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To: long-gone who wrote (18612)	9/12/1998 8:57:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116856

Middle East... Hamas Deaths Spark West Bank Clashes 04:58 p.m Sep 12, 1998 Eastern EL-BIREH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers wounded at least 30 Palestinians with rubber-coated bullets Saturday in West Bank clashes touched off by Israel's killing of two senior Moslem militants, witnesses said. Violence erupted in the towns of El-Bireh and Hebron, two days after Israeli troops killed brothers Imad and Adel Awadallah, allegedly top members of the military wing of the militant Islamic organization Hamas. While tension rose, U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross had talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on further Israeli troop withdrawal in the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian security moves. There was no sign of progress in breaking an 18-month deadlock and Netanyahu made a point of publicly reiterating Israel's security demands before starting his third meeting with Ross since the envoy's arrival Wednesday. ''It's in our interest to achieve real peace. Real peace means no terror, and for the last five years, since we signed the Oslo agreements, we've had more terror, more Israelis killed from terrorist attacks than in the previous 15 years,'' he said. ''Why? Because the Palestinian Authority continues to refuse to conduct a systematic war on terror that operates from its areas and is launched from its areas against Israel,'' Netanyahu added. ''That's what we're demanding. That's what the Palestinians promised -- to fight terror from within their areas. They haven't done it and they must do it if we're to move forward.'' In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority police used clubs to beat back several dozen Hamas supporters who turned out for a street rally for activists of the group held in PA prisons, witnesses said. No serious injuries were reported. The heaviest clashes were in El-Bireh, the Awadallah brothers' home town, during a protest march from nearby Ramallah in which several thousand Palestinians shouted pro-Islamic slogans and called for revenge. Demonstrators threw stones and bottles at Israeli soldiers, who responded by firing the rubber-coated rounds. Witnesses said at least 30 demonstrators were injured. In Hebron, about 30 Palestinians threw stones at soldiers near the line dividing the self-ruled and Israeli-occupied parts of the town. Witnesses said one Palestinian was injured by a rubber bullet and a five-year-old Arab girl watching the violence from a balcony was hit in the head by a stone. She was not seriously hurt. Earlier, in the town of Nablus, Ross had talks with Arafat on a U.S. plan for an Israeli troop pullback from another 13 percent of the West Bank in return for a Palestinian crackdown on Moslem militants and other security measures. Neither Ross nor Arafat spoke to reporters after the meeting, their second since the start of the mediation mission. An Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, imposed after the Awadallahs were killed Thursday near Hebron, remained in effect. Israeli security forces were on alert in case of attacks which Hamas has vowed to carry out to avenge the brothers' deaths. Hamas opposes Arafat's peace deals with Israel and killed dozens of Israelis in a wave of suicide bombings in 1996. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited

To: long-gone who wrote (18612)	9/12/1998 9:02:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116856

California... Asia To Slow Calif. Economy ''Dramatically'' - Report 07:32 a.m. Sep 12, 1998 Eastern LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Asia's financial crisis is already hurting California's economy and will cause a dramatic slowdown in the state's economic growth by early 1999, according to a forecast report released Friday. The study by the Milken Institute, a non-profit think-tank chaired by former junk bond king Michael Milken, said Silicon Valley could fall into a recession by early next year because of its high dependence on technology exports to Asia. The study looked at three scenarios in trying to assess the full effects of the Asian crisis on California. Based on the institute's research, the two more severe scenarios -- the ''consensus'' and ''pessimistic'' scenarios -- were thought to be the most likely outcomes. The consensus approach calls for more severe recessions to occur in countries bailed out by the International Monetary Fund and adds a few more countries to the recession lineup. The pessimistic scenario considers what would happen if China were to devalue its currency, the yuan. Specifically, this scenario calls for severe economic contractions throughout Asia. The study said that, if the consensus scenario were to come true, California's gross state product (GSP) growth rate would drop a full percentage point to 2.4 percent in 1999 as a result of declining exports to Asia. If the pessimistic scenario were to come about, GSP growth would drop to 2 percent in 1999 and 1.2 percent by 2000. The state's exports to Asia would shrink 17.2 percent in 1999, 14 percent in 2000 and 2.9 percent in 2001. Northern California would be hit harder than the southern part of the state in either of the two scenarios, mostly because of the large concentration of high-tech goods that Northern California exports to Asia. ''(Silicon Valley) would go into a recession if the pessimistic scenario becomes reality...and events are moving us in that direction,'' Ross DeVol, the study's author, said in a statement. DeVol noted that goods from four high-tech categories -- electronic and electrical supplies, industrial machinery and computers, transportation equipment and instruments and related products -- accounted for 75 percent of the state's total exports to Asia in 1997. Citing data released by state agencies earlier this year, the study said Asia's economic woes had already washed ashore in California. In the second quarter of 1998, California exports of manufactured goods fell for the first time since the early 1990s. Exports to Japan and South Korea dropped 18 percent and 38.7 percent, respectively, compared to the second quarter 1997. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

