MonitoRadio Early Program; [1995-12-28]

This is Monitor Radio, the worldwide broadcast edition of the Christian Science Monitor on PRI, Public Radio International. I'm Steve Delaney. The first deadline for disengagement of forces at key points around Sarajevo has been met successfully. In the British sector around Vanyuluka, NATO forces are dealing with refugees made homeless by ethnic cleansing. What's behind the wave of congressional retirements? One expert says Congress has become a grim and cheerless place to work. The comedy of the institution as well as comedy has gone. In other words, people don't get along with each other and there's no humor anymore. As several members said, it ain't fun anymore. We'll have those stories and a lot more coming up in this FR, but first this news. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Bill Badger, the Monitor Radio News Desk. As NATO forces consolidated their control in Bosnia, the warring sides pulled back Wednesday from

designated areas around Sarajevo to meet the first deadline in the peace agreement. And the U .S. commander in Tuzla brought together the regional commanders of the three warring factions to discuss freedom of movement and mine removal. In Croatia Wednesday, U .S. troops under NATO command came under fire. When an unidentified man stopped a car, got out and fired about 30 rounds towards the troops, then drove off. Nobody was injured. And floodwaters today burst into a camp for U .S. peacekeeping troops in Croatia, the flooding from the Sarajevo river that forms the border between Croatia and Bosnia forced the troop area to be evacuated. The trial of three U .S. servicemen accused of rape in Japan has been postponed. As a high court, here's a petition asking that the trial be moved. Monitor Radio's Peter Hadfield reports from Tokyo. In his petition, Marine Private Kendrick Ladet says he can't receive a fair trial on the island of Okinawa where the case is being heard. Ladet

and two other U .S. servicemen are accused of abducting and raping a 12 -year -old Japanese schoolgirl. The crime has caused so much anger on Okinawa that families of the defendants also say they want the trial move to the mainland, where it can be heard more impartially. The last hearing of the trial, which was due to take place Thursday, has now been postponed, while a high court on the mainland hears the petition. The verdict and sentence may also be postponed. They would have been given in late January. The three accused men face prison terms of three years to life. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Peter Hadfield in Tokyo. A Chinese court today turned down the appeal of dissident Wajun Chong. The 1995 Nobel Prize nominee was convicted of trying to subvert the government and sentenced to 14 years in prison. The Monitor's Sheila Tefk reports from Beijing. Beginning his second lengthy jail term, China's most prominent democracy campaigner is no stranger to the vast prison system. Wai was first arrested for leading the democracy movement in the late 1970s and served almost 15 years

in jail. He was released in September 1993, but re -arrested when he continued to call for political change. Court officials would not say where Wai will be jailed, although diplomats expect him to be held in solitary confinement as before. Wai could be eligible for parole after serving half his term, but few Chinese political prisoners are released early. His family denounced the trial and vowed to sue the courts for dereliction of duty. For the Christian Science Monitor, this is Sheila Tefk in Beijing. Stocks in Japan closed down 139 points today, the Dow in New York Wednesday lost four points. This is Monitor Radio News on PRI Public Radio International. France detonated a nuclear blast in the South Pacific Wednesday, the fifth in a series that has drawn global condemnation and triggered sometimes violent protest. France says the blast was less than two previous tests in the area south of Tahiti, and says blast data will be used to calibrate instruments that could make future tests unnecessary.

The White House says the U .S. budget's stalemate with Congress is an urgent situation, but as Monitor Radio's Gene Hacklander reports from Washington, expectations are low for ending the impasse anytime soon. Following a holiday break, White House aides and congressional staffers are meeting again on the budget, but so far the talks have focused mainly on working out a schedule for negotiations rather than dealing with the impasse itself. White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta returns from vacation Thursday and is expected to meet with the Senate and House Budget Committee Chairman. The White House says that if enough progress is made, President Clinton could resume talks with Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingriches early as Friday. Broad differences over Medicare cutbacks and other issues still divide the sides. In the meantime, a nearly two -week -old partial shutdown of the federal government continues and a quarter of a million federal workers remain off the job. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Gene Hacklander in Washington. China today approved a 150 -strong committee that will

decide the shape of Hong Kong's government after the British handover in 1997, more than half of the committee members will be from Hong Kong. Israel says everything is on the agenda during peace talks with Syria that began Wednesday in Maryland. The two nations are exploring what kind of peace Israel could expect if it returns the go -on heights to Syria. U .S. Immigration officials say nearly 52 ,000 illegal aliens have been deported during 1995. That's a new record. From Monitor Radio News, I'm Bill Badger on PRI. Music This is Monitor Radio. I'm Steve Delaney. It is far too early to celebrate, but the early word from NATO on a

Serb pull -out from key points around Sarajevo is so far so good. NATO spokesmen say Bosnian Serb forces and government forces began hauling weapons and other equipment away from the battle -scarred city front lines, two hours before Wednesday's midnight deadline, according to the terms laid out in the Dayton Peace Accord. But there are still pending requests by Serb commanders to delay parts of the Sarajevo withdrawal, something the U .S. State Department officials say is out of the question. Clay Scott, who has covered the war from Sarajevo from Monitor Radio, is now adjusting to covering the peace. Clay, was there a sort of collective holding of breath in Sarajevo as this first implementation deadline came and went? No, I don't think there was. I think it's been apparent for some time that at least the initial stages of the implementation are going pretty well. So I don't think you could say there's been a holding of breath, but when it finally sinks in with people in Sarajevo that these positions around their city have finally been vacated, and these are positions from what thousands of people have been killed over the last three and a half years, I think there's really going to be a collective

shout of relief. Now, assuming that what is easy gets done first, what is ahead that's not so easy in terms of unrolling the implementation schedule? What will not be easy at all as the incorporation of the so -called Serb suburbs of Sarajevo, that's Bogoscha, Ilija, Hadjiji, a couple others, and especially Grubovica, which is not really a suburb at all, it's right in the middle of the city. If the Serbs in these areas can be persuaded to stay, it will be a real triumph for the architects of the Peace Plan and also for the Boschian government. I've been on the Serbsite almost daily in the last few weeks talking to Serbs there about their fears, and I must say that there really are susceptible to the Propaganda, so to get them to stay and really to be able to successfully incorporate those areas is a huge task. Well, the Serbs, the leaders at least, are saying that they need more time to get used to the idea of Muslim rule in the Sarajevo

suburbs, and at the same time, there are indications that they're packing up and dismantling everything that will move and hauling it off into areas that are not going to be turned over. So what's going on over there? As far as reports of people packing up and moving, they're not moving on mass. People who have relatives outside of the area are taking some valuables with them and mostly coming back, that's my sense, for the time being. They want to be prepared to be able to leave quickly if they have to. And as far as the Serbs leaders trying to buy time, I think they're really trying to delay what's probably be inevitable. The fight for Sarajevo was symbolic normally for the people on the inside of the city, but I think for the seizures as well. And so it's hard for them to come to grips with. I was up on Mount Trevovich yesterday, which overlooks some positions over Sarajevo, and I was talking to some Serbs soldiers there. I found them to be completely dejected and forlorn, and I guess abandoned, you could say. They don't even seem to know exactly who they're taking their orders from

anymore. One guy said to me yesterday, it's hard for the loser, and at the first time I think I ever heard a Serb admit to having lost in this war. So I think they need time not so much to get used to living with Muslims since they did that before the war, but really to get used to the idea of having lost. Clay Scott in Sarajevo on the transition from war to peace in the Balkans. Thank you very much. Thank you. The fighting in Bosnia may be over, but ethnic cleansing is not. In Northern Bosnia, Serbs forced out hundreds of thousands of Muslims in croats. But in the late stages of the war, croat and Muslim troops made huge gains in the Western approaches to Vanya Luka, the main Serbs stronghold in the region. And now, as those forces pull back under the terms of the Dayton Accords, some of them are reported to be destroying Serb homes and turning their owners into refugees. The Vanya Luka region will be under British control during the NATO mission. All of her August accompanied some British troops yesterday as they entered the

area and began coordinating the movement of refugees. When British troops arrived in Vanya Luka, they were met by smiling and waving locals. The 140 British soldiers and their heavily armoured vehicles were backed up by their own artillery guns near the front line, but there was no need for it. To ordinary Vanya Luka, the British presence means peace, and peace means an improvement in their living conditions. The situation has recently become desperate because the city has had to absorb 20 ,000 refugees. Their villages south of Vanya Luka are occupied by croats. Under the Dayton Peace Accord, they should be allowed to return to their villages after the croats have retreated. This, however, is looking increasingly unlikely. Croats soldiers have started torching houses in the Bosnia and Serb territory they are occupying. Entire valleys have been made uninhabitable. Merconech grad, where until recently 10 ,000 people used to live, has been turned into a ghost town. Before the Bosnia and Serb were all started, Vanya Luka was a model for the whole of Yugoslavia. Serbs, croats and Muslims

lived peacefully. They frequented the same cinema, theaters and supermarkets, only their churches were separate. This changed when the Serbs started their programme of ethnic cleansing in the area. Vanya Luka became a Serb stronghold and most croats and Muslims were forced to leave the city. The war criminals responsible for this and the war criminals who committed similar fences on the other side have not been caught. The British commander in Vanya Luka said he knew who the offenders were, but he had other priorities then looking for them. His aim is to establish good relations with the local population. To do so, two sports events have already been set up. The first is a soccer match between British and Serb soldiers. The second is a joint tank exercise at which commanders will get the chance to fire some of the other side's weapons. Both events are scheduled to take place this week. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Oliver August in Vanya Luka. In the state of Maryland,

