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-News from Monday 25 March to 26 March 2002
The following news clips are taken from
the BBC. For details contact their web site.
 United States President George W Bush has announced his
commitment to work with Peru in the fight against drug trafficking and
terrorism. Speaking at a joint press conference with Peruvian President
Alejandro Toledo in the capital Lima, Mr Bush said that the two nations shared
a common perspective on the problem: "We must stop it".
 United States President George Bush has pledged his
support for free-trade policies in Latin America, during a whirlwind visit to
El Salvador. At a joint news conference with Salvadorean President Francisco
Flores, Mr Bush reiterated his now familiar mantra that trade is the answer to
the region's problems. Winding up a trip to the region which included earlier
visits to Mexico and Peru, the president also pledged to promote immigration
policies that gave Latin American workers access to US jobs.
 The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York has publicly
promised to take a tough line on priests who abuse children. In a letter to
churchgoers, Cardinal Edward Egan said he regarded sexual abuse of children as
an abomination.
 South African Nobel peace
laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised his country's decision to
recognise the result of Zimbabwe's recent controversial presidential elections.
Archbishop Tutu said he was "deeply, deeply, deeply distressed and deeply
disappointed" after South Africa declared the elections to have been
legitimate. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was returned to power in the
polls, which foreign and independent observer missions said were marred by
violence and intimidation.
 Indonesia's
parliamentary speaker Akbar Tandjung has appeared in court on corruption
charges in the latest in a series of high profile trials. He is accused of
helping divert around $4m of state funds to his own party for its campaign in
the last general election in 1999.
 A Sharia court in Nigeria has upheld the appeal of a
Muslim woman who had been convicted of adultery under Islamic law and sentenced
to death by stoning. Safiya Husaini won her case after the court in the
northern town of Sokoto said the original ruling was unsound. But as the
verdict was announced, it emerged that a second woman has been sentenced to
death by stoning for adultery. A Sharia court at Bakori in Katsina State
sentenced Amina Lawal to die after she confessed to having had a child while
divorced.
 Environmentalists from four Central European countries have called
for governments in the region to co-operate more closely to clean up badly
polluted rivers.
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