Voice of America, 00-07-03

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

CONTENTS

[01] E-U / YUGO SANCTIONS (L-O) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

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

[03] MONDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[01] E-U / YUGO SANCTIONS (L-O) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

INTRO: The European Commission has published a list of 190 Yugoslav companies that will be exempted from the European Union's sanctions against Yugoslavia and its main component, Serbia. Ron Pemstein reports from Brussels on the European Union's so called, "white list" of Yugoslav companies.

TEXT: The Olimex private trade society on Lola Ribara Street in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade is exempted from European Union sanctions. So is the Radovic Company, Limited, in the Serbian city of Valjevo. They are among 190 companies that have been cleared of any connection with the Yugoslav Federal government or the Serbian Republic government. Companies operating in the smaller Yugoslav republic of Montenegro or in the internationally administered region of Kosovo are not subject to European Union trade sanctions. The European Union wanted to publish a positive list of Yugoslav and Serbian companies to better target its sanctions against companies that it sees as being under the control of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Some 300 companies have applied to the European Union swearing that they have nothing to do with the Federal or Republic governments. The 190 are the first to be approved and the European Commission expects another 50 will be exempted later this month. Commission spokesman Gunnar Wiegand describes the proof the companies must provide to win the exemption.

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

INTRO: Wall Street had a shorter-than-usual trading session on Wall Street Monday in advance of the American Independence Day holiday (on July 4th). But stock prices moved higher, boosted by some positive economic news. (U-S financial markets are closed Tuesday.) V-O-A's Elaine Johanson reports from New York:

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 112 points higher, over one percent, at 10-thousand-560. The Standard and Poor's 500 index went up 14 points. The NASDAQ composite gained two-thirds of one percent.

[03] MONDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: The growing problem of international trafficking in people gets more attention in the editorial pages of the U-S press, as does the sending of additional aid to Colombia to combat drug trafficking. Other topics to be found on the editorial pages include: the Supreme Court abortion decision; a modest move toward campaign finance reform; the AIDS pandemic in Africa and sharing power in Zimbabwe after the election. Now here is _________ with a closer look at today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT: The New York Times uses the death of 58 Chinese immigrants in a truck trying to sneak into England at the Port of Dover to discuss the problem of alien smuggling. The paper says the deaths:

VOICE: ... provided stark witness to the rising global traffic in people who illegally cross borders and whole continents in search of a better life. ... They represented only a tiny part of the flow of millions making dangerous journeys to distant lands. ... Fighting this trade is extremely difficult, in part because governments know so little about these cross- border enterprises. ... Many countries need to enact anti-trafficking laws. Much more also needs to be done to help victims of this trade.

TEXT: Sunday's Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah prints a column by Paul Montgomery in its editorial space. He makes the point that after the political outrage that always follows such an incident as the one in Dover, things quickly return to normal.

VOICE: The next day, in those same... muddy roads, hopeful migrants gather again, waiting their chance. The same employers looking for cheap labor are there, the same consumers looking for cheaper goods are there and the same poor counties supporting their finances with the hard currency sent back by illegals are there. It might be permitted to wonder whether anyone really wants the system to stop. Globalization might be a more powerful force in 2000 than compassion.

TEXT: In Latin American developments, the recent billion-dollar aid package passed by the Senate for Colombia continues to generate discussion. Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal, noting the intense lobbying campaign of President Andrew Pastrana, wonders about the results.

VOICE: Colombia has pledged to take extraordinary steps. /// OPT /// Its military command has submitted the names of all 900 members of its new drug-fighting battalion to American officials for vetting. Washington wants to check for reports of human-rights violations or links to criminal activities. /// END OPT /// ...In theory, the plan has persuasive elements. ...Unfortunately, the realities of Colombia have proved daunting and little changed. If [President] Pastrana represents an improvement over his predecessor, whose administration was linked to drug money, the armed forces remain under suspicion.

TEXT: Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette, after analyzing the risks involved in Colombia, concludes that:

VOICE: ... Congress was right to act. This is the best of an unfortunate set of choices.

TEXT: Domestically, the Supreme Court's decision striking down a Nebraska law banning so-called partial birth abortions is also a popular topic. The Washington Post says - it is no surprise that the ... Court struck down [the] ... law... - adding:

VOICE: Correct though it was the court's action underscores again just how awkward its position in the abortion debate has become. Having made abortion a constitutional issue ... This is an area in which the court sometimes seems to be making up the law as it goes along...

TEXT: In Connecticut, Waterbury's Republican-American does not like the ruling, noting:

VOICE: ... even if the so-called right to choose exists, society has the right to require that it be exercised in a timely manner, before it necessitates a cruel, gruesome, indescribably painful form of lethal torture against a baby whose only choice is to die horribly. It is only a matter of time before lawmakers in Nebraska ... [who] have enacted partial-birth abortion bans will get it right [re-writing laws that will be found constitutional]

TEXT: The pandemic of AIDS sweeping through sub- Saharan Africa continues to worry editorial writers. The St. Petersburg [Florida] Times laments:

VOICE: Worse than any flood, any famine, any war, AIDS is laying waste to the people of sub- Saharan Africa. In a statistic so daunting it can barely be fathomed, the United Nations has predicted that half of all 15-year-olds in the worst-hit countries in Africa will die of AIDS, even if by some miracle the rate of infection is slowed. An entire continent of adults is dying of a disease that is eminently preventable. ...Containing the spread of AIDS should be at the top of the world's agenda. ///OPT /// Certainly, the wealthier nations, such as ours, should contribute mightily to the cause, but to rein in this plague, African countries have to make it an overriding priority. ... /// END OPT