32 candidates have lined up to succeed Congressman Quesim Fume, the Democrat who is resigning to become chairman of the NAACP. 28 Democrats and four Republicans have met the filing deadline for Fume's district, which covers much of Baltimore. Fume is only one of dozens of lawmakers who have said they're leaving mostly by retirement. But what will the loss of so many seasoned lawmakers mean for the next Congress? Not to mention the remainder of this one. Some clues from Monitor Radio's Jim Kane. The numbers are striking. 12 members of the Senate are retiring and one has resigned. 22 members of the House are retiring, four have resigned and 11 are expected to give up their seats to run for the Senate. And congressional elections are still about 10 months away. Political analysts looking at the mass departure note that most of those leaving are Democrats. James Thurber is the director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at the American University in Washington. The Democrats that are retiring find that the minority isn't very much fun. They don't see the Democrats winning in 1996,

maybe not even 1998. They are tired. It's a very difficult job in terms of stress on family. The comedy of the institution as well as comedy has gone. In other words, people don't get along with each other and there's no humor anymore. As several members said, it ain't fun anymore. That's what many retiring members of Congress acknowledged privately, but in public they brush those concerns aside. Early in December, Wyoming Republican Senator Alan Simpson announced his retirement, but told reporters the Senate was still a fun place. It is not only fun, it is a tremendous honor. If we can continue to listen to the words Robert Bird, who is our singular link with civility, and he can be just as partisan as I, but he is indeed the link with our history. Democrat Robert Bird is the senior senator from West Virginia, first elected to the Senate in 1958. Considered an expert on the history and rules of the Senate, Bird has expressed concern about the lack

of civility in Congress. On December 20th, Bird took the floor of the Senate to lash out at lawmakers who had accused fellow senators and the president of the United States of telling lies. It is no wonder that good men and women who have served honorably and long in this body are saying they've had enough. They may not go out here publicly and say that, but they've had enough. Mr. President, it is with profound sadness that I have taken the floor today to express my alarm and concern at the poison that has settled in upon this chamber. And the climate is much the same in the House, if not worse. In fact, two House members from Indiana, Democrat Lee Hamilton and Republican John Myers, requested the Congressional Research Service to look into the matter. Ilona Nichols authored the study. She says decorum in the House has diminished when compared to 10 or 20 years ago, but she

notes that Congress is actually a much more civil place than it was a century ago. Congress in, for example, the 1800s was really no place for the timid. I mean, people actually packed pistols then. And we had, you know, duels. We had killings. We had a celebrated incident as far back to 1789, which involved a brawl on the House floor and the weapons that choice were a cane and a fire tongue. But the study documents a decline in civility in recent years marked by in temperate speeches on the House floor. A recent shoving incident between two House members and a shouting and tie pulling confrontation between Democrats and Republicans outside the Ways and Means Committee hearing room in September. How many hearings I've got two grandmothers that want to know where the Medicare employees are going to be. Where are they? Shouldn't do this to yourself. It's shameful that the Ways and Means Committee has not had one hearing. Now, one hearing on 270 billion dollars worth of cuts away from his grandmother and his grandmother. I've got his grandmothers who want Medicare reformed and we want to know why you're delaying on the floor and there's delaying in committee and you don't have a

plan. And that's that is a travesty. Whatever the reasons, the many departures from Congress will have a definite impact on both the House and Senate after the 1996 elections. James Thurber of American University. The South basically has become Republican. It's become Republican in an incremental way, a slow way and it's realigned. And so those individuals from the South that are retiring are likely to have Republicans replace them. Thurber says the situation is less predictable in the House where there is strong competition in both parties for many of the open seats. He says there may also be some noticeable effects before the next elections simply because so many of those in Congress are not worried about having to face the voters in November. From my limited experience appearing before the Rules Committee and the Judiciary Committee, those who said they are going to retire seem to be liberated in terms of saying what they really feel. And in one particular case when we were talking

about reforming campaign finance and reforming lobbying, one member that's retiring said, well you know what I think is that we need to reform the American electorate. In other words, have them become a little more educated about the process back here and have them turn out at higher levels in elections. Now a person running for reelection would never say something like that. If Thurber's analysis is correct, the fact that 33 members of the House and Senate are retiring may make for some exciting debate and unexpected votes in the remaining months of the 104th Congress. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Jim Kane in Washington. It's 19 minutes past the hour. With a business update, I'm David LaValle. There's a plan of foot to limit the incentives that mutual funds use to entice brokers into selling their shares. The National Association of Securities Dealers has proposed a change to federal rules. It would prevent brokers from accepting increasingly common non -cash compensation and other incentive -based rewards. Cuba's economy could get a boost from an improved sugar harvest

this year, but the Communist government says any gains will be offset by a heavy borrowing for fertilizer and other supplies. Analysts predict a sugar harvest of 4 .5 million tons up from 3 .3 million last winter. They project the modest 5 % growth in the Cuban economy as long as sugar prices don't drop. On the Tokyo Stock Exchange today, the Nikkei Index slid back under the 20 ,000 level, losing 138 points to close at 19 ,873. And that's a quick look at business news. This is Monitor Radio. Despite bitter cold thousands of eager fans have been lining up outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington this week to take an rare exhibition of paintings by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. Twice, the gallery and along with it, the Vermeer exhibit, have been closed by the partial shutdowns of the federal government. But the gallery thwarted the latest shutdown by reopening to the public using private funds. With so many of the top

