-state
measures is couched in liberal
phraseology, but appeals to the fear
of urban residents. 
   ``Many people who object              
to using the military are usually living
in the suburbs and don't have to face the
violence and fear for the lives of their
loved ones.... I would remind my more
conservative friends that if we fail to
save those city kids now who are
approaching the crossroads, then we
should be ready to pay at least $25,000
apiece each year to keep them in jail.'' 

   MICHAEL BILLINGTON'S
motion
to have the Virginia Supreme Court rehear
his appeal before the entire court was
denied on July 31. Billington, an
associate and co-defendant of Lyndon
LaRouche, was sentenced to 77 years in
prison on bogus ``securities fraud''
charges. He plans to file papers
requesting that his bond be extended
while he prepares his appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court. 

   VIRGINIA'S
Attorney General
Mary Sue Terry's latest death row
victim, Mickey Wayne Davidson, scheduled
to be executed in Virginia in mid-August,
has so far refused to use his appeal
rights to fight his sentence. His case will be an
unfortunate precedent, setting a record
for the shortest time between a
conviction and an execution. Despite the
fact that he pleaded guilty, Judge Charles H.
Smith heard evidence before sentencing
him to death. 

   MANY U.S. JEWS
are becoming
increasingly concerned about certain
groups with their own agendas which are
pushing a ``Holocaust industry,'' almost
replacing religion, according to the Aug.
4 German daily {Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung.} The distorted image of the Nazi
genocide machine they give, blacks out
resistance to the Nazis by non-Jewish
Germans, as well as their efforts to save
Germany's Jews. 

   BOSTON'S
City Council has passed an
ordinance to compel all city restaurants
and bars to install condom vending
machines, according to a Reuters dispatch
Aug. 7. It must be ratified by Mayor
Raymond Flynn. 

   TWO CONNECTICUT
papers have
urged George Bush not to seek reelection.
The {Waterbury Republican-American} and
the {New Britain Herald} charge,
according to Reuter, that ``Bush had run
out of ideas on how to deal with the
economy.... It is time to step aside.'' 
Great Britain
   
Major urged to speed up
   infrastructure spending
   
Two institutes have warned of a
deepening recession in Britain and have
urged the government to stimulate the
economy with public infrastructure
investments. 
   The Institute of Purchasing and
Supply (IPS) reports that production
growth in the manufacturing industry is
at zero and that new orders have
significantly declined. 
   The Oxford Economic Forecasting
Group forecasts that national output
(Gross Domestic Product) will be down
1.1% this year and proposes higher public
spending in infrastructure and specific
help for the housing market. 
   The semi-annual report of the
chemical giant ICI, a traditional
economic measure for British industry,
showed a 17% before taxes loss for the first
half of 1992 and ICI chief Henderson said
he sees ``no sign whatsoever for an end to
the recession.'' 
   Tory Prime Minister John Major, however,
announced that he is ready to endure a
``bitter autumn'' for his popularity, by
keeping the pound sterling parity with European
currencies and toughening his
anti-inflationary policy. According to
the latest Mori poll for the London
{Sunday Times,} the opposition Labour
Party is now ahead of
the Tories for the first time since the
last elections. 

   Trade
   
Canadian opponents of
   NAFTA go on the attack
   
Canadian opponents of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
mounted an attack on the treaty even
before government officials from the
United States, Mexico, and Canada
finished negotiating it on Aug. 13,
Reuters reported Aug. 6. 
   The leader of the opposition New
Democrats has gone on the road across
Canada and to Chicago to rally
opposition. The Free Trade Agreement with
the United States signed several years
ago ``has been a disaster
for Canada,'' New Democrats leader Audrey
McLaughlin said in late July. ``Michael
Wilson has no mandate to go one step
further and sign a NAFTA ... no mandate
from Parliament, and certainly not one
from the people of Canada,'' she said. 
   Two New Democratic provincial prime
ministers, Bob Rae of Ontario and Michael
Harcourt of British Columbia, have called
on the Canadian government to pull out of
the talks. 
   Opponents are complaining they have
been shut out of negotiations conducted
in secret, even though the deal could
lead to huge changes in the economy and
the loss of jobs. According to Reuters,
their opposition is partly rooted in a
sharp rise in official unemployment, to
11.6% of the work force, during the
two-year recession--the highest among the
Group of Seven industrial nations. 

