EVENTS
UN CHIEF CALLS FOR YEMEN CEASE-FIRE UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appealed June 7 for an immediate cease-fire in Yemen and a negotiated end to the month-old civil war. The northern government had declared the cease-fire June 6 in accordance with last week's UN Security Council resolution on Yemen. It said it was unilaterally implementing an open-ended truce beginning at midnight. Southern leaders welcomed the cease-fire announcement and said they hoped it would not be broken. The separatist south has been holding off Northern advances on several fronts. Yemen's civil war erupted May 4 over a political rift between President Ali Abdullah Saleh of the capitalist north and his former vice president, Ali Salem al-Beidh, of the socialist south. South African amnesty plan
President Nelson Mandela's new government announced plans June 7 to grant amnesty for political crimes, but only with a full confession. The proposals would fulfill a campaign promise by Mr. Mandela to confront murder, torture, terrorist bombings, and other crimes from the apartheid era in a bid for racial reconciliation. Good news for Germany
In clear signs of a fading recession, western Germany's economy grew modestly during the first quarter this year and the nation's jobless rate declined. Figures released June 7 may serve as a political boost for Chancellor Helmut Kohl's center-right coalition, which faces a series of elections this year leading up to voting Oct. 16 for a new Parliament. The west German economy, the third largest in the industrial world after the United States and Japan, has been in a severe recession. Timber sales ruling
A judge lifted a three-year-old ban on federal timber sales in the US Pacific Northwest on June 6 but indicated the battle over the fate of the region's ancient forests was far from over. US District Judge William Dwyer issued an order allowing the government to resume timber sales that have been all but halted by a lawsuit seeking to protect the ancient forest of the northern spotted owl. Valdez case goes to jury
Jurors began deliberating whether recklessness caused the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the worst in the US, in the first phase of a federal civil trial after closing arguments June 6. After the 12 jurors determine whether punitive damages should be assessed for the 1989 disaster, the second phase, on how much compensation the Exxon Corporation should pay for damages suffered by fishermen, native Alaskans, and property owners, will be ready to start. New Mormon leader
Howard Hunter became the 14th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints June 6. He succeeds Ezra Taft Benson, who died May 30.
