Around The World

Gingrich repeats U.S. pledge to defend Taiwan from China

TAIPEI - Finishing his Asian tour, House Speaker Newt Gingrich met Taiwan's president today and reiterated his pledge that the United States would defend the island from Chinese attack.

Gingrich spoke with President Lee Teng-hui a day after Chinese officials accused the U.S. lawmaker of making "indiscreet" remarks about relations between China and Taiwan.

"It is important to be explicit . . . that should Beijing seek to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force or intimidation, the United States will use all means necessary to prevent it," Gingrich told reporters.

He also urged a resumption of talks that China suspended almost two years ago in anger over Taiwan's moves to assert itself internationally.

Rabin's widow angered over article in JFK Jr.'s magazine

WASHINGTON - Speaking as the victim of one assassination to the victim of another, the widow of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin took John F. Kennedy Jr. to task yesterday for an article that appeared in his magazine, George.

At issue was a recent essay written by the mother of Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir. The article spoke of how much turmoil the November 1995 assassination has caused the Amir family.

"How could he of all people do such a thing?" Leah Rabin asked at a luncheon speech at the National Press Club.

"I would expect John Kennedy, who lost his father to an assassin's bullet . . . to adopt a higher moral stand," she added.

Leah Rabin was on a press tour to promote her memoirs "Our Life, His Legacy."

Victims of grenade attack at Cambodia rally cremated

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Victims of a weekend grenade attack on an opposition political rally were cremated today amid calls for international help to safeguard elections planned for 1998.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh warned that the attack on Sunday, which killed 16 people and wounded 118, threatens Cambodia's first election since the 1993 U.N.-sponsored vote that was meant to usher in a new era of democracy.

The grenades, tossed into a crowd of about 200 people, targeted supporters of the opposition Khmer Nation Party, led by dissident Sam Rainsy, who was slightly wounded.

Rainsy has blamed the attack on his bitter rival, Second Premier Hun Sen, leader of the former communist Cambodian People's Party.

There have been calls for a new U.N. peacekeeping force amid fears that Hun Sen will stage a coup.

Creator of Japanese `Godzilla' monster-movie series dies

TOKYO - Tomoyuki Tanaka, father of the Godzilla monster movie series, died of a stroke at 86 today.

Mr. Tanaka, a former chairman of the Toho film-production company, rose to fame in 1954 with the film "Godzilla," the story of a creature awakened from a long slumber by hydrogen-bomb testing in the South Pacific. He produced 22 Godzilla films, the last being "Godzilla vs. Destroyer" in December 1995.

Mr. Tanaka joined Toho in 1940 and produced more than 200 films, including "Akahige" (Red Beard) and "Kagemusha" with Academy Award-winning director Akira Kurosawa.

Yemeni killer to be executed, exhibited for public display

SAN`A, Yemen - An appeals court today ordered a man who opened fired on two schools, killing six people, to be executed by firing squad and his corpse nailed to a cross for public display.

Mohammed al-Nazari was sentenced to death Monday for killing a headmistress, a teacher, a cafeteria worker, a bystander and a student. Another student died Tuesday of wounds suffered during the weekend attack, and the appeals court added his name to the charge sheet.

The lower court rejected reports that al-Nazari acted after one of his daughters was raped and that the slain headmistress and her husband had a role in the assault.

The appeals court said displaying the body in public would serve as a warning to potential criminals.