Copyright 2000 P.G. Publishing Co.
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
February 24, 2000, Thursday, SOONER EDITION
SECTION: WORLD, Pg. A-4, WORLD BRIEFS
LENGTH: 550 words
HEADLINE: NO
HEADLINE
BODY:
U.S. to continue trade
tax breaks
WASHINGTON - The World Trade Organization
yesterday rejected a U.S. appeal aimed at saving tax breaks
that help U.S. companies compete overseas, but Treasury Secretary Lawrence
Summers said the United States will not abandon the program.
Although
the WTO decision was to be officially released today, two sources familiar with
the case said an appellate panel had sided with the European Union position that
the Foreign Sales Corp. program was an illegal subsidy.
The program enables U.S. makers of computer software, chemicals,
machinery and many other products to shield some export income from
taxes. The tax breaks for companies such as Microsoft, Boeing and
General Motors would be worth more than $ 15 billion over the next five years,
according to congressional estimates. EAST TIMOR PROSECUTION
UNITED
NATIONS - The Security Council has thrown its support behind Indonesian
prosecution of those responsible for the violence in East Timor last year,
making no recommendation for an international tribunal in a document released
yesterday.
U.N. human rights experts recommended last month that the
council establish an international rights tribunal to try leading members of
Indonesia's military and police who were behind the wave of terror that swept
through East Timor after its Aug. 30 vote for independence. But in a letter
reacting to the recommendations, the Security Council said instead that it
welcomed the commitment of the Indonesian government "to bring those responsible
to justice through Indonesia's national judicial system."
Fatal
religious clashes
KADUNA, Nigeria - Charred bodies and burned-out cars
littered the streets of the northcentral Nigerian city of Kaduna yesterday, as
hundreds of residents fled the scene of two days of religious clashes that left
at least 200 dead.
An overwhelming stench filled the morgue at the main
hospital, where dozens of bodies were piled up on slabs, on the floor, and even
the ground outside.
Smoke wafted from burned buildings and from the
remnants of bonfires built in the streets during the rioting, which erupted
Monday morning during a demonstration by local Christians against a proposal to
bring Islamic law to Kaduna state.
There were no reports of fighting
yesterday, but looting continued in some neighborhoods despite a 20-hour curfew
that kept residents inside except between 8 a.m. and noon.
Also in the
world . . .
Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy said yesterday that
Lebanon would pay "blood for blood . . . child for child" if Hezbollah
guerrillas attacked towns and villages in northern Israel. He warned that the
soil of Lebanon would burn if the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement fired
rockets at Kiryat Shmona and other northern communities . . . Five people were
killed and one was seriously injured yesterday when a group of skiers was caught
in an avalanche in the Hautes-Alpes region of southeastern France . . . The
Honduran government announced yesterday that it will pay $ 2.1 million to the
families of 19 of the 184 political activists kidnapped and killed by an army
death squad in the 1980s . . . Rocks the size of cars came crashing down the
slopes of the Philippines' Mayon volcano yesterday, while residents were
evacuated.
LOAD-DATE: April 13, 2000