tourist attractions and the nation's capital shuttered by the ongoing budget crisis, the reopening of the gallery was a kind of late Christmas present for many Washington visitors. Alex Van Oss reports on why the Vermeer Showing is considered so important. Visitors to the National Gallery of Art are often surprised when they step into the Johannes Vermeer Exhibition. Many of the paintings are tiny and filled with details that demand you go right up to them and squint. But getting close can be a problem because the exhibit rooms are often jammed. The show attracts up to 5 ,000 visitors a day. You need a ticket and the waiting line says one escort can get pretty long. So if you had to give a lesson in crowd control for Vermeer Exhibition, what advice would you give? Single file, no pushing or shoving, play nice with the other children. The 21 Vermeer paintings are called from Royal Collections and Museums all over Europe in the United States. On view or street scenes, portraits, religious allegories, they're meticulous and intimate studies done in oil paint. And that's a far cry, it would seem at first, from abstract works

by modern artists, painters like the Dutch -born Willem De Loper, who completely unlike Vermeer paints abstract works in that most modern of media, acrylic. My studio is basically a fairly bare room which has paint and brushes and rollers. In fact, I don't even use an easel. Obviously Vermeer uses an easel and in fact there is a very famous picture of himself with the back towards the viewer at his easel. He wears very fancy clothes as well. Now, Willem De Loper grew up in the hage near Delft, Vermeer's hometown, and lived near a museum filled with Vermeer paintings. So De Loper has, in a sense, known the master from childhood. Here in Washington he became curator at the Phillips collection, then left resumed full -time painting. De Loper says that for any artist, whether representational or abstract, there's a lot to learn from the old Dutch masters like Vermeer. I think we are seeing a particular slice of

life of a very interesting part of Dutch history to 17th century when the Netherlands was very wealthy. 300 years ago, Vermeer married, sired a large family, he kept a tavern and was an art dealer, and now and then, not very often, he sat down to the easel himself and produced only about three dozen paintings, not many. They are introspective, masterly depictions of light, falling on, say, a woman, reading a letter by the window, or the buildings and water and Delft harbor. At first glance, Vermeer seems to be a realistic painter, but if you look closely, says Willem De Loper, there's almost a separate reality in the details. At the beginning of the exhibition intrigues me particularly, it's a street scene in Delft. The houses are wrecked angles and triangles as well, and it's one of those things that you see constantly in the Vermeer paintings. There is an underlying abstraction, really, which is particularly fascinating to me because I deal with that myself. Visitors emerge from the exhibition looking quiet and thoughtful, and they come away with vivid

impressions. It's incredible how much detail he managed to impart in every painting, really enjoyed looking at the different tapestries, the pearls, quite luminous, and... This artist lived 300 years ago, does he, in some way, address concerns you have or your life, or is it sort of a curiosity? Well, I think just his contemplative mood of the subjects and his paintings are kind of like a bomb, you know, to the modern world. He seems to move really fast and, you know, hardly take time out to sort of, I don't know, gaze out a window or something like that. It's soothing, you know, I think, his artwork. Certainly you can see in Vermeer leading towards impressionism as well, the concerned with light. There are all these little beads of color

everywhere, including highlights, for instance, on a kind of milk that the milkmaid has or on a carpet, which is spread over a table. These paintings are icons of Dutch culture, the woman in yellow pouring milk from a picture, the woman in blue reading a letter or playing an instrument. And then there's Vermeer's room, always the same still room, bathed and pale sunlight. Ironically, says Deluper, Vermeer painted many of these pictures, quiet and mood, while living over a noisy tavern. And as for the famous sunny room, in reality, says it may not have existed at all, but was conjured up in the inner sanctum of Vermeer's studio. He's a poet, he's a composer, and so he uses all these elements within the scope of what he knows and what he can do, also with his brushes, and makes something other of it, which then delights us to look at, you see. Washington Painter, Bill and Deluper, reflecting on fellow Dutch artist Johannes

Vermeer. Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery of Art remains until February 11th. For the Christian Science Monitor, this is Alex Fanos. I wonder if you ever seemed anyone coming to the exhibition who looks like Vermeer? No, we got a phone call from someone in the Netherlands named Johannes Vermeer. It was a doctor who shared the same name and was interested in finding out more about the artist and the exhibition. So, I haven't seen anyone that looks or resembles him, and actually I haven't really ever seen a picture. I remember painting of the artist himself, so I wouldn't know what to look for. Government is something out of the philosophy of Heraclitus, the institution that's constantly in a state of noisy flux. The river, you can't step into twice. Monitor Radio's Washington Editor, Rod McLeish. Art is one of the greatest fixtures of civilization, permanent, unchanging, resonant, but voiceless.

Until yesterday, however, the jabbering, wrangling process of government managed to shut down a unique event in the history of art, the National Gallery's Vermeer Show. That exhibition of his work is the only one ever mounted in the 320 years since Vermeer died. It's doubtful there will ever be another, the costs are too great, the risks of putting a majority of Vermeer's works in one place prohibitive. Therefore, the argument can be made that of all the consequences of the farcical budget standoff, few were more devastating than the closing down of the show at the National Gallery. In addition to the government checks that veterans and the poor have been denied, depriving Americans, many of whom traveled thousands of miles to see the 21 Vermeer paintings, was a monstrous consequence of the shutdown. To so -called hard -headed politicians who consider art exhibitions frippery for a few members of the elite, a visit to the National Gallery before it was shut down would have been

instructive. The people waiting in line to see the works of Johannes Vermeer were a cross -section of the American public. They represented not a social elite, but the bearers of that sense in most of us, which equates beauty with every other necessity of life. The National Gallery managed to reopen the Vermeer Show yesterday by using private funds. The budget will eventually be balanced. There will be future battles over government spending and probably future holder partial government shutdowns. It's probably asking too much of the White House in Congress to set aside a fund to keep great exhibitions of art open when the rest of government shuts down over political squabbles. But it would be nice. The comments of Monitor Radio's Washington editor Rod Nick Leish. You're listening to Monitor Radio, the worldwide broadcast edition of the Christian Science Monitor. I'm Steve Delaney. It's almost 29 minutes past the hour. P .R .I.

