Word: crackdowns
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...crackdown stems from a secret drive against the intifadeh by Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet. Earlier this month, two Shin Bet agents riding in an unmarked Subaru abducted Mohammed Abu Hamam as he strolled down a street in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Abu Hamam, 34, is a key intifadeh leader who belongs to Yasser Arafat's Fatah guerrilla group...
Seven months ago, a court in Palermo, Sicily, jailed 338 mafiosi in the biggest trial of its kind in Italian history. Last month, however, eight Sicilian magistrates who have been leading the crackdown requested transfers; they charged that through "omissions and inertia" the government was retreating from the war against organized crime. Among the frustrated judges was Giovanni Falcone, 49, the celebrated Mafia-buster who worked on the Palermo case, as well as the Pizza Connection trial in New York City. Said Minister of Justice Giuliano Vassalli: "The Mafia can hardly fail to exploit this disagreeable episode...
...crackdown began when police used tear gas and truncheons to break up a right-wing rally last Sunday in the provincial town of Nandaime. More than 40 protesters were arrested, including four opposition leaders, who were later sentenced to six months in prison. Next day the government suspended the opposition daily La Prensa for 15 days and shut down Radio Catolica, run by the Roman Catholic Church. The moves brazenly violated President Daniel Ortega Saavedra's solemn vows to uphold civil rights. Meanwhile, the Sandinistas confiscated the vast San Antonio sugar plantation, the country's largest private business...
...will probably dwindle as the U.S. presidential contest intensifies, the Sandinistas apparently seized the chance to flex their muscles. But the move could backfire. Resolutions condemning Managua's actions whipped through Congress by overwhelming votes (91 to 4 in the Senate; 385 to 18 in the House), and the crackdown could force congressional opponents of contra military aid to reverse field or risk being blamed for "losing" Nicaragua during the fall campaign. Even Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a persistent critic of U.S. policy in the region, conceded last week that lethal aid now stands a better chance...
...Soviet leader, chairing a Warsaw Pact summit, advances Moscow' s program for political and economic renewal as a way of jump- starting similar plans in Eastern Europe. -- A crackdown in Nicaragua spurs calls for military aid to the contras. -- Britain beats the U. S. to the arms deal of the century...