   Labor
   
Revolts against `reform'
   reported across China
   
In the ``rust belt'' of China, as the
old industrial heartland in Sichuan and
Manchuria provinces is now known, reports
of labor actions against the economic
austerity ``reform'' policies are
increasing. 
   Workers occupied the Chongqing
Knitting Mill in Sichuan's capital, and
took the city official in charge hostage
when it was announced that the mill was
to be shut down, Reuters reported on Aug.
3. The city Communist Party chief told
Reuters: ``I told them that if the factory
goes bankrupt, it does not mean they will
starve. It does mean they may not eat as
well, however.'' More than 40% of
Sichuan's state enterprises lost money in
the first half of 1992. 
   China Labor Minister Ruan Chongwu on
Aug. 3 confirmed reports that disgruntled
workers were staging protests but denied
they were exacerbated by reforms in the
state sector that have led to 1 million
job losses this year. Ruan said
redundancies were causing some discontent
among workers in state enterprises but
that three recent official surveys showed
94-98% of workers were satisfied with
China's labor reforms. ``There is a small
number of workers who are not happy with
these reforms,'' he said. 
   Meanwhile, Beijing allowed 66 firms
to go bankrupt in the first half of this
year, ``in the process of making
enterprises cut losses and operate
efficiently,'' Xinhua news agency reported
Aug. 5. Beijing has been reluctant to
allow so many bankruptcies for fear of
causing layoffs and social unrest. The
figure was far higher than Beijing had
previously admitted. Nine enterprises
were shut down in the city of Shenyang,
in China's industrial northeast, alone. 

   Disease
   
AIDS reaching alarming 
   proportions in Asia 
   
A majority of the world's 10 million
AIDS cases by the year 2000 will be found
in Asia, an Asian Development Bank (ADB)
report said on Aug. 2, Reuters reported
from Manila, the Philippines. 
   India and Thailand, which in 1987
had fewer than 1,000 cases each of
infection by the HIV virus which causes
AIDS, now have hundreds of thousands of
victims, the ADB's Infrastructure
Department and its Economic and
Development Resource Center said in the
report. Thailand has an estimated
200-400,000 cases of people infected with
the virus while India has between 400,000
and 1 million cases, according to an
excerpt from the report in the
ADB quarterly review. The number of
people who have the HIV virus is expected
to reach 40 million by the end of the
century and more than half of them will
be found in Asia, the report warned. 
   ``The epidemic appears much less
serious in other parts of the region,
although low recorded rates of infection
may be due to a combination of social
conventions which delay the disclosure of
infection, widespread ignorance of the
disease, and poor testing capabilities,''
it said. The epidemic is expected to
impose heavy economic costs on countries
affected. 

   Environmentalism
   
ASEAN denounces use of
   conditions on trade pacts
   
The Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) officials and business
leaders told U.S. counterparts at a
meeting in Bangkok that unilateral
American actions against developing
countries had impeded international
trade, according to Thailand's permanent
secretary for commerce Bajr Isarasena,
Reuters reported on Aug. 5. 
   ASEAN officials also told Deputy
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Moskow
that Washington should not use
environmental issues to win concessions
from other countries. ``We don't think
trade and environmental issues mix.
Raising the latter will disrupt trade,''
said Bajr, referring to a recent U.S.
decision to ban canned tuna imports from
countries accused of indiscriminate
fishing. 

