IRA, Britain Hold Meeting

Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, held "constructive" talks on the Northern Ireland conflict with British officials Wednesday, ending a 16-month stand-off triggered by the breach of an IRA truce. Martin McGuinness, chief negotiator for Sinn Fein, met civil servants for the first time since the Irish Republican Army set off a huge bomb in east London in February 1996, killing two people and ending a 17-month cease-fire. The meeting was an attempt by Britain's new Labour government, which ousted the Conservatives in a May 1 election, to inject new life into stalled efforts to bring peace to the British-ruled province. Multi-party talks, excluding Sinn Fein, are due to resume June 3.

Arafat Comment Creates Firestorm

Israel said Wednesday it would complain to the U.N. commission on human rights over the Palestinian Authority's decision to impose the death penalty on people who sell land to Jews. In Washington, the United States sharply criticized Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for saying he backed the law in an interview published Wednesday. Arafat said he backed the recent decision to enforce an old Jordanian law in the West Bank imposing the death penalty for land sales to Jews. "Frankly his comments this morning are comments that we cannot support, are comments that leave us quite puzzled as to why he would say those things," said State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns.

Kabila Works on New Government

Victorious leader Laurent Kabila worked on the eagerly awaited first government of the new Democratic Republic of Congo Wednesday, and one of his senior advisers dismissed fears of a return to dictatorship. Officials said Kabila, whose forces toppled Zaire's veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko over the weekend, met his top advisers at his new riverside headquarters to discuss the make-up of the government and security arrangements. World powers, both those which are sympathetic and those which are skeptical, have been pressing for a broad-based interim government as a sign of Kabila's democratic good faith and a first step toward multiparty elections.

Burma Cracks Down on Opposition

A day after President Clinton imposed economic sanctions on Burma for "severe repression," an opposition leader said Wednesday the military government had arrested at least 50 senior opposition members. A senior official of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said that at least 50 elected members of parliament or party organizers had been detained over the past few days as they headed to the capital Rangoon to participate in a celebration commemorating the party's 1990 electoral victory. The source said the party expected to hear of more arrests in the next few days.

Russia General Interrogated

One of Russia's highest ranking generals, a hero of the 1991 coup, was forced out of a hospital Wednesday and hauled off to Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison for interrogation on corruption charges, military prosecutors said. In a drama charged with echoes of Stalin's purges of 60 years ago, Gen. Konstantin Kobets, who defended President Boris Yeltsin during the hard-line Communist revolt of August 1991, complained the Kremlin was making a scapegoat of a sick man and said he feared for his life in prison. A spokesman for the military prosecutors' office told Reuters that Kobets, a deputy defense minister charged with abusing his authority, had been arrested and taken to Lefortovo.

Solzhenitsyn Hospitalized

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who fought the Soviet Union before turning his fire on capitalist Russia, was hospitalized Wednesday with a heart condition. Solzhenitsyn's secretary says he was admitted to the Central Clinical Hospital May 12 with heart problems. His illness was not specified, but doctors say he will be alright. Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 for writings that publicized the harshness of the Soviet prison camp system, in which he spent nearly a decade.

China MFN Status Protested

A coalition of unlikely allies including Christian, labor, human rights and some business groups Wednesday attacked President Clinton's decision to renew China's privileged trading status. Although the critics conceded it would be hard to rally enough support in Congress to overturn Clinton's decision, they signaled a major battle in the coming weeks. Clinton said Monday he would accord China most favored nation status for the coming year despite disagreements over human rights and other issues as he pursued a policy of engagement with Beijing.

N.Korea Silent on Nukes

North Korea is once again refusing to elaborate on its nuclear program as international watchdogs suspect the Stalinist state is building weapons of mass destruction. Pyongyang will not give details to U.N. investigators on how its nuclear reactors had been used and whether nuclear-grade plutonium was extracted from spent nuclear fuel, Hans Blix of the International Atomic Energy Agency was quoted as saying. In 1994, a crisis over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program was defused after North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear facilities in return for safer reactors promised by the U.S.

Military Buildup in N. Iraq

Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency said Wednesday that Syria, Iraq and Iran had built up their forces near the borders of a Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq where Turkish troops are fighting Kurdish rebels. Anatolian quoted unnamed sources as saying the buildup was believed to be part of an effort by the three countries to provide shelter within their borders to Kurdistan Workers Party rebels fleeing the Turkish air and ground assault. It said Iran and Iraq had also built up forces around the Kurdish territory, carved out of northern Iraq as a "safe haven" for the Kurds by the Western alliance after the Gulf War. Damascus declined to comment on the reports. There was no immediate response from Iraq or Iran.

Iran Hopefuls Campaign

Iran's presidential hopefuls launched their final campaign efforts Wednesday as authorities shut down the headquarters of a leading candidate for alleged violations of election laws. Gholamhossein Rahbarpour, an official in charge of overseeing the campaigning, said Mohammad Khatami's Tehran headquarters were closed after officials determined that it was located in a state-owned building, the daily Kayhan said. The Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranians the election Friday would be fair. He strongly denied rumors about possible vote-rigging.

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