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TEXT: That was the view of the Boston Herald. Writing in The Miami Herald the day before Saturday's vote, nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas is far more pessimistic. His column is based on a recent conversation with the next generation of Irish leaders, Catholic and Protestant, Republican and Unionist, whom he met at Belfast City Hall recently. The comments of one young man, Eoin O'Broin, a 28- year-old Sinn Fein member, seemed to color Mr. Thomas' overall view that peace will be very, very difficult to achieve.

VOICE: [Mr.] O'Broin says: "It's a myth ... we don't understand each other." He says ... the debate needs to move from a mind-set of one side having victory over the other to compromise. But the nationalists and unionists can't agree even on seemingly simple things. The unionists want to keep flying the Union Jack on government buildings. The nationalists say that the Irish flag ought to be displayed alongside, or there should be no flags at all. The unionists consider this unrealistic because no sovereign nation does such a thing. And so it goes, even in polite company.

TEXT: Mr. Thomas goes on to quote a young woman member of the Ulster Unionist Party who says she is less sure about the prospects for peace than she was recently, and another woman who is ready to move away from Ireland if this latest effort fails.

TEXT: The New York Times, however, is more upbeat, calling the vote "Another Gain for Irish Peace."

VOICE: The vote was a tribute to the statesmanship of the Unionists' leader, David Trimble, who has resumed his post as Northern Ireland's first minister. Mr. Trimble spent the last week in an energetic effort to convince his party not to abandon the peace accords. Gerry Adams, who leads the I-R-A's political wing, Sinn Fein, took the personal and political risk of pressing the I-R-A to make its arms proposal. Mr. Trimble's last hurdle turned out to have nothing to do with disarmament. Unionists were furious that Britain had proposed changing the name of Northern Ireland's police, the royal Ulster Constabulary, to the more neutral Northern Ireland Police Service. The change was one of dozens of necessary reforms recommended by a commission headed by Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, that sought to make Northern Ireland's police more inclusive and accountable. Currently, 93 percent of its members are protestant. Britain's Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Mandelson, cooled Unionist passions by deleting mention of the name change from the police bill now before ... Parliament and announcing ... other contentious symbolic issues would be decided later. ... A durable peace in Northern Ireland will require not only the kind of political changes that are developing but also a change in powerful institutions like the police.

TEXT: So writes the New York Times. Back in Boston, The Christian Science Monitor is also cautiously optimistic.

VOICE: Both sides in Northern Ireland have their work clearly cut out. The Irish Republican Army and its political arm, Sinn Fein, must promptly follow through on pledges to allow international inspection of arms dumps. And the Unionists, who favor continued federation with Britain, must show a capacity to move toward compromise solutions to such emotional issues as reforming the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the provincial police force that ... many Catholics regard as repressive. ... Those are eminently solvable problems - - especially if the thinking in Northern Ireland continues to evolve away from centuries of distrust toward a new era of community.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of early reaction in the U-S press to the latest advance in the Northern Ireland peace effort. NEB/ANG/gm 30-May-2000 15:01 PM LOC (30-May-2000 1901 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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

INTRO: U-S stock prices rallied today (Tuesday), with technology shares leading the market higher. Trading volume, however, was relatively light. VOA correspondent Elaine Johanson reports from New York:

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 228 points higher, over two percent, at 10-thousand-527. The Standard and Poor's 500 index gained 44 points - over three percent. And the technology-weighted Nasdaq composite shot up over 250 points, almost eight percent. The U-S stock market lost ground last week, due largely to interest rate jitters (nerves). But investors came back after a three-day holiday weekend, looking for bargains. The latest on the U-S economy shows consumer confidence soared to near-record levels in May, despite rising interest rates and a volatile stock market. Experts say the jobless rate, which is the lowest in 30 years, contributes to a sense of well- being among Americans.

[09] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: The anticipated resumption of the Northern Ireland legislative assembly, as the peace process moves forward, is captivating the attention of several editorial writers this Tuesday. Another popular topic is normalization of trade with China, while the chaos in Sierra Leone also comes in for attention. A political error by Japan's new Prime Minister is also drawing attention, as is the struggle for more democracy in Iran. Now, here is __________ with a closer look and some excerpts in today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: The British government has once again handed back local authority to a legislative assembly in Stormount, Northern Ireland, made up of formerly bitter enemies. The move comes as the Irish Republican Army appears to be compromising on disarmament, and is drawing a good deal of comment, including this from Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette.

