Army Sergeant Acquitted of Rape

A U.S. military jury in Germany has acquitted an army sergeant of rape and sodomy charges but found him guilty of lesser offenses in the latest sex scandal to taint the American armed forces. Sgt. First Class Julius Davis, 37, of Fayetteville, N.C., was found guilty today on 11 of 32 counts. The five-member all-male military panel will now decide on punishment for Davis, who could face up to 32 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. The convictions are generally for lesser charges than sought by military prosecutors and focus on allegations of indecent assault and obstruction of justice. Davis is one of three sergeants accused of sex-related crimes at the base in Darmstadt.

N.Korea, S.Korea Vessels Clash

North and South Korean naval vessels exchanged fire today after a Northern patrol boat strayed South with a fleet of nine fishing boats, the Seoul defense ministry said. The North Korean boat fired three rounds at three South Korean naval ships as they steamed to intercept. The Southern side returned fire with two rounds. There was no damage, the statement said, adding the North Korean boats sailed back across the nautical demarcation line after a 40-minute confrontation off the west coast of the Korean peninsula. Exactly one week ago, a Northern naval ship intruded South, but South Korean authorities said at the time they believed it was a mistake.

Irish Opposition Posed to Win

Irish voters are poised to change their government in tomorrow's election, according to the latest poll that showed the center-right opposition alliance well ahead of the ruling "rainbow coalition." A day before the country's two million voters go to the polls, the survey in the Irish Independent newspaper put support for the alliance of Fianna Fail and the smaller Progressive Democrats at 49 percent, nine points ahead of the center-left three-party coalition of Prime Minister John Bruton. Bruton's rainbow coalition was pinning its hopes on winning over the 14 percent of voters yet to make up their minds after a television debate between Bruton and Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern yesterday which Bruton was widely considered to have won.

South Korea Students Surrender

South Korea's militant pro-Pyongyang campus body today handed over to authorities four students it said witnessed the fatal beating of a man suspected of being a police informer, a police official said. The four members of the outlawed Hanchongryon surrendered at a police post. Earlier, Hanchongryon Chairman Kang Eui-won expressed deep regret over the death and apologized. The group had already admitted responsibility for the violent death of the man, whose badly bruised body was delivered to a hospital in Hanyang University yesterday. Prime Minister Koh Kun vowed to put an end to campus violence and ordered the arrest of Hanchongryon leaders by the end of June. The students are demanding the resignation of President Kim Young-sam.

French Power-Sharing Govt Meets

Conservative President Jacques Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin promised to work together to serve national interests at a cabinet meeting today launching a new bout of power-sharing in France. "Here we are in a new period of 'cohabitation'," Chirac told the first meeting of Jospin's cabinet that includes women in senior posts, Communists for a first time since 1984 and a Green minister of the environment. The new period of cohabitation was the third in the history of France's Fifth Republic but the first between a leftist prime minister and a rightist head of state. Jospin led the left's upset victory over Chirac's center-right allies in Sunday's National Assembly election.

Coup Leaders Want 18 Months

Leaders of a coup in Sierra Leone want 18 months in power before handing over to an interim body to steer the West African nation to elections, politicians invited for talks with them said today. The politicians, who included members of ousted president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's administration and of the opposition, said they rejected the suggestion outright. State radio reported that coup leader Major Johnny Paul Koromah had held talks with a Nigerian delegation which assured them that Nigerian forces had no further plans to attack military bases in the city and would not intervene further to reverse the May 25 coup. The politicians dismissed the radio report as propaganda.

Algerians Vote for Parliament

Millions of Algerians turned out today to vote in their first parliamentary election in more than five years of violence and bloodshed -- blamed by officials on Muslim fundamentalists. Many said they were seeking peace through the ballot box. Even as they voted, an Islam-oriented party contesting the poll said a bomb had seriously wounded two local election observers in a car near Djelfa in central Algiers. In the capital, where bombs early this week ripped through buses and a crowded market, men and women clutching electoral cards told Reuters they were voting for an end to the strife.

Yeltsin Trying to Sell Reforms

President Boris Yeltsin, embroiled in a tussle with his communist opponents over Russia's future, will travel to St. Petersburg tomorrow to promote his new reform drive. Yeltsin, who has thrived on a busy schedule since February after eight months of heart problems, will take time out from trying to speed up macro-economic reforms and map out a new foreign policy. The president's visit to Russia's struggling second city bears a striking resemblance to a meet-the-people tour last year ahead of his re-election. The next poll is three years away and he cannot run again, but Yeltsin, concerned now about his historical legacy, is going out of his way to win the population over to his reformist drive.

Fighting Rages North of Kabul

Fighting raged between the Taleban and their foes north of Kabul today amid talk of a Pakistani-brokered peace deal between the purist Islamic militia and an opposition force in northern Afghanistan. Taleban jets bombed positions held by opposition guerrilla commander Ahmad Shah Masood as heavy fighting continued around the strategic town of Jabal os-Siraj, a Pakistan-based news service said. Pakistan said today that Afghanistan's Taleban had accepted peace proposals made by northern opposition leader General Abdul Malik, who handed the Islamic militia a stinging defeat in the north last week.

Vintage Auction

An unidentified German man paid $95,000 at auction yesterday in Paris for 12 bottles of 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, but he won't be drinking it himself. The auctioneer who sold 8,000 bottles of great vintage wines for the Paris restaurant Maxim's says the 12 bottles of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild will be an 85th birthday gift for an American soldier who liberated the man's village at the end of World War Two. The soldier kicked in the man's door and the two have stayed in touch ever since. The bottles feature a "V" for victory on the label.

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