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INTRO: Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has told his U-S and European Union counterparts that Russia will allow International Humanitarian officials to visit Chechnya, where there have been persistent reports of human rights abuses against civilians. V- O-A's Kyle King reports from Lisbon, where meetings are underway between U-S, European Union and Russian foreign ministers.

TEXT: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told reporters the United States and European Union still have deep differences with Russia over the issue of Chechnya. Western countries have been demanding Russia allow human rights monitors to visit the battle scarred region to investigate reports of atrocities by Russian troops. Following today's talks, Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama told reporters Russia has agreed to allow a delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to visit Chechnya next week. Secretary of State Albright said Moscow has also agreed to meet with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross to discuss the issue.

[04] IMF SELECTION (L-ONLY) BY BARRY WOOD (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: The 182-member nations of the International Monetary Fund are waiting for the European Union to present a new candidate for the critical post of managing director of the I-M-F. V-O-A's economics correspondent, Barry Wood, reports the selection process is expected to move forward this coming week after Europe's earlier nominee failed to gain majority support.

TEXT: Germany's deputy finance minister, Caio Koch- Weser, received only 43 percent of the weighted votes during an informal poll of member countries Thursday night. Two other candidates -- America's Stanley Fischer and Japan's Eisuke Sakakibara -- received 12 and nine percent respectively. Several nations abstained, including the United States with 17 percent of the vote. On Friday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder indicated that he is not yet ready to yield on Mr. Koch-Weser, who is lightly regarded by officials in the United States and several developing countries. President Clinton said Thursday he accepts the tradition that the I-M-F is headed by a European. But he called on the European Union to move swiftly in presenting a new candidate. Rudi Dornbusch, a Swiss- educated economics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says there is no shortage of qualified Europeans.

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

INTRO: U-S stock prices soared today (Friday), as Wall Street received some encouraging news about the U-S economy. V-O-A correspondent Elaine Johanson reports from New York:

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average, on a five-day winning streak, gained 202 points, or two percent, closing at 10-thousand-367. The industrials are up five percent for the week. The Standard and Poor's 500 index closed up 27 points and, the NASDAQ composite surged over three percent to its 14th record high this year. The latest on the U-S economy shows the unemployment rate went up to four-point-one percent in February, from four percent in January. The number of new jobs created was far below what analysts had been expecting. The data eased inflation anxiety on Wall Street, amid concerns that the U-S central bank will raise interest rates aggressively over the next few months.

[06] FRIDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: The flooding in Mozambique is a major topic in Friday's editorial pages in the United States. The papers are also still commenting on the shooting of one six-year-old school child by another in Michigan. The U-S presidential primary race also gets attention just days before the dozen or so primary elections on "Super Tuesday" next week; and General Pinochet's return to Chile is another popular topic. Now, here with a closer look, is _____________ and today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: For weeks, the southern African nation of Mozambique has been battered by bad weather. In addition to record amounts of rain, the country has also been hit by a cyclone. The lead editorials in The Sun in Baltimore and the Washington Post are about the devastation the weather has caused in Mozambique. First, The Sun:

VOICE: Last year, Mozambique had the world's fastest growing economy. It was the success story of the international program to forgive the debt of the 41 poorest countries - - in its case, three-point-seven billion dollars worth. Inflation was modest. It was throwing off the culture of dependency. Now the southeast African country of 19 million people is a basket case through no fault of its own. The rains came all January. Cyclone Eline was a knockout blow in late February. Another cyclone is menacing in the Indian Ocean. ...Rescuing stranded people, sheltering and feeding them, is the initial challenge. Then public health. After that, it will be rebuilding agriculture and infrastructure to resume the growth.

TEXT: The Washington Post writes:

VOICE: Mozambique estimates ... it would cost 65- million dollars to reconstruct the flood zone, which happens to encompass the country's most heavily populated areas and its most productive agricultural lands. The figure likely understates the economic setback the country has suffered and the long-term recovery challenge it faces. Mozambique was promised three-point-seven billion dollars worth of foreign debt relief in June ... but the impact of this aid is yet to be felt.

TEXT: In California, the Los Angeles Times says:"

VOICE: Mozambique is drowning. Massive flooding has left thousands of people perched on rooftops and in trees awaiting rescue. Helicopters from South Africa have plucked many children from nearly certain death. But more helicopters and watercraft are desperately needed. ... The West helped revive flooded Central American countries last year. Surely it should do the same in this crisis.

TEXT: Still with Africa, New York's Newsday, on Long Island, is concerned about what it calls the U-N's "timid half-measure[s]" to bring peace to the Congo.

VOICE: It became apparent that neither international peacekeeping nor peacemaking were going to work in Congo ... So what did the [Security] Council do? It approved sending 500 peace monitors, accompanied by 5- thousand armed escorts whose sole mission is to protect the monitors. The monitors are expected to check on the progress of a cease-fire that exists only in principle. ... That means there is no peace for the monitors to observe. ...[Why] undertake such a puny and probably irrelevant effort at all? Just to show that the U-N is indeed trying to do something, **anything? ** [italics for emphasis] That's pathetic.

TEXT: Domestically, the outpouring of grief over the shooting death of a six-year-old girl at a Michigan elementary school by another six-year-old, continues. "The St. Louis [Missouri] Post-Dispatch" calls the incident: "The end of innocence."

