News In Brief
New fighting broke out in Macedonia a day after an estimated 6,000 Slav reservists, angered at a NATO-led evacuation of ethnic-Albanian insurgents, invaded parliament in Skopje. Despite European Union and NATO pressure, neither security forces nor guerrillas show a desire for peace, officials of the two agencies said. The reservists demanded that President Boris Trajkovski's government explain why it allowed US troops to escort hundreds of armed Albanians out of a Skopje suburb.
The earliest that former hard-line Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic could be extradited to face charges before the UN war-crimes tribunal in The Hague would be midnight Monday, one of his attorneys said. But a colleague said the government might try to speed the process to "get him out of here by Friday." Earlier this week, the Yugoslav cabinent authorized a decree to extradite indicted war-crimes suspects, but Milosevic appealed to a court in the capital, Belgrade, which must first question him, then allow a three-day period for a new appeal of its ruling.
Papua New Guinea's Army was patroling the streets of Port Moresby, the capital, after a day of violence in which three students were shot dead and 13 other people were hurt. The students had been protesting against economic reforms insisted upon by the International Monetary Fund. The shooting erupted after five days of blockades of traffic and government buildings, followed by looting and arson in a business district.
Russian counterintelligence officials said they may bring new espionage charges against John Tobin, an American Fulbright scholar already in jail on a drug conviction. A spokesman for the Federal Security Service said new accusations against Tobin might be based on the testimony of a Russian scholar, who claimed Tobin tried to recruit him as a spy for the US.
Ex-Philippine President Joseph Estrada appealed to his supporters to avoid violence at his arraignment today on charges of perjury and falsifying the value of his assets. Police tightened security in Manila following reports of alleged plots to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and kill Estrada as he's taken to court. Estrada, who denies any wrongdoing, also is to be arraigned later on separate charges of graft and economic plunder - the latter an offense punishable by death.
(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor
