US drops demand for antiabortion words
The United States plans to drop its insistence that a UN document on women's equality make clear that abortion is not a fundamental right, US officials said yesterday. The Bush administration had demanded that a final draft document include an antiabortion statement, a proposal that plunged into controversy a two-week review session of the landmark 1995 women's conference in Beijing. ''Our original goal was to make sure that everyone involved knew what the original intent of the Beijing document was," said Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations. (Reuters)
CHINA
At least 20 children killed in explosion
BEIJING -- A cache of explosives at the home of a coal mine manager blew up in a town in northern China, killing at least 20 children at a nearby grade school, news reports said today. The explosion occurred Wednesday in Kecheng, a town in Shanxi province, one of China's biggest coal-mining regions, newspapers reported. ''Grade school students who were in class were buried," the Shanxi Commercial News said. ''At least 20 people are dead." The mine manager, identified as Lu Maolin, was among the dead and his wife was injured, the Commercial News and the Shanxi Evening News reported. They said an unspecified number of injured children from the Beixin Village Elementary School were hospitalized. China's coal mining industry is the world's deadliest.
Hong Kong leader expected to resign
BEIJING -- Hong Kong's embattled chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, who faithfully carried out China's wishes in the former British colony and became a target of mass street protests, is preparing to resign at the end of a meeting of the Chinese legislature this month, two people close to his government said yesterday. Tung, 67, has told friends and senior aides about the decision, which appears to have been approved by the Chinese leadership, and he is expected to cite poor health for his abrupt departure more than two years before his stint as Hong Kong's first post-colonial governor is scheduled to end, the sources said. Tung's resignation would mark the end of a tumultuous seven-year tenure during which he managed Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule and steadfastly defended China's refusal to expand direct elections in the territory. (
SERBIA
UN tribunal to take custody of ex-general
BELGRADE -- Former Serb army general Momcilo Perisic will surrender to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague next week, the sixth suspect in the past five months persuaded to surrender by the Serb government. A government statement late yesterday thanked Perisic for his decision and said he would leave for the Hague on Monday, March 7. Belgrade is under intense pressure from the West to hand over war crimes suspects to the UN court, or risk further cuts in aid and a negative ''feasibility" report from the European Union on March 27 that would block its path to bloc membership. ''The Serbian government greatly appreciates the decision of General Perisic to voluntarily go to The Hague Tribunal and believes that his decision is moral and in the interest of the state," the statement read. (Reuters)
AFGHANISTAN
President appoints 1st female governor
KABUL -- President Hamid Karzai appointed Afghanistan's first female provincial governor, an official said yesterday, a step toward reviving women's rights trampled by the former hard-line Taliban government. Habiba Sarobi, a former women's minister, becomes governor of central Bamiyan province, Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said. ''It has been approved by the president's office today," he said. ''Today is a very good day for me," Sarobi said. ''It is another important step toward women's rights in Afghanistan." (AP)