Public Radio International. Music. Music. Music.

Music. I'm Steve Delaney. Almost a year after a gunman killed two workers inside women's health clinics near Boston, abortion rights advocates say the shootings changed their lives. From that day forward, people were outraged and angered and knew that they had a turn that those feelings into something positive to make sure that this could never happen again. So people have been coming out. They've been coming to meetings, coming to demonstrations, working in their communities, talking to their own private physicians, really taking this very seriously. And we are, you know, we're building a movement. That's what this is all about. We'll have that and a great deal more coming up in this half hour and we'll begin with this news. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Deborah Becker at the Monitor Radio News Desk. NATO officials said US troops under NATO command came under fire in Croatia last night when an unidentified gunman sprayed the area where they're based with rounds of automatic weapon fire.

No one was hurt and no fire was returned. The incident occurred just north of the Sava River where flooding today forced the evacuation of some US peacekeeping troops near Zupanya, Croatia. But the first stage of a NATO -supervised pullback of Bosnian government and rebel -served forces from around Sarajevo has been successful. Monitor Radio's Clay Scott reports from Sarajevo. The 47 designated frontline positions around Sarajevo have been almost completely vacated. Much of the pullback occurred in the final two hours before the deadline of Wednesday at midnight. At daybreak, the last handful of Bosnian -served soldiers could be seen leaving their bunkers on Mount Trevivic above Sarajevo. NATO officials say they are satisfied with the cooperation of both warring parties. A NATO spokesman said only some mine clearance and what he called minor cleaning up remained before the pullback could be declared complete. The next major deadline facing NATO's Bosnian mission comes in about three weeks. By that time, all warring parties in Bosnia must have withdrawn beyond a one -and -a -half -mile zone of separation. For the Christian Science

Monitor, I'm Clay Scott in Sarajevo. The trial of three U .S. servicemen accused of raping a 12 -year -old Okinawan girl has been put on hold while the court considers a request for a change of venue. UPI's Thomas Caldwell reports from Tokyo. The District Court on Okinawa decided that the trial should be postponed after the mothers of two of the defendants filed petitions with a higher court requesting that their sons be tried somewhere else. The reason for moving the trial that the mothers of marine privates Rodrigo Harp and Kendrick Liddett cited in their petition was the high level of resentment the residents of Okinawa have towards the U .S. military's presence. They believed that under the circumstances, there was no way their sons could receive a fair trial on the island. The mothers had earlier made a similar request, but it was rejected because of a lack of legal documentation. The court has not announced when it will issue a ruling on the petition. Thomas Caldwell, Tokyo. A Chinese court has rejected an appeal from leading dissident Wajing Shang. The court announced today that it has upheld the original 14 -year prison sentence, which was handed down to Wei last week. After

his conviction on charges of trying to overthrow the Chinese government, diplomats say the court's announcement today means that Wei can now begin serving his lengthy prison term. The partial shutdown of the U .S. government will be two weeks old tomorrow. The same day, the White House and Congressional negotiators are expected to resume their talks to resolve the impasse. If the talks are fruitful, President Clinton is expected to join in later in the day. Both sides are still said to be far apart on agreeing to a seven -year balanced budget plan. This is monitor radio news on PRI, public radio, international. In Israeli cabinet minister Mates and positive remarks today about the closed -door peace talks taking place between Israel and Syria. The minister told Israel radio there is now a feeling that there is a mandate for serious negotiations. Today is the second day in this round of talks, which are taking place just outside Washington, D .C. These are the first negotiations between Israel and Syria since the dialogue between them broke off in June. France has conducted its fifth nuclear

test in the South Pacific. The French government announced that the test went off without any problems, but sparked a storm of international protest. There are chases following the story from France. Like the others, Wednesday's blast went off in the middle of the night, Paris time. The Turkish defense ministry statement said it measured less than 30 kilotons. Australia and seismologists on the scene compared it to an earthquake measuring 5 .3 on the Richter scale. Despite the Christmas holiday, protests from the South Pacific were immediate. Japan, Australia, and New Zealand called in their French ambassadors to demand an immediate halt to the program. New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger commented that France's reputation in the region is at an all -time low. French scientists say this test was necessary to provide the database to allow them to rely on computer simulation of nuclear tests in the future. According to reports, President Jack Syrac hoped to complete the test before a scheduled February visit to Washington. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Sarah Chase in Paris. South Korean prosecutors are expanding the scope of their investigation into a 1979 coup