VOICE: It was a close call, but the leading pro-British [unioionist] party in Northern Ireland has endorsed the reinstatement of a provincial government in which power will be shared with "Nationalist" [republicans], including members of Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army's political wing. Saturday's 53-percent "Yes" vote by ... the Ulster Unionist Party is a major step forward. It is also a victory for David Trimble, the bespectacled law professor who has put a new and reasonable face on Ulster Unionism.

TEXT: Today's New York Times calls the vote "Another Gain for Irish Peace," and in Boston, The Christian Science Monitor is also cautiously optimistic.

VOICE: Both sides in Northern Ireland have their work clearly cut out. The Irish Republican Army and its political arm, Sinn Fein, must promptly follow through on pledges to allow international inspection of arms dumps. And the Unionists, who favor continued federation with Britain, must show a capacity to move toward compromise solutions to such emotional issues as reforming the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the provincial police force that ... many Catholics regard as repressive. ... Those are eminently solvable problems - especially if the thinking in Northern Ireland continues to evolve away from centuries of distrust toward a new era of community.

TEXT: Turning to the recent House of Representatives passage of permanent normal trade with China, Holger Jensen, foreign policy columnist with Denver's Rocky Mountain News warns: [The] Benefits of China trade will not mature overnight.

VOICE: So what will the China trade bill do for us? It will not, in the short term, deflate our ballooning trade deficit, which hit a record 30- point-one-billion dollars in March. China accounted for five-point-one-billion of this, second-largest after Japan and 23-percent higher than a year ago. ... Organized labor, which opposed the China trade pact, is correct in saying that jobs will be lost ... [However] Whatever jobs are lost will be more than offset by the creation of high-tech jobs caused by the boom in U-S exports to China. ... Some people argue that U-S food prices will rise because we will be shipping all our agricultural products to China. That is hogwash. [totally untrue] U-S farms produce not only more meat, grain, and produce than we can consume, but more than the entire world needs. That is why Congress is about to approve a third straight year of agricultural subsidies, totaling 15-billion dollars, to compensate farmers for low commodity prices. ... Better to grow food for China than pay our farmers not to grow at all.

TEXT: In Jacksonville, Florida's Times-Union still on trade, says: "Now that the ... House has passed a bill to normalize trade with China ... Congress should take the next logical step and partially restore trade with Cuba." The paper says the inconsistency of the policy simply does not make sense.

VOICE: If it is OK to trade with a communist country that is a substantial military threat to the United States, why is it wrong to trade with another one that is not?

TEXT: In Michigan, there is almost an identical editorial in the Detroit News. Lastly with China, today's Providence Journal is upset that the U-N Commission on Human Rights in Geneva has voted against registering "any criticism of China's record on human rights," voting against a U-S- sponsored resolution to that effect.

TEXT: In African affairs, the chaos in Sierra Leone draws the attention of The Washington Post. The paper cheers the release of the last U-N peacekeeping forces taken hostage by the Revolutionary United Front [R-U- F] guerrillas. And it says the U-S, U-N and neighboring nations now must "make tough decisions about how to finish off the R-U-F and thus set the stage for the stabilization and democratization of Sierra Leone."

VOICE: ...Finally, the United States and its allies need to settle on a credible strategy for securing the country militarily. Because neither the United States nor Britain will handle the task - which inevitably would risk some combat with the R-U-F, especially those elements holding diamond mines - they should strongly support the one African power willing to do the job: Nigeria.

TEXT: A political firestorm continues in Japan after Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori commented that Japan is a divine nation and the emperor is the center of the nation. Monday afternoon's Honolulu Star-Bulletin says: [Mr.] Mori's remarks have shaken confidence in his leadership," adding:

VOICE: /// OPT /// [Mr.] Mori has been dogged by reports that he was caught in a brothel while he was a college student and that he attended a wedding reception in 1995 in which one of the guests was a notorious gangster. He is suing the magazine that first printed the brothel allegations, and has denied knowing of the gangster's presence at the reception. The comments and damaging reports have made [Mr.] Mori a liability for his party, the ruling Liberal Democrats. /// END OPT /// ... Trying to repair the damage, [Mr.] Mori has declared his support for the principle of separation of church and state. He said he regretted causing misunderstanding by his comments and insisted he did not mean that he supported the imperial system as it existed at the time of World War Two.

TEXT: Turning to South Asia, today's Hartford [Connecticut] Courant is concerned that in assessing terrorism in that part of the world, The State Department left Afghanistan and Pakistan off the list.

VOICE: Those named in the annual review are subject to reductions in foreign aid, loans and credit. Afghanistan and Pakistan certainly qualify for placement on the list. // OPT //