• 1/2/98 S. Korea to sell bank to foreigners in February. Seoul, South Korea – South Korea’s efforts to boost international confidence by restructuring its financial sector and opening it to foreign investments in return for the record $57 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. South Korea has promised to liberalize its economy considered by Western investors one of the most closed in Asia. Last week it adopted new laws to ease restrictions on foreign investment in South Korea companies. With 50 percent declines in the Korean currency and stock prices – has cleared the way for bargain-rate takeovers of S. Korea’s debt-ridden companies.
• 1/4/98 South Korea market rises. Seoul, South Korea – The market is waiting for mergers and acquisitions by foreigners. South Korea’s ailing banking industry is attracting much attention from foreign firms. Meanwhile, U.S. financier George Soros arrived in Seoul to meet with President elect Kim Dae-jung. Soros was expected to discuss a role in helping South Korea overcome its financial turmoil.
• 1/5/98 Southeast Asian currency woes hit Asia. ASEAN Hong Kong, - The unsettled regional currency situation will last for another two months. The Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit, Indonesian rupiah and Philippine peso fell to record lows. The Taiwan dollar plunged to a 10-year low. In Japan, Tokyo stocks shed more than 300 points as markets remained pessimistic about the future course of the Japanese economy.
• 1/9/98 Indonesian currency drops 26% on fears IMF will stop bailout. Jakarta, Indonesia – The Indonesian rupiah lost a quarter of its value in a single day, which sent panicked residents to the supermarkets, where they snapped up everything in sight. The drop was driven by fears that the International Monetary Fund will yank back a bailout package from last year when Asian economies began falling. Indonesia (fourth most-populous nation) has failed to implement reform measures required for the $40 billion bailout.
• 1/17/98
  • Japan key to rebound of Asian markets.
  • Foiled inspection team leaves Iraq.
  • Iranian spiritual leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) differs with president, rejects U.S. talks.
  • Arab leaders urge U.S. to push Israel on peace.
• 1/19/98
  • Iraq prepares for U.S. attack.
  • Israel delays decision on West Bank pullout.
  • Clinton administration displeased.
  • Effect of Asian slump likely modest in U.S.
• 2/6/98 Once-lucrative psychic network files bankruptcy. Baltimore - Perhaps they should have seen it coming. The operators of the Psychic Friends Network filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week, which consisted of a network of about 2,000 psychics. All this could have been avoided if they had called their own psychic line.
• 3/10/98 The Social Security problem persist under the assumption that the baby boomers will exhaust the trust fund around 2039, some claim (these funds are being used as IOU’s) it will occur in about eight years (2006). By 2012 as cost continue to rise, it will disappear, and the government will be forced to act (raise taxes, cut Social Security, or borrow)
• 3/16/98 Asteroid 1997 XF11 first reported on 3/12/98 as will collide, but will be bearing down on the Earth on Oct. 26, 2028, 1;30 p.m. EDT will miss by 600,000 miles.
• 3/16/98 Vatican (Pope John Paul) expresses sorrow over (Shoah) Holocaust to improve relations with Jews, but defends the 1939 wartime pope (Pius XII).
  • It was in 1943, when Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical "Divino Afflante Spiritu," that the church formally endorsed the idea that the Bible is not to be read literally, but interpreted in the context of the time it was written.
  • It was 1979 before the church formally admitted it had mistreated Galileo, who made some of the first astronomical observations through a telescope, discovered the craters on the moon and suggested that the universe was made up of countless stars. He was brought before the Inquisition in the 1630’s, forced to recant his beliefs (Earth revolved around the sun), and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
• 3/19/98 Fossil supports bird-from-dinosaurs theory. Island of Madagascar discovery fuels a decade old debate. The 65-million-year-old fossil of a raven-sized bird, well-developed feathers, with a slashing claw like that found on meat-eating velociraptors provides the most compelling evidence yet that birds are descended from dinosaurs. Discovered in 1995 by paleontologist Catherine Forster and Scott Sampson.
• *3/20/98 Pentagon slams survey on uranium exposure. The National Gulf War Resource Center (a veterans group) contends that as many as 400,000 troops may have been exposed to depleted uranium from shells fired in the Persian Gulf War. The Pentagon denies the exposure and claims that only 250,000 service members were involved in ground combat.
• 3/23/98 E-Money Expected To Wipe Out Cash In Europe. Hannover, Germany – Cash will be wiped out in Europe and replaced with electronic cash cards within the next three years, according to senior executive at German technology company Siemens-Nixdorf. The introduction of the Euro, the new pan-European currency being launched on Jan. 1, 1999, will replace cash with e-money. This will spread to the United States and the Asia-Pacific region, and driven by the usage of the Internet for making purchases.
• 3/27/98 NAFTA’s successes. North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. economy is booming, the jobless rate is at the lowest point in 24 years. Canada is heading to its first balanced budget in 30 years. The trade agreement played a big role (Clinton administration $12 billion emergency loan) in helping Mexico recover from its 1995 financial crisis (devalued peso, wages fell 40 percent, inflation soared). Mexico then began exporting its way out of its mess, and has since repaid the loan.
• 3/29/98 China finds ancient writing on bones. Beijing (AP) – Archaeologists in China have found 3,500-year-old sheep bones carved with Chinese characters, a discovery that offers a glimpse at the primitive origins (Yueshi culture 3,500 to 4,000 years ago) of the world’s oldest written language ever found. Although other Chinese writing has been found as symbols on Neolithic pottery found near Xi’an, home of China’s famed terra cotta warriors, that dates back as far as 8,000 to 5,000 B.C.
• 4/1/98 Maale Adumim, West Bank – Rebuffing U.S. efforts to win an Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank, a defiant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu states he would not give up any land at all unless the Palestinians do more to fight terrorism and fill its commitments.
• 4/10/98 U.N. report says Iraqi concealment continues. United Nations – Iraq continues to conceal the scope of its biological weapons program and has failed to account for its missiles that can deliver the deadly agents. On
• 3/7/98 U.N. team resumed inspections in Iraq after diplomatic action prevented a military strike by the United States in the news on 2/16/98.
• 4/10/98 1 million Russians march to show their discontent. Moscow - Nationwide rallies allowed Russians to express their dissatisfaction with life in their post-communist country.
• 4/10/98 Scientist back teaching of evolution in schools. Washington – Evolution should be taught as "the most important concept to modern biology," scientists (National Academy of Sciences) released a guidebook and said yesterday in response to efforts to keep the subject out of public schools. The academy claims evolution is essential to understand vital processes, such as how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.
• 4/18/98 Asian turmoil helps trigger biggest-ever trade deficit. U.S. factories also feel squeeze as exports slow. Washington – The Asian currency crisis is beginning to hit home. The U.S. trade deficit climbed to a monthly record of $12.1 billion in February as sales to Japan plummeted, as did U.S. industrial output. Clinton administration claims Japan must do more to restart its economy and create markets.
• 4/20/98 Duty-free trade by 2005 set as goal for Americas. Santiago, Chile – Leaders of the Western Hemisphere’s 34 democracies (Summit of the Americas) plan for hemispheric duty-free trade by 2005 in the largest free-trade area in history, a combined economies of $9 trillion and 800 million people. This proposed zone will reach from Alaska to Cape Horn, where virtually all existing tariffs and duties would be eliminated. Countries involved with the summit are Chile (President Eduardo Frei), Brazil (President Fernando Henrique Cardoso), Panama, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Ecuador, and the United States. Communist Cuba was excluded from the summit.
• 4/21/98 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Gaza City to help restart Middle East peace talks, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will meet in London on May 4 with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• 4/24/98 Open Society Institute offers $1 million to fund needle exchanges. International financier George Soros offered $1 million in matching funds to support needle exchange programs around the country. The Clinton administration opposes federal funding for the programs, designed to slow the spread of the AIDS virus.
• 4/30/98 Israel’s birthday celebrations tempered by ongoing troubles. Jerusalem – Israel ushered in celebrations of its 50th birthday, marking its rise from the ashes of the Holocaust. In a twilight ceremony atop Mount Herzl, a dozen torches symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel were set ablaze. This nation is not at war, but peace is elusive and people are divided. The Palestinians regard Israel’s creation as "al naqba" – the catastrophe. Many ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose the creation of a Jewish state as blasphemous before the coming of the Messiah.
• 5/4/98 European currency a step toward unity, but nationalism remains. Brussels, Belgium – The European single currency became a reality as the presidents and prime ministers (Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, and Treasury Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi) of the 15-nation European Union agreed upon the 11 participants for the European monetary union and fixed exchange rates. Although the new Europe is squabbling over who should run the monetary union’s European Central Bank. The new currency is to assist in reinforcing Europe’s political weight in the world. Survey show that 51 percent of EU citizens oppose trading in their national currencies for a single one.
