Hours after her second child was born, 19-year-old Helena Ferencikova's joy was dashed. In the recovery room, she discovered that the paper she had signed, not knowing what it said, had allowed doctors to sterilize her. The Vitkovicka hospital in the country's northeast says further pregnancies might have killed her. But Miss Ferencikova thinks the reason was her ethnicity -- Gypsy. Now a court ruling and a high-profile official inquiry have backed her up, and the country is having to confront the charge that an abuse many thought had died with communism is still being practiced. The uproar goes to the broader issue of entrenched European prejudice toward Gypsies -- or Roma as they prefer to be called -- especially in the former communist bloc, where most of the Continent's 7 million to 9 million Gypsies are concentrated. ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com
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Editor - 10:40:00 06-30-06
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 Doha or die Ministers must make quick progress at the WTO talks, or the big prize will be lost. |
This weekend may well decide whether the World Trade Organisation's multilateral talks - the so-called Doha round - will end in triumph or defeat. Trade ministers are meeting at the WTO in Geneva to hammer out an agreement on procedures for liberalising industrial and agricultural trade. If no deal is reached this weekend, WTO members are in danger of running out of time to conclude negotiations by the end of 2006. Negotiators have a series of exacting deadlines to meet this year. Knowing that this is the make or break year, and with time fast running out, WTO members need to make major strides to narrow their differences. We know from experience that ministerial meetings left with too many decisions to make at the last minute have little chance of success. As the global voice of business, representing companies large and small from all economic sectors in 130 countries, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) urges the world's political leaders to refuse to let these talks fail...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wto/article/0,,1809995,00.html?gusrc=rss
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Editor - 10:38:00 06-30-06
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| Vatican to open all archives from 1922 to 1939 |
Pope Benedict has decided to open all Vatican archives from 1922 to 1939, giving new insight into what the Catholic Church knew and did as Europe saw the rise of Nazism in Germany and the Spanish Civil War. The Vatican said on Friday it would open its central files, known as the Secret Archives, and files of its Secretariat of State for the pontificate of Pope Pius XI on September 18. In a short announcement, it said the opening would "make available for historical research … all documentary sources until February 1939 that are stored in different series of the Archives of the Holy See." "The part of the archives likely to provide new insight is that regarding Spain," said a Vatican source who asked not to be named. The Church was linked to the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco in the 1936-1939 civil war. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2138968
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Editor - 10:32:00 06-30-06
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| India peeved over prisoner swap |
India has accused Pakistan of reneging on a deal to free 240 Indian fishermen from its jails in a prisoner swap. The fishermen were to have been freed along with 19 other Indians in a swap with 38 Pakistanis at the Wagah border point, India's foreign ministry says. It said it had been told that 20 Indian fishermen were due to have reached Wagah - but their vehicle broke down. The sides began prisoner swaps after peace moves in 2004. More than 500 detainees returned home last September. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said Friday's exchange had been agreed in May. "We are disappointed to note that the 240 fishermen whose national status has already been confirmed were not released today despite the understanding," the statement said....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5131948.stm
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Editor - 10:29:00 06-30-06
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| Israel Strikes Militants' Car as Backdoor Negotiations Continue |
Israeli aircraft on Friday attacked a car in Gaza City carrying militants, Palestinian officials and the Israeli army confirmed — the latest strike of a five-day-old Israeli offensive designed to force militants to free an abducted Israeli soldier. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties. Meanwhile, backdoor negotiations continued in an effort to release a kidnapped soldier. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said terrorists agreed to a conditional release of the kidnapped soldier but that Israel had yet to accept their terms, which he did not specify. Israel said it was not familiar with any such offer. In remarks published Friday, Mubarak told the pro-government Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram that "Egyptian contacts with several Hamas leaders resulted in preliminary, positive results in the shape of a conditional agreement to hand over the Israeli soldier as soon as possible to avoid an escalation. But agreement on this has not yet been reached with the Israeli side."...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201637,00.html
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Editor - 09:54:00 06-30-06
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| US soldiers investigated in Iraqi family's killing |
A preliminary military inquiry into the incident found sufficient reason to move to a formal criminal investigation, the military said in a statement released in Baghdad.It is the latest in a series of investigations in which U.S. troops are suspected in the killings of civilians.Army Maj. Gen. James Thurman, the top U.S. commander in the Baghdad area, asked the Army's Criminal Investigation Command to look into the incident in the area of Mahmudiyah, south of the capital, the military said....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060630/ts_nm/iraq_usa_probe_dc
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Editor - 09:49:00 06-30-06
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