WORLD In an explicit and damning statement the World Bank criticizes its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund and the US for misjudging the financial crisis which began in Asia 18 months ago and making it worse by advocating damaging solutions. In its first comprehensive history of the crisis the World Bank predicts that although even the worst-hit nations will probably stabilize by 1999, and grow by 2000, the economic crises had been prolonged and there is ‘still a substantial risk that the world economy will plunge into recession in 1999’. World Bank views as the key misjudgement the IMF decision to press Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea to raise interest rates to stabilize their taxes. While these efforts were intended to restore investor confidence in the region, the plan backfired, creating the far greater disaster which swept from Asia through to Russia and Latin America.

BRAZIL The trial of 10 police officers accused of murdering 21 residents of a Rio shantytown ends in disappointment for human-rights observers when all the defendants are acquitted due to ‘lack of evidence’.

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe bans trade-union strikes and threatens action against union leaders, as social and political unrest mounts.

SOMALIA The threat of famine hangs over the southern part of the country, which has again been plunged into civil war. As many as 300,000 people are at imminent risk, according to the UN Food Programme.

SUDAN Two Roman Catholic priests, Hillary Boma and Lina Tujano, may face crucifixion. The two are charged with setting off around 12 bombs in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, in June, as part of a plot to disrupt official celebrations marking the 1989 coup.

PHILIPPINES Imelda Marcos launches a legal battle to claim $13 billion of assets allegedly entrusted by her late husband to several cronies.

ASIA Figures published by the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements reveal that international bank lending to Asian countries fell by $51 billion, or 14 per cent, in the first half of 1998, the biggest decline in a decade. This massive withdrawal of funds had catastrophic effects on Asian economies, especially in Thailand and South Korea.

NIGERIA The country’s first trial on the road to democracy begins with local elections.

CHINA In a bid to crush the fledgling China Democracy Party, dissident and founding member Wang Youcai is arrested and charged with ‘subversion of state power’.

WORLD The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is celebrated.

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