Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 15:07:56 EST Message-ID: \SE A;TOP OF THE NEWS;WORLD \BY FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS S=NEW STORY Sun says Charles is 'near despair' LONDON - How much do you want to bet that Prince Charles gives up his right to the throne? The Sun, Britain's largest-circulation newspaper, says he will. William Hill, the betting shop chain, calls it a long shot - though it marked down the odds from 25-1 to 10-1 yesterday. The press office at Buckingham Palace declined to comment. Charles, "near despair over his crisis-torn marriage," has told the queen he wants to step aside so that his 10-year-old son, William, will be the next monarch, according to the Sun. It quoted a "pal of the prince" as saying Charles "may" have to announce he is stepping down "if revelations about his marriage drag on." The Daily Mirror claimed the MI-5 intelligence agency "kept a secret file on Prince Charles's private life because of his intimate friendship with Camilla Parker-Bowles." It named as its single source an unidentified former officer in the Royal Protection Squad, which is not part of MI-5. S=NEW STORY Suspect arrested in cruise-ship terrorism BERLIN - A suspected Palestinian terrorist wanted for an attack that killed nine persons and wounded nearly 100 on a Greek cruise ship in 1988 has been arrested in Germany, police said yesterday. A statement from the Saxony state police headquarters said the man was arrested Friday at an apartment in Dresden, 120 miles south of Berlin. It identified him only as a 28-year-old Lebanese. The French news agency Agence France-Presse, quoting judicial sources in Paris, said the suspect was Mehri Mehieddine, who has been on international wanted lists since shortly after the July 11, 1988, attack on the City of Poros cruise ship. The man is believed to be the first person arrested in the attack. France demanded in March that Libya extradite the alleged mastermind of the attack, Mohamed Ahmed Khadir, but no action has been taken. S=NEW STORY Catholic Church updates catechism PARIS - The Roman Catholic Church took a step yesterday to bring doctrine into line with modern life, unveiling a new catechism that maintains bans on divorce and abortion but urges compassion for homosexuals and condemns low wages as theft. The first catechism of the Catholic Church in 426 years contains no new sins and absolves none of the old ones, but it addresses such contemporary ethical issues as terrorism, organ transplants and genetic engineering. In a retrenchment of orthodox positions bound to disappoint many of the world's 900 million Catholics, divorce and abortion remain forbidden sins. The only contraception accepted by the Church is natural. S=NEW STORY Endara loses fight to control army PANAMA CITY - Panamanians soundly rejected a referendum that would have eliminated the army in the first national vote since the 1989 U.S. invasion that ousted Gen. Manuel Noriega. According to preliminary results made public yesterday, about 64 percent of voters rejected a package of 58 reforms to the country's constitution, Panama's Electoral Tribunal said. The result means Panama will not impose a constitutional ban on a standing army, the key item in the package. The vote is a defeat for the government of President Guillermo Endara, who campaigned in favor of the referendum. The proposed reforms would have placed security forces - including the national police and the coast guard - directly under the president's command. S=NEW STORY Hang 'em high, say China's rulers BEIJING - Authorities in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming recently executed 22 persons on one day, including 10 convicted drug traffickers, an official newspaper reported. The Yunnan Legal News said the Kunming Intermediate People's Court imposed the death sentences during a public rally Nov. 5. The sentences were carried out immediately, the newspaper reported in its Nov. 10 edition, which was received here yesterday. In addition to the drug smugglers, those executed in Kunming were convicted of crimes that included murder, robbery and destruction of electrical equipment, the newspaper said. S=NEW STORY Ochoa movie sparks Fidel's fury SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Ties between Puerto Rico and Cuba, normally friendly, have been strained by a flap over a documentary film seen as critical of the Castro government. The dispute prompted Havana to walk out of Puerto Rico's International Film Festival over the weekend. When Puerto Rico refused to withdraw the film, Cuba pulled its entry, "Adorable Lies." Cuba had demanded the withdrawal of the Puerto Rican entry, "8 A," which deals with Havana's 1989 show trial and execution of Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa for alleged drug trafficking. Many Cubans believe Gen. Ochoa was killed because he represented a popular alternative to Mr. Castro, who has ruled Cuba since the 1959 revolution. S=NEW STORY Brain-dead mother and fetus die BERLIN - A fetus was born dead yesterday to a young woman who had been brain-dead since early October but whose body was kept on life-support equipment in an attempt to bring the pregnancy to term. The University of Erlangen announced that the woman miscarried early yesterday and the 19-week-old fetus was born dead in the university hospital. The university did not say what caused the miscarriage. S=NEW STORY Iraqi Kurds face lethal cold of winter SAYID SADIQ, Iraq - Cold rain heralds the start of a winter in northern Iraq - and new suffering for 3.5 million Kurds trying to sustain their de facto state. In December, the first snows could block roads and leave them without food and fuel. U.N. agencies and Western governments are scrambling to provide relief. But in the Kurdish town of Sayid Sadiq, about 35 miles southeast of Sulaymaniyah, there is a sense of impending disaster. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM