By JAMES TAYLOR
Journalists hounded
All foreign journalists in Zimbabwe can expect to be expelled by the end of the month, The Independent reports, following the ousting at the weekend of
the BBC and Independent journalist Joseph Winter.
Harare's department for information is working on a new accreditation system whereby all journalists' work permits will be cancelled.
They are unlikely to qualify when they reapply from their home countries, the paper says.
The International Herald Tribune says the expulsion of two journalists, Mr Winter and Uruguayan Mercedes Sayagues, has been delayed for five days by a high court as the government came under fire for its efforts to destroy press freedom.
The Telegraph and The Independent describe on their front pages how Mr Winter's home was attacked by a gang of men.
The Telegraph carries a first hand account from Mr Winter, describing how he and his family feared for
their lives and fled to the refuge of the British High Commission.
The Times and the Telegraph carry pictures of the journalist and his tearful wife and child leaving their home, adding that their tormentors were later identified as government personnel.
Bureaucratic lunacy
The Independent carries a front-page basement today revealing that Neil Armstrong had to go through US customs after returning from the moon in 1969.
All he had to declare was a bag of moon dust and the danger of unknown space viruses "to be determined", he wrote on the customs declaration.
Star Wars doubts
Robin Cook has expressed serious doubts about George Bush's proposed anti-missile defence shield, The Independent reports.
He warned that British support for the plan could strain relations with Russia and drain the defence budget.
This puts him at odds with Tony Blair, the paper says,
who is expected to lodge his support for the NMD when he meets Bush at the Camp David Presidential retreat this week.
Boat people
The Independent maps out the route of the Iraqi Kurd refugees who wound up shipwrecked by a criminal gang that transported them to the south coast of
France.
The paper tells of the slave-ship conditions the 908 Kurds experienced in the hold of the decrepit East Sea vessel, after paying up to £2,500 each for their passage.
The journey they made is a well-trodden one,
the paper says, calling the Kurds the world's largest nation without a state, persecuted wherever they go.
The paper points out the irony that these people, now turning up on the doorstep of 'fortress Europe', come
from an isolated enclave that was created by Western governments at the end of the Gulf War.
The Herald Tribune reports that French police launched an international manhunt yesterday to find members of the smuggling gang who jumped ship off the French Riviera.
"We know the captain's name," the director of the border police is quoted as saying.
The refugees are recovering in an old military warehouse, The Guardian reports, quoting a Red Cross official as saying they were "doing fine".
Israel and US fire off
Israel and the US begin test-firing patriot missiles in Southern Israel today, The Independent reports.
Patriots were used to defend Israel from Iraqi scuds during the Gulf War.
The news comes three days after the US and Britain launched air strikes against Iraq.
The Financial Times says on its front page that concern is brewing within the British Labour party over Friday's strikes on Iraqi radar posts.
The questions of moderate Labour MPs were backed by France over the weekend, which launched strong criticism of the attack.
Amid growing international condemnation, the paper comments that Bush should not make Saddam an obsession.
The Guardian says questions are being raised over the legality of the no-fly zones which the British and US planes are defending.
In the Middle-east, Saddam Hussein appears to have won the public relations battle, the paper says.
Israeli killer freed
Human rights campaigners have warned Israel of a Palestinian backlash after an Israeli killer who murdered a bound Palestinian prisoner with an Uzi
sub-machine gun was released from prison.
"This decision sends a clear message that Arab blood is cheaper than Israeli blood," The Independent quotes a Palestinian monitoring group director as saying.
The Guardian says a British citizen detained in Israel for six weeks on suspicion of working for the Lebanese Hizbullah guerillas has accused his jailers of torture.
Serbs threaten revenge
The Yugoslav authorities have threatened to take action against Albanian rebels if Nato does not act after three Serbian police officers were killed
by anti-tank mines.
The Guardian says K-for harbours fears that the latest
violence could bolster support for Yugoslav government officials seeking military intervention.
Falun Gong 'cure'
The Herald Tribune reports on its front page that China is increasingly imprisoning members of the banned Falun Gong sect in psychiatric hospitals.
Dissidents are mentally disturbed and need treatment is the official press line.
- INDEPENDENT
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