   Manufactures 
   
Hamilton cited by NAM,
   but depression ignored
   
The National Association of
Manufacturers has mailed out a 27-page
``Report on Manufactures, 1992'' to mark
the bicentennial of first U.S. Treasury
Secretary Alexander Hamilton's {Report to
the Congress on the Subject of
Manufactures.} In a cover letter, NAM
president Jerry Jasinowski stated that
the Department of Commerce, pursuant to a
request of NAM, has agreed to undertake a
more extensive study of the role of
manufacturing in the U.S. economy. The
study will be done by the Commerce
Department's Economics and Statistics
Administration, and is scheduled to be
completed early next year. 
   At the beginning of the NAM report
is a letter to President Bush, which
quotes Hamilton: ``Not only the wealth but
the independence and safety of a country
appear to be materially connected with
the prosperity of manufactures.'' 
   Unfortunately, the quote from
Hamilton is the best part of the NAM
report. According to the NAM, ``The
contribution to economic output comprised
by value added in manufacturing has, over
the past four decades, remained
relatively stable at slightly more than a
fifth of GNP [Gross National Product],
with no evidence of secular
deindustrialization.'' The report claims
that U.S. manufacturing has enjoyed an
``export boom'' in the past few years. ``In
the 1990-91 recession specifically, the
improvement in net exports reduced the
severity of the GDP [Gross Domestic
Product] contraction by about one-third.'' 
   NAM does admit that financial and
regulatory pressures have adversely
affected manufacturing profit margins,
technology development, and investment in
new plant and equipment. 

   Dope, Inc. 
   
Colombia invites Friedman 
   to discuss legalization
   
On Aug. 6, Colombia's lower house of
Parliament voted unanimously in plenary
session to invite Univeristy of Chicago
economist Milton Friedman to address them
on why drugs should be legalized.
Friedman is a leading proponent of the
economic theory of ``free trade.'' 
   Congressman Rafael Serrano Prado
argued that it was important to compare
Friedman's theories with what is going on
in Colombia today, and added that he
agreed with Friedman that it was the
United States that had to solve the drug
problem, and that legalization was the
answer. 

   Infrastructure
   
Taiwan postpones push
   into 21st century
   
Taiwan, at best, is postponing its
ambitious $303 billion
infrastructure-building plan to bring the
country into the 21st century, the
{International Herald Tribune} reported
Aug. 4. Taiwanese Prime Minister Hau
Pei-tsun recently called the six-year
plan, which includes 775 projects, just a
``guideline,'' and said that the projects
must be subject to each year's budget
review. 
   One of the projects is a bullet
train connecting the island's main
cities. Foreign investors were expected
to bid for $50-70 billion in projects.
   Despite its $80 billion in reserves,
Taiwanese economists are concerned that
the government bonds needed to finance
the projects would reach $600 billion by
the year 2000, which is one and a
half times
Taiwan's annual Gross National Product.
Economists are concerned that this
situation could force the country to
raise taxes and interest rates, which
would be very damaging for the
labor-intensive industries which are the
backbone of the Taiwan economy. 

   CHINA
issued new restrictions on
fishing in its territorial waters,
meaning the entire South China Sea,
{China Daily} reported July 22. The new
restrictions include limits on the number
of fishing vessels to be allowed in
Chinese waters, the time of year they can
fish, and the types of nets to be used. 

   OIL AND GAS
well completions in the
United States collapsed 21.2% in the
first six months of this year, according
to the American Petroleum Institute.
There were 12,313 oil wells, natural gas
wells, and dry holes completed from
January to June, compared to 15,629 in
the same period last year. The total
footage drilled also declined 16.1%. 

   SIEMENS AG,
the German electronics
group, said Aug. 3 it would not complete
construction of a nuclear power plant in
Iran, despite strong requests by Teheran.
A Siemens spokesman told Reuters that it
became impossible to complete the plant
in Bushehr as the Bonn government would
not permit the export of certain crucial
components, such as a centrifuge, for a
reactor. Iran has invested about $3.73
billion in the plant, which Siemens's
subsidiary KWU started to build in 1975. 

   FARM PROFITS
in Texas will drop by
14% this year, says a Texas A&M study,
the Aug. 5 {Houston Chronicle} reported.
In the past two years, prices farmers
have received for their production has
decreased 2% while their costs have
increased 3%. This, combined with lower
government payments, will amount to a 14%
decrease in farm profits.

RUSLAN KHASBULATOV,
Speaker of the
Russian Parliament, began a week-long
trip to India Aug. 3, Radio Moscow
reported. In a visit to the Indian
Scientific Center and the Center for
Space Technology, he said that the
Russian agreement to sell rocket engines
to India for its space program ``must be
fulfilled, as it is in the national
interests of Russia and India. We will
not allow a third country to interfere in
this.'' 
                             



----
         John Covici
          covici@ccs.covici.com

Xref: sparky alt.activism:14725 alt.drugs:14585