To: long-gone who wrote (18612)	9/12/1998 9:09:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116856

Richard, I would like to see polls after Americans look (not that they do at their 401k accounts... Clinton report to set tone for financial markets 11:50 a.m. Sep 11, 1998 Eastern By Alistair Thomson LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Reaction to the report on the scandal surrounding President Clinton will be the driving force for financial markets in the coming week, especially in the light of a bearish dollar, economists said. With other factors also weighing on sentiment, the dollar would have little cause for celebration even if markets interpreted independent counsel Kenneth Starr's report as less damaging than anticipated, they added. ''I still feel relatively bearish on the dollar at this stage,'' said Kay Sinden, senior European economist at Bankers Trust International in London. ''The U.S. has still got a lot of problems to overcome,'' she added. ''It is probably the most exposed now to emerging market crises in that it has Latin America on its doorstep.'' Clinton faces the possibility of the first impeachment proceedings against a U.S. president since Richard Nixon left office in 1974. ''I suspect there is enough negative sentiment in the dollar market at the moment such that the report, whatever its contents, will probably send the dollar down'' said Steve Barrow, currency strategist at Bear Stearns International. On Friday the dollar plumbed 16-month lows against the German mark, and 20-month lows versus the Swiss franc. ''I don't get any sense at the moment the dollar currency is in a mood to decide it's discounted all the bad news out there,'' Barrow added. But the tumbling dollar and political drama in the United States would not totally eclipse the financial and political situation in Russia, where President Boris Yeltsin averted a crisis by nominating Yevgeny Primakov, a favourite of the powerful communist party, as Prime Minister. The Duma lower house approved Primakov's nomination on Friday. ''The Russian economy is in deep trouble, its financial system implodes and the political scene is highly unstable, although the nomination of Primakov offers a temporary respite,'' said ABN AMRO's Gerlof de Vrij in a note. Deputy ministers of the Group of Seven industrial nations meet in London on Monday to discuss the crisis in Russia, along with officials of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the European Commission. But analysts were not expecting any decisive action at this stage. ''I think at this stage it's more likely to be rhetoric than any firm measures,'' said Sinden. ''I get the impression people are not expecting any major (injection of) money.'' Barrow agreed any serious response to the Russian crisis was unlikely to come until the situation there was more stable. But the U.S. and troubled Latin American markets would buy European markets some respite, economists said. ''If you rank the G3, Europe is looking relatively rosy at the moment, even if it has Russia to cope with,'' Sinden said. ''The rest of Central and Eastern Europe seem to be relatively more shielded than Latin America from the developments.'' The economists said stock markets, after their roller-coaster ride, had yet more downside potential. ''We all know that the Fed (U.S. Federal Reserve) wants the stock market to correct as long as it's orderly and not too dramatic,'' said Sindem. This would give continuing support to bullish bond markets. ''To say bonds are overbought is an understatement, but if people have no alternative, they are going to continue to buy them,'' Barrow said. Britain would provide a focus after Thursday's statement by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank fo England which suggested interest rates had peaked. This meant that minutes from the committee's August meeting to be released on Wednesday would be largely ignored by markets. Markets would also eye Thursday's Bundesbank Council meeting, although the interest rate outlook seemed largely balanced between global market turbulence, which would stem growth, and signs that Germany's domestic economy was gathering momentum, said de Vrij. On the data front, UK figures would be most closely looked at, with August retail prices due on Tuesday and the public sector net borrowing requirement on Wednesday. German IFO surveys on Friday would also offer clues on the state of the German economy. ''Average earnings (due on Wednesday) will be a focus in the UK as well as the price data,'' said Sinden. ''I'd still be of the view it's still too soon for the MPC to move next month, but should a severe downturn be indicated by any of these data then obviously it's going to be earlier,'' she added. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.