The world in brief
TURKEY: Turkey has announced that the trial of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan will begin on May 31. It will be held on the heavily guarded prison island where Mr Ocalan is the only inmate. A pre-trial hearing in Ankara (where Mr Ocalan was not present) saw ugly and violent scenes with defence lawyers saying that they had been beaten by uniformed police inside and outside the court building. Several cases against Mr Ocalan have been rolled into one of treason and being personally responsible for deaths in the continuing struggle for a Kurdish state. Mr Ocalan's lawyers have complained that their access to the accused is strictly controlled and monitored and they cannot prepare a proper defence.* * * KENYA: Former Mau Mau guerrillas, who fought a 10-year-old campaign against colonial rule in Kenya, are to sue the British Government for gross human rights abuses. They say they have catalogued thousands of cases of rape, execution and seizure by the colonial authorities during the uprising in the 1950s.* * * RWANDA: Officials in Rwanda have accused Britain of giving asylum to Lt-Col Tharcisse Muvunyi, a Hutu army commander accused of ordering the murder of 25 children and the head of the country's former Tutsi royal family. Officials want him extradited to stand trial in Rwanda.* * * CANADA: Canada will seek the backing of other members in the Group of Seven (G7) to suspend debts and extend credits to poor countries which increase spending on health and education for their population, while reducing expenditures on the armed forces and weapons. Another Canadian initiative proposes that 10 million ounces of gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves be sold so that the Fund could develop a wider reaching plan to assist nations in crisis. Over the last 20 years Canada has written off $1.3 billion in foreign debt payments by various underdeveloped nations.* * * CUBA: Huge celebrations took place in Cuba when the Cuban baseball team returned from the USA with victory over the Baltimore Orioles. The May 3 meeting between the two teams was the first in 40 years. Cuba had always been receptive to such an encounter and US teams had expressed interest in travelling to Cuba in previous years but the US Government had not allowed them. The victory was all the sweeter for the fact that it took place in the USA.* * * WESTERN SAHARA: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has presented proposals for a UN referendum on the Independence of Western Sahara in July 2000. The Secretary General asked Morocco and the Polisario Front to formally agree as the UN mandate was due to expire. Annan cautioned that the referendum would only take place "provided that the unequivocal co-operation and support of both parties is maintained throughout."