and subsequent crackdown on pro -democracy protesters. South Korean authorities announced that more than 3 dozen people suspected of being involved in the coup have been barred from leaving the country. Among them are five current national assembly lawmakers and former President Chundu -Wan. Chund is already in jail and charges related to the coup. That's a summary of this hour's top stories from monitor radio news in Boston. I'm Deborah Becker on PRI. This is monitor

radio. I'm Steve Delaney. In Boston on Saturday, friends and relatives of two women who were murdered a year ago at clinics that provide abortions will gather for a memorial march and service. Shannon Launy and Leanne Nichols were staff members at separate clinics in the adjacent town of Brookline when a lone government walked in and began shooting. John Saldy, who has a history of opposition to abortion, is charged in their deaths. His trial is to begin in February. The shootings at the planned parenthood and pre -term health clinics brought the national debate over abortion home to the people of Massachusetts and forced a great deal of soul searching among activists on both sides of the issue. In the first report of a two -part series, monitor radio's Michelle Breyer returned to Brookline and found that the clinic attacks had a profound impact on the local abortion rights movement that is still being felt today. The elaborate security measures now in place at the planned parenthood clinic in Brookline are a sobering reminder that

something terrible happened here a year ago. All of the women's clinics in the Greater Boston area have increased their security, hiring armed guards or installing metal detectors, bulletproof glass, alarms or electronic surveillance systems. They say this is the new reality and no one doubts the precautions are necessary. Not after a lone gunman killed two women and wounded five other people inside the Brookline facilities last December. Once inside, the changes at planned parenthood are less apparent. The atmosphere is comfortable, friendly and business -like, much like any doctor's office. Clinic director Alice Verhoeven says that's because planned parenthood is like most health care facilities. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the service that we provide in this clinic is routine, gynecological care, patient education around issues of birth control and well -woman care

and contraception. In many ways we're the primary care provider for these young women and we pick up on things that need to be referred out for further follow -up and so forth. If they weren't coming to a family planning clinic, these are health problems that would go undetected. But it was another service offered at this clinic that led to the deadly shooting spree last December. The gunman came here because planned parenthood also performs abortions and provides abortion counseling. I think about that day every day and I suspect that I will for a good long time. You can't have something like this happen and forget it. I think all of us do. We all recover and deal with it in different ways and at different rates. I think what needs to be said and what is so inspiring and impressive to me is the way the staff rallied. Verhoeven says that not only did most staffers return to work following the shootings, but the patients returned as well. Despite the violence,

planned parenthood says it never saw a significant drop in patient visits. The clinic averages about 6 ,000 patients for basic on ecological care each year, another 1200 women come in for pregnancy testing, and about 3 ,000 abortions are performed annually. While the work of providing a broad range of health services has long returned to normal inside the clinics, the atmosphere of the public debate over abortion remains highly charged. The abortion rates throughout the land. Local abortion rights supporters see the day of the Brookline killings as a grim landmark for their cause. They speak in terms of before December 30th and after. They say the Brookline killings changed their movement and in many cases their lives, making them realize how violent and unpredictable the abortion debate was becoming across the country and in their own backyard. The shootings did have the immediate and lasting effect of drawing out

more demonstrators at local rallies for women and abortion rights. Tony Troop is the president of the Boston Chapter of Now, the National Organization for Women. From that day forward, people were outraged and angered and knew that they had a turn that those feelings into something positive to make sure that this could never happen again. So people have been coming out, they've been coming to meetings, coming to demonstrations, working in their communities, talking to their own private physicians, really taking this very seriously. And we are, you know, we're building a movement. That's what this is all about. A 23 -year -old local college student who identifies herself only as Isabel works as a volunteer escort, guiding women past protesters at a local clinic. Isabel says she made the decision to get involved one month after the shootings, but she says that while the clinic attacks increased her resolve, the tragedy scared others away. I know a lot of women, young women like myself, have expressed concern for their safety and I think that's one of the reasons they have not gotten more involved and they have not come out

to the clinics and they have not volunteered to escort. So I think in that case, they have frightened people, a great deal. They have frightened the approach to this community. Most abortion opponents consider the alleged Brookline gunman a deranged extremist and not a member of their movement. Teresa Dunnevin is a member of mass citizens for life and an active opponent of abortion. Here was an individual and obviously troubled individual, obviously not pro -life individual because he chose to kill. Here was an individual undermining an entire movement more than 20 years old, fully committed to peaceful nonviolent pro -life activities, to save the lives of children, to save women. Whether the gunman was actually a member of an anti -abortion organization or not, abortion rights supporters say he opened fire on the clinics in an attempt to stop abortion, and they charge abortion protesters on the streets encourage that kind of action, whether they intend to or not. Abortion rights activists say that in addition to pointing out the physical threats to clinics

and abortion providers, the shootings last year also focused attention on other dangers to abortion rights. Activists say they've spent the year trying to counter economic threats, like potential cuts in federal family planning funds or limits on Medicaid coverage for abortions. And they say they've worked against political threats, like more restrictive abortion laws, as well as aggressive anti -abortion publicity. There's not a woman in the world who wakes up in the morning and says, should I have a facial today or an abortion? Susan Yano is the coordinator at the abortion access project, a grassroots coalition of abortion rights activists and women's health care providers. Yano says almost as important as providing for security at the clinics, her group has worked this year on broader philosophical abortion rights issues, such as gaining more acceptance of abortion as a health care choice without stigma. I don't think tooth extraction is fine,