VOICE: As long as handguns are cheap and easy to come by, American children will keep killing each other with them. This is a plain fact ... that crosses all boundaries: age, gender, class, race, geography, wealth, intent, sanity.

TEXT: "The Boston Globe" has a chilling set of statistics about gun deaths in its editorial.

VOICE: America's children are more vulnerable to death by firearm than any other industrialized country in the world. In 1996, 19 children were killed by guns in England, none in Japan, 153 in Canada, and 5- thousand-285 - - that is n o t a typo - - in the United States. ... So long as there is a gun for everyone in America - - 200-million in circulation - this country will top the grim charts of deadly violence. /// OPT /// ... It may not have prevented this particular tragedy, but a study by the journal of the American Medical Association found that [child access protection] laws requiring loaded guns to be stored in locked containers have reduced accidental gun deaths of children by over 20 percent. /// END OPT

TEXT: In nearby New Hampshire, however, the "[Manchester] Union-Leader" speaks out for gun owners, suggesting no current or proposed gun-control laws would have stopped this shooting.

VOICE: Gun control works - - but only on law-abiding citizens who deserve guns to protect themselves. The savages in society will do what they please, and the results will be more six-year-olds shooting six-year- olds unless something is done at the root level of violence. Ask the hard questions, politicians. Ask why this little boy was living in a crack house and why his parents never taught him right from wrong. ... But don't ask law-abiding citizens to give up more of their rights, in the name of "doing something" about juvenile justice down there in Washington.

TEXT: Back in Missouri, "The [Kansas City] Star" is angry:

VOICE: While lawmakers, including those from Kansas and Missouri, dodge this critical issue, citizens are dodging bullets. Or not dodging them, as when Kayla Rolland suffered a mortal chest wound at the hands of a boy her age.

TEXT: The return to Chile of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, after months of house arrest in Britain, draws this comment from Charleston's [South Carolina] Post and Courier.

VOICE: Britain's decision Thursday to return him to Chile will disappoint victims of [General] Pinochet's murderous dictatorship. But although he has escaped extradition to stand trial in Spain because of ill health, his return to Chile will set another precedent. He will no longer be above the law of his own country, despite the lengths that he went to secure immunity from prosecution by granting himself an amnesty and making himself a senator for life. Rule of law will be strengthened in the country that he terrorized.

TEXT: Today's New York Times considers the recent statements from Beijing about taking Taiwan by force if the government there continues to delay reunification talks.

VOICE: The triangular relationship between China, Taiwan and the United States seems to veer from one crisis to the next. The latest one was provoked ... by Beijing's threat ... Now Taiwan and its supporters in the Pentagon and Congress want Washington to provide the island government with four American destroyers equipped with sophisticated Aegis radar and antimissile technology. There must be a more constructive way to manage the sensitive issue of Taiwan's future status.

TEXT: Today's Christian Science Monitor is upset by the latest World Trade Organization ruling that U-S firms may no longer avoid paying U-S taxes on some overseas sales by channeling them through their overseas subsidiaries. Citing this country's trade deficit and generally low tariffs on imported goods, the Monitor says:

VOICE: ... it may have seemed a low blow when ... the World Trade Organization ... ruled ... that the U-S must scrap a law allowing companies to avoid paying taxes on some overseas sales by channeling them through overseas subsidies. ... Repeal ... might add four-billion dollars or so a year to the taxes American companies must pay Uncle Sam. ... the decision won't help the reputation of the W-T-O in the U-S.

TEXT: Maria Hsia, a leading fund-raiser for Vice President Al Gore, has been found guilty of illegal activity for raising money for Mr. Gore at a Buddhist temple in California. The New York Times calls it "a blow to Vice President ... Gore" adding:

VOICE: There has never been much doubt that illegal fund-raising took place at the temple. The monks, nuns and others who wrote checks and were later reimbursed admitted their participation. At issue in the trial was the prosecution's charge that Ms. Hsia in effect masterminded the scheme. the lingering question is whether anyone else higher up in the fund- raising hierarchy knew what was going on.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of comment from Friday's editorial pages of the American press.
NEB/ANG/KL 03-Mar-2000 12:34 PM EDT (03-Mar-2000 1734 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[07] THE PINOCHET EXAMPLE BY ED WARNER (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Augusto Pinochet has just returned home after narrowly escaping a trial for human-rights abuses during his long rule in Chile. Confined to a wheelchair at eighty-four, he was declared too ill to appear in court. On arriving in Chile, he was greeted by supporters, who say he saved Chile from communism, and opponents, who accuse him of torturing and murdering thousands of people. Opinion is also divided on the wisdom on bringing him to trial. Does this kind of prosecution ultimately weaken or strengthen dictatorship? V-O-A's Ed Warner reports the debate.

TEXT: "The case has established the principle that those who commit human-rights abuses in one country cannot assume that they are safe anywhere." That is how British Home Secretary Jack Straw sees the effort to bring former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet to justice for crimes against humanity. Though he freed Mr. Pinochet because he was too ill to stand trial, Mr. Straw said the case sets a lasting precedent that dictators, however powerful, are not beyond the reach of the law. It sets many precedents, adds Carlos Salinas, advocacy director for Latin America and the Caribbean at Amnesty International, one of the human-rights groups urging the prosecution of Pinochet:

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