Voice of America, 00-09-13

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From: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>

CONTENTS

[01] U-N-CYPRUS TALKS PROBLEM (S ONLY) BY BRECK ARDERY (UNITED NATIONS)

[02] NATO-BALKANS (L-O) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

[03] TURKEY / ISLAM (L-O) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

[04] BRITAIN / FUEL CRISIS (L) BY LAURIE KASSMAN (LONDON)

[05] BRITAIN / FUEL CRISIS (S&L-UPDATE) BY LAURIE KASSMAN (LONDON)

[06] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY ELAINE JOHANSON (NEW YORK)

[07] WEDNESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[01] U-N-CYPRUS TALKS PROBLEM (S ONLY) BY BRECK ARDERY (UNITED NATIONS)

INTRO: The President of Cyprus, Glafcos Clerides, decided not to attend the second day of U-N sponsored talks on Cyprus, as he seeks clarification of a statement by U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan. VOA Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from the United Nations.

TEXT: President Clerides is reportedly concerned about a statement made by Mr. Annan in which he described the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders as political equals. Mr. Clerides, who is internationally recognized as the President of Cyprus, wants that statement clarified. In the meantime, U-N mediator Alvaro de Soto did go ahead with talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. The United Nations is sponsoring so-called "proximity talks" in which both sides in the Cyprus dispute are met with separately. The hope is to lay the foundation for direct negotiations. U-N spokesman Fred Eckhard downplayed Mr. Clerides decision not to attend a second meeting with Mr. de Soto.

[02] NATO-BALKANS (L-O) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

INTRO: NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and U- N special envoy Carl Bildt spoke with NATO ambassadors about the upcoming elections in the Balkans. The NATO leader warned Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic about what would happen if he tried to campaign in Kosovo. Ron Pemstein reports from Brussels.

TEXT: Secretary-General Robertson says NATO troops will arrest President Milosevic if he tries to campaign in Kosovo.

[03] TURKEY / ISLAM (L-O) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

INTRO: A Turkish court has issued an arrest warrant for the country's first Islamic prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, on charges of inciting ethnic and religious hatred. But as Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara, the prosecution agreed to postpone the arrest.

TEXT: Hours after the warrant was issued, a state prosecutor agreed to a request from Mr. Erbakan's lawyers that his imprisonment be delayed because of their client's advanced age. In July, an appeals court upheld a year's prison sentence against the 74-year-old politician because of a speech he made several years ago in the largely Kurdish province of Bingol. Mr. Erbakan, the founder of Turkey's Islamic movement, was charged with seeking to incite religious enmity by criticizing the fact that Turkish students begin their school day by reciting nationalist slogans rather than verses from the Koran. The court case is the latest in a string of setbacks suffered by Mr. Erbakan. He was elected Turkey's first Islamic prime minister in 1996. But he was forced to step down only a year after taking office because of charges that his government was seeking to impose religious rule. Mr. Erbakan was barred from politics for five-years and his party, Welfare, was banned on similar charges. Turkey's powerful armed forces are at the forefront of the effort to crack down on Islamic radicalism, which army leaders describe as the number-one threat facing Turkey. Many analysts disagree. They say, if anything, the political influence of Islam is steadily waning in Turkey. Virtue, the party under which the Islamists regrouped after Mr. Erbakan's ouster, came in third in the most recent parliamentary elections (1999). Although the Islamists constitute the largest opposition group within the parliament, they have failed so far to mount any effective challenges to Turkey's coalition government.

[04] BRITAIN / FUEL CRISIS (L) BY LAURIE KASSMAN (LONDON)

INTRO: Britain's fuel crisis shows few signs improvement as more gas stations close and panicked shoppers empty markets. Correspondent Laurie Kassman reports from London one day after Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered oil companies to resume their deliveries.

TEXT: Some oil delivery trucks have left depots around the country, but many drivers have refused to defy protesters outside the facilities. Prime Minister Blair met with oil-company executives to see how to speed up delivery of fuel to 25-hundred designated sites to supply hospitals, clinics, and other emergency services. British Petroleum chief Malcolm Binder says he is concerned about the safety of the drivers.

[05] BRITAIN / FUEL CRISIS (S&L-UPDATE) BY LAURIE KASSMAN (LONDON)

INTRO: Protests over high fuel prices are spreading in many parts of Europe. Police in Britain have cleared paths outside oil depots so several-hundred trucks could deliver fuel supplies to hospitals and emergency services. But the situation is far from normal, with many other tanker drivers refusing to cross the picket lines. Correspondent Laurie Kassman has the latest from London.

TEXT: An angry Prime Minister Tony Blair accuses the protesters of endangering lives by continuing their blockades of fuel depots and their attempts to limit deliveries.

[06] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY ELAINE JOHANSON (NEW YORK)

INTRO: U-S stock prices were mixed today (Wednesday), with technology rebounding from a week's worth of weakness. However, a big takeover announcement in the financial services sector failed to stimulate a generally sluggish stock market. VOA correspondent Elaine Johanson reports from New York:

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 50 points, about one-half of one percent, closing at 11- thousand-182. Meanwhile, the Standard and Poor's 500 index gained three points. And the technology-weighted Nasdaq composite closed one percent higher. Analysts say lingering worries about corporate profits are keeping the market on edge. Trading has been choppy.

[07] WEDNESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Glancing at the editorial columns of several U-S newspapers this Wednesday, one sees widespread criticism of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the case of the Los Alamos nuclear secrets case. Another popular topic is the controversy over a new government report that says this country's entertainment industry targets children with violent material designed for adult audiences. Other editorials concern the upcoming China trade vote in the Senate, the growing outcry here and abroad over rising gasoline [petrol] prices, the delayed Palestinian statehood announcement, and the latest on religious repression around the globe. Now, here is _________ with a closer look and some excerpts in today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Wen Ho Lee, the Taiwan-born U-S nuclear scientist at the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, is apparently on the verge of being released from custody. In a plea bargain, he's agreeing to plead guilty to a single relatively minor charge of transferring classified data from a secure to an insecure computer, as the government drops an extensive case against him hinting he spied for China. Many newspapers are highly critical of the government's handling of the case. Some feel Mr. Lee was singled out because of his Chinese ethnicity, while others are upset because they feel there were real security lapses that now may go unexplained. The Savannah [Georgia] Morning News looks at the situation this way:

VOICE: Much of the case against Mr. Lee rested on the testimony of one F-B-I counterintelligence agent, Robert Messemer, whose stories about the scientist's supposed shady activities turned out to be flawed or flat-out [EDS: "unequivocally"] untrue. There was more than a whiff of smoke surrounding Mr. Lee -- he'd been under suspicion for over a decade. But the government could never produce the fire.

TEXT: Equally disturbed is The St. Louis [Missouri] Post-Dispatch:

VOICE: The investigation of ... [Mr.] Lee began with reports that [he] ... was a spy for China ...[whom] prosecutors said ... had stolen the "crown jewels" of America's nuclear weapons secrets. ... Now ... It has turned out that there was no evidence ... Mr. Lee was a spy. ... It is hard to see the plea bargain as anything but a government surrender to the reality that its case has deteriorated.

TEXT: Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette grumbles that the case "has left a lot of unanswered questions," while Tuesday afternoon's Honolulu [Hawaii] Star- Bulletin scoffs that "Blunders led to [the] release ..." And in San Francisco, The Examiner complains that: "Seldom has an agreement to settle criminal charges been more unsatisfying." Moving on to the other major topic -- a new government report that says the nation's entertainment industry aggressively markets violent content intended only for adults, to children. The Miami Herald is one of many outraged dailies.

VOICE: The evidence is persuasive, if not conclusive, that a child exposed to a high level of media violence through movies, music and video games is apt to behave more aggressively, more physically, more violently. The fact that the violence-entertainment industry ... regulates itself with warning labels deemed to protect children under 17 is a tacit admission of potential harm and public concern. ... Yet this is tricky territory. Government restraints must be applied carefully, if at all. /// OPT

TEXT: The Philadelphia Inquirer complains: "Entertainment moguls violate public trust with marketing campaigns aimed at youth," adding:

VOICE: ... The Federal Trade commission reported ... "pervasive and aggressive marketing" of violence to the young through movies, records and video games. ...[However] The ultimate responsibility still rests with parents. The rating systems could be a valid tool for them -- if they pay attention and use their consumer clout to support businesses that enforce ratings and punish those that don't.

TEXT: U-S-A Today, the national daily published in a Washington suburb, worries that while the "Entertainment industry oversteps, ... so does [Vice President] Gore. The paper refers to the vice president's threat to regulate the industry if voluntary controls are not strengthened.

VOICE: At a time when the communications revolution and other forces are breaking down national boundaries, it is ironic, absurd and impossible to suggest that the United States can or should try to isolate itself from the largest country in the world. Yet that is the goal of those who oppose a bill, passed by the House last May, ...[permanently normalizing] trade relations with China ... Opponents ... seek ... in effect, to retain trade barriers against China ... as a way of punishing Beijing for its abuse of human rights and its arms sales to nations we consider dangerous...

TEXT: The Los Angeles Times also supports the yes vote, concluding:

VOICE: China's membership in the W-T-O [World Trade Organization] would not resolve the many challenges the U-S-China relationship poses for Washington. But it would mark a big step in the economic transformation of China and open the country to Western influences. The trade measure deserves a quick, clean Senate approval.

TEXT: From Waterbury, Connecticut to Brussels Belgium, and many places in between, motorists and truck [lorry] drivers are increasingly fed up with high gasoline [petrol] prices. Demonstrations are increasing in many European cities, and as The Waterbury, Republican-American notes:

VOICE: For two years now, every time people in Connecticut complained about escalating gasoline prices, the response has been, "Quit your bellyaching!" [Editors: "complaining"] The party line by the environmentalists has been that Europeans tool around in their Matchbox cars, getting a zillion miles per gallon while paying three times what Connecticut drivers pay ... Well, guess what? The stoics are showing their teeth ... Hordes of European motorists are protesting soaring gasoline prices, a crisis that has been exacerbated by a plunging euro. ... Motorists are pleading with their governments to reduce their oppressive fuel- consumption taxes, which range from 47 percent in Portugal to 76 percent in Britain. (In Connecticut ... taxes still account for 25 percent of the coast of each liter.)

TEXT: The Chicago Tribune suggests a seriously flawed response to the problem would be to draw down the U-S Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

VOICE: The reserve, an emergency oil supply established after the 1970s oil shocks, is there for an emergency such as acute shortages. If [President] Clinton is mulling use of the reserve as an oil price-control mechanism, he should think twice. Such a move would reinforce the producing nations' contention that there is plenty of oil out there. Why should they pump more if the U-S can draw from that source?

TEXT: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today is hailing the Palestinian decision to postpone declaring independence as wise, while, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, The Free Press is worrying about continued religious repression around the world as documented in a new State Department report.

VOICE: The document is a long litany of abuses that are bound to make any objective reader wince. These officially countenanced acts of repression should weigh heavily on people of faith and conscience everywhere.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of comment from the editorial pages of Wednesday's U-S press.
NEB/ANG/JP 13-Sep-2000 11:10 AM LOC (13-Sep-2000 1510 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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