but it's necessary. I think for some women, the decision to have an abortion is a difficult heartbreaking one. I think for other women, it is a solution to a problem and it is a life -saving surgical procedure. Anti -abortion activists say the violence last year did nothing to diminish their opposition to that position. Abortion opponent Teresa Dunnevin says, continuing pro -abortion statements about the safety and acceptance of abortion make anti -abortion actions like sidewalk counseling all the more necessary. If they can't convince her not to abort her unborn child because her unborn child has a beating heart because abortion plays her and her for future fertility and her life at risk, they can't appeal to her then did you know this? We just want you to make an informed decision today. They've been able to save women and save babies by doing that. Activists like Susan Yano admit that while abortion is legal, the Brooklyn shootings made access a prominent issue. Ashish Jha, a third year Harvard University medical student,

is a member of medical students for choice, an organization that works to increase abortion training and education. He says, the shootings brought to the forefront, the strain on clinics suffering from a shortage of abortion providers and a lack of support for doctors who perform abortions. Physicians and medical students as sort of future physicians tend to be a cautious lot. I think there are sort of people who are a little bit more conservative and tend to avoid controversy, which I think has been part of the problem with how as a community of providers, we've let this issue really get out of hand. I mean, we've gotten to a point where 84 % of counties in the United States don't have a single abortion provider. How did that happen? I think to some extent we are at fault for not being more cautious and not being more vigilant. And while Jha says awareness and activism increased a little among medical students just after the shootings, the momentum dissipated as the vivid memories of the clinic attacks

faded. Susan Yana of the abortion access project says her group has been successful in the last year in getting more area hospitals and medical schools to offer abortion training and to increase the number of hospitals providing the services in the first place. She says that work is continuing. But abortion rights supporters say there's little that can be done to wipe out the memories of the terror of last December. Plan Parenthood Clinic Director Alice Verhoeven. The impact of that day is so deep. I'm not sure that anybody really understands yet how deep that impact was. They lost a friend and a colleague and experienced a horror that most of us go through our lives never having to confront. And yet the majority of our staff came back to work.

They remain committed to the care of women. They do their jobs every bit as well as they did before and some might say even better. I think on some level we are stronger even though we all have our moments, our weaknesses and our weak moments. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Michelle Breyer in Brookline. Tomorrow, a look at the anti -abortion movement in Massachusetts one year after the Brookline shootings. Activist working to stop legal abortion have kept up the pressure. Despite accusations that their activities were connected to or even responsible for the violence last December. The connection is this that the violence of abortion triggers the violence of a shooter. And I'm here opposing both forms of violence. So anybody who's a shooter didn't do what he did because of me. So I'm not going to stop doing what I'm doing because of him. That's tomorrow on Monitor Radio's early edition. Also tomorrow, a summary of the events

that have shaped the year in 1995. From the vantage point of December's end, we'll recall the highlights of a year that saw the probable end of the Bosnian War. The achievement of autonomy in most of the West Bank, the Republican Revolution in Congress, the Oklahoma City bombing, the gassing of the Tokyo Subways, the murder of Israel's Prime Minister and much more. Tomorrow, we'll see how all those things affect the way we enter the year 1996. It's 11 minutes before the hour. With an environmental update on Mitch Wurtleib, a population research group says the world could be facing an environmental armageddon in the 21st century if the current rate of reproduction isn't slowed down. Officials with the UN -sponsored Population Institute said the world's

population grew by 100 million people in the past year, the largest increase ever. The report said the greatest danger is faced by poor countries where resources are already stretched dangerously thin. In Hawaii, thousands of crop -destroying apple snails were recently discovered in the springs and streams of northern Kaowai Island. Buckets of the snail eggs had apparently been dumped near the previously clear waterways and officials with the National Tropical Botanical Garden fear the voracious plant eaters could infiltrate the Hawaiian ecosystem. And that's a look at some environmental news. You're listening to Monitor Radio, now a business update from the Marketplace News Desk. Upper Bear and Los Angeles budget meetings are expected to continue today between Congressional and White House staffers. They're setting the stage for high -level talks on Friday. Meanwhile, the government's 13 -day partial shutdown drags on creating hardships from coast to

coast. California's rural Mariposa County near Yosemite National Park has declared a state of emergency. It's suffering economic damage from lost tourism due to the closure of the park. There's also trouble in DC where a sizable number of furloughed federal employees live in work. Marketplace's Philip Borough reports. No hard numbers in yet, but the anecdotal evidence isn't pretty. The Washington DC Convention and Visitors Association says tourists are staying away because so many works of art and science are locked up in shuttered museums. The local hospitality industries lost an estimated $10 million in counting. Downtown hotels are reporting vacancy rates of over 80%. Bell hops and chambermaids have been let go. A taxi driver who requested we only use his first name, Charles, says he's barely making enough to cover gas. Yesterday I came out and I went home with $14. I worked six hours and I made 14 bucks. The government employees themselves have been promised back pay if and when the government gets

