Europeans OK Boeing Merger

The European Commission today gave preliminary approval to the planned $15 billion merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, following some key concessions by Boeing. Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert says the approval was granted because "the remedies the commission was striving for have largely been supplied" -- noting that Boeing agreed to end all exclusive deals with American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The Commission had feared that a bigger Boeing, the world's top aircraft manufacturer, would have an even stronger position in the commercial aircraft sector at the expense of Airbus Industrie -- the consortium of French, British, German and Spanish aero firms.

Arafat Not Optimistic

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat today tempered optimistic talk of a breakthrough in the stalled Middle East peace process and appealed to the European Union for help. Arafat held a news conference a day after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy, reopening talks that had been in limbo since April over Israeli plans to build houses in Arab East Jerusalem. Arafat's comments were in stark contrast to confident remarks earlier by Levy after he met Manuel Marin, the European Commissioner with responsibility for relations with the Middle East and Development Aid. The peace process has been in crisis since March when Israelis began building 6,500 houses in Arab East Jerusalem.

Guerrilla Group Admits Killing

The Basque separatist group ETA today claimed responsibility for the killing of a young Spanish politician that sparked national outrage earlier this month. In a statement in its mouthpiece newspaper Egin, ETA said it killed Miguel Angel Blanco and "will assume the consequences of the conflict ... as crude and painful as they may be." Egin said the ETA statement differed from previous rebel communiques in that it was addressed to the Spanish public and written in Castillian Spanish rather than in the Basque language. ETA has killed some 800 people in its nearly 30-year violent struggle for an independent Basque state in northern Spain.

S. Korea Sees Food Aid Pact OK

The South Korean Red Cross said today an agreement for more food aid for hungry North Korea would likely be signed this week despite a complaint by Pyongyang that Seoul's offer was not enough. Southern officials had offered the North a food aid package of about 50,000 tons of rice and corn, a plan similar to one agreed to in May, said Lee Byoung-woong, secretary general of the South Korean Red Cross Society. Lee said the talks in Beijing had gone well, and South Korean spokesman Chang Moon Ik said Red Cross officials hoped an agreement could be signed tomorrow.

Cambodia Still Wants Pol Pot

The new government of Cambodia still wants to bring elusive Khmer Rouge guerrilla leader Pol Pot to an international court, a senior government official said today. First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh had been negotiating with a Khmer Rouge faction that broke with Pol Pot, to have it surrender custody of the former strongman. But Cambodia's bloody July 6 coup abruptly ended those talks. However, Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ousted Ranariddh, still wants to see Pol Pot and other senior Khmer Rogue leaders brought to trial. "Government policy is the same. Pol Pot has to be brought to justice," Secretary of State for Information Khieu Kanharith tells Reuters.

Taiwan Hijacker Gets Life Term

A court in Taipei today gave a life prison term to an air pirate who hijacked a Taiwan jetliner to Taiwan's arch rival, mainland China. "After a trial of more than one month, Liu Shan-chung has been sentenced to life in prison and stripped of his civil rights for life," the court verdict said. The state-run Central News Agency says Liu could have been sentenced to death. But it says his life was spared because he "confessed his crime and shown a good attitude" following his arrest. Liu doused himself with gasoline aboard a Far Eastern Airlines in March and threatened to set himself ablaze if it did not fly to China. He asked for political asylum in China, but Beijing returned him to Taiwan.

Chinese Dissident to Try Again

Chinese dissident Bao Ge said today he plans to appeal a court decision rejecting his lawsuit against a labor camp for violating his human rights. "The court told me that under Chinese law there is no provision for suing prisons or labor camps," Bao tells Reuters. The 33-year-old was released June 4 from the Shanghai Number One Labor Camp, where he served three years of "re-education through labor" -- an administrative punishment imposed by the police without a judicial trial. This month, Bao applied to the Shanghai Xuhui District People's Court to sue the labor camp for what he said were a variety of human rights violations. But in a verdict issued today, the court said it would not accept the lawsuit.

AIDS Drugs Urged For Africa

U.S. delegates at an African-American summit have pledged to press U.S. pharmaceutical companies to make expensive AIDS drugs more accessible to Africa's poor. Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV cases in the world, and health officials say the virus that causes the deadly AIDS disease is still spreading fast. Various workshops are running concurrently with the fourth African/African American summit that began Tuesday in Zimbabwe. African leaders will meet U.S. business executives to try and win trade, investment and economic aid for the world's poorest continent.

US Sees Russian Nuclear Safety

U.S. Energy Secretary Federico Pena says U.S. efforts to help Russia keep its huge stockpiles of nuclear materials safe are working. In Moscow today, Pena met Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Russian energy officials. Pena said, "Russia and the United States have the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and weapons-grade materials, and we share the belief, formalized through a number of agreements, that these dangerous weapons and materials must not fall into the wrong hands." Russia's nuclear sector, once the pride of Soviet science, is in financial crisis and workers have protested for payment of overdue wages.

Fire Hits Famous Paris Museum

A potentially disastrous blaze struck one of the French capital's most popular tourist attractions during the night, damaging several works at the architecture museum. But the fire spared 30,000 films stored in the nation's premier film library. Officials say two firefighters were slightly injured overnight as they struggled to contain the flames on the roof of a wing of the Palais de Chaillot, which houses the Museum of French Monuments and the Cinematheque film library. A museum curator says about 100 casts of Gothic art were damaged, but none were destroyed. The curator says what damage there was had been caused by the water used to douse the flames.

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