funded again. But the lost dollars for those who serve as government workers and tourists are gone for good. At the Washington Desk, I'm Philip Borough. The powers in Washington have left many of us wondering if there will ever be a balanced budget deal. But Wall Street insiders are apparently convinced, at least the bond market was yesterday. Price is soared and the benchmark yield on the 30 -year Treasury bond fell below 6 % for the first time in more than two years. That signals a continued downward trend for interest rates on long -term loans. Tom Mudge is an investment analyst at Baylor Beal and Kaiser Incent Mateo, California. I think they did very definitely believe that there will be some sort of agreement. I think that's in a large part why rates have done pretty well through much of the year. That in the fact that the economy remains reasonably slow growth with very little evidence of inflation. Stocks pretty well ignored bonds. The Dow industrial slipped a little more than four points to close it just under 5 ,106. Overseas the dollars mostly higher but down to 102 .6 yen. Tokios and Nikkei Stock Average fell more

than half percent today. Turning to corporate news, here's our New York Editor, Marty Goldinson. Another indictment in the Daiwa bank scandal. It's Masahiro Tsuda. His offense according to the Federal Grand Jury, as General Manager of the New York branch of Daiwa, he helped to cover up the 1 .1 billion dollars in losses and failed to report the mess to the Federal Reserve, which it definitely likes to know when a billion dollars evaporates. On the other hand, a hundred million dollars materialized for some pensioners of small corporations. 40 ,000 workers denied retirement money when their plans collapsed, sued back in 1988. Subject to a court okay, the pension benefit guarantee corporation will send lump sums to those with 10 years of service or more. A Federal bankruptcy court has confirmed it. The heirs of Larry Curley and Moe do jointly own the rights to the three stooges, as opposed to just the heirs of Moe. Millions of bucks are involved in future marketing deals too, which could, according to a lawyer, Bella Legosi Jr. either ring

a bell or fall flat from horror to legal comedy in one generation. At the New York desk, I'm Marty Goldinson. It looks like there aren't too many takers for AT &T's buyout package. The Wall Street Journal reports that less than 4 % of the 72 ,000 managers offered buyouts have accepted. That's about 2 ,600 people. The unenthusiastic response will likely mean massive dismissal starting as early as next month. This is PRI, Public Radio International. French diplomats around the world are being summoned by their host governments to hear angry protests, after another in a series of underground nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific. The explosion went off yesterday beneath the coral island of Mora Roa, the fifth since France broke an international moratorium on testing last September. The reaction was loudest from governments in the South Pacific. New Zealand Prime Minister Jim

Bulger said, when the tests are over, France will have to rebuild its credentials in the region. It has a long way to go. Australia called the test the worst possible message for the new year to the people of the South Pacific. From Paris, Sarah Chase explains why France may have chosen this time to detonate the explosion. France info 7 hours and a half, Jerome Colomba. The France procédé yesterday evening a new nuclear shot in the Pacific. The Mora Roa blast was detonated late in the night, Paris time, as were all the previous experiments in the series. Most French citizens only learned about it this morning, in radio announcements like this one. According to the now familiar Defence Ministry, the explosion measured less than 30 kilotons, making it about half again as large as the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. Australian seismologist rated the blast at the equivalent of a 5 .3 magnitude earthquake. This is one of the smaller tests in the series, designed according to scientists

in charge of the program, to supply the database necessary for France to rely on computer simulation of nuclear testing in the future. The Paris Investigative Weekly, Le Canne -Ajane, reported yesterday that this fifth test was originally scheduled for last Friday. But the Prime Minister was engaged in marathon negotiations with business and labour leaders after month -long strikes over government austerity measures. According to the Weekly, Prime Minister Alan Juppet did not want to provide grist for the striker's mill by conducting a test whose cost is well known, and which, in chance and slogans heard during demonstrations nationwide, was pointed out as a symbol of the government's mistaken priorities. President Jacques Chirac originally announced a series of eight nuclear tests, but in the face of sharp opposition worldwide, he reduced the number. Defence Minister Charles Mignon recently announced the test would be over by the end of February. On the current schedule, this would allow for a seventh test if one should have gone awry, but according to Le

Canne -Ajane, Chirac will try at all costs to complete the series of nuclear tests by the end of January, before an official visit early in February to the United States. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Sarah Chase in Paris. This is Monitor Radio's early edition. Our engineers today were Paul Huffstetter, Dana White, Ken Mason, André Archambault, Bob Walker, and Tom Aherne. Doug Haslam directs, our producers are Michelle Breyer, Mitch Wirtleib, and David LaValle. Bob Kilburn edits our program, Elizabeth Bulkley, was our senior producer today. If you have any comments on our program, please write to us or address his Monitor Radio, post office box 146, Boston, Massachusetts 02199, or call our listener line at area code 617 -450 -77778,

or you can reach us via the internet. Our email address is radioatcs .com. I'm Steve Delaney. The Marketplace Morning Report on Monitor Radio is produced by KUSC at the University of Southern California, and is made possible in part by GE and its worldwide information services network, helping business and consumers become more productive, because at GE, we bring good things to life. Additional support comes from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, an American Foundation building US -European cooperation, and from the Corporation for Public

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