• 5/5/98 CIA says many unprepared for Millennium glitch. Many countries appear ill prepared for the disruptions to basic services that the Year 2000 computer glitch will cause, the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency office studying the issue said. The main concern is the potential disruption of power grids, telecommunications and bank services, especially in countries already torn by political tensions. Other areas affected by the Y2K event are financial markets, air traffic control systems, elevators and heating systems, which are exposed to the old programming.
• 5/5/98 Indonesia braces for climb in prices. Jakarta, Indonesia (a country of 200 million people) – Motorist clog streets in rush to buy gasoline. Electricity prices will jump by 20 percent later this month. IMF director Michel Camdessus has proposed aid of $43 billion bailout package.
• 5/6/98 Now NATO must reach out to Russia. The expansion of NATO for Euro-Atlantic community is to engage Russia. How to deal with the rise of German power was resolved 50 years ago which led to today’s European Union. But the formal association of Russian politics and power is still on the horizon. This depends on their consolidation to democracy and favor of membership, and meeting the criteria set forth. This is a major step toward a truly reconciled Europe.
• 5/6/98 U.S. gives Israel pullout plan deadline. Arafat accepts terms on peace pact’s last phase. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the U.S. plan endangers Israel. Mideast’s only hope is U.S. peace plan, Albright insists.
• 5/10/98 The Earth gets poorer as countries get richer. By David Briscoe, AP. Washington – Melting icecaps in the Andes, shrinking glaciers in the Alps, increasing breakup of the sea ice around Antarctica and dried-up rivers in China show a world whose pulse is slowing, according to data gathered by environmental researchers. "The world today is economically richer and environmentally poorer than ever," said Lester R. Brown, president of Worldwatch Institute. The 1997 effect of economic growth has developed increases in irreversible fire damage to Indonesia’s rain forests, the fact that China’s Yellow River failed to reach the sea for 226 days, and global warming. Also carbon emissions, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and the Earth’s average temperature rising to record highs in 1997.
• 5/10/98 Plan would map all DNA within 3 years. Con genetic risks (privacy and control of genetic info), and pros are enormous medical and scientific benefits predicted as Applied Biosystems division of Perkin-Elmer Corp. Of Norwalk, Conn. tries to outpace government with machines used to sequence DNA. A pioneer in genetic sequencing and a private company are joining forces with the aim of deciphering the entire DNA, or genome, of humans (60,000 genes, 3 billion letters) within three years ($150-200 million), far more quickly and cheaply than the federal government $3 billion is planning by 2005.
• 5/11/98 Summit of developing nations looks toward Asian crisis. Cairo, Egypt – Leaders of the so-called G15 group of developing nations (Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Venezuela, Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka has applied.) began a summit in the Egyptian capital about the current economic crisis in Asia. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, stated that the Asian crisis illustrates to the world the dangers posed by integration into the global economy. "The liberalization of our markets must be gradual," he said, the problems of Asia – and their impact on other regional economies – had shown "the weakness of our global system." President Suharto of Indonesia, warned that unless Asian economies were rehabilitate quickly the fallout would spread to countries outside Asia. "The lesson we must draw from the Asian crisis is that no country can be spared from the mistakes of an unregulated system, no matter how developed it is," he added. Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on behalf of the Latin American G15 members stated that the region was taking steps to integrate, especially with free trade zones.
• 5/22/98 Greenspan warns Asian crisis could spread worldwide. Washington – Alan Greenspan warned the Asian financial crisis remains highly volatile, and even effect the U.S. economy.
• 5/27/98 U.S. supports postponement of World Bank loans to India. Washington – In the first global test of U.S. sanctions against India, the World Bank postponed $800 million in loans because India conducted nuclear tests. At their summit in England two weeks ago the Group of Eight industrialized nations failed to agree on joint sanctions against India, with the United States, Canada and Japan in favor, and France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Russia opposed. Many of the developing countries are represented on the 24-member board of the 181-nation World Bank.
• 6/13/98 Japan in grip of recession figures show. Fears deepen of crisis hitting U.S., Europe. Tokyo – Japan’s economy for the first time since the oil shock of 1974, declined for a full year. The weaker yen makes Japanese products cheaper, further damaging the economies of its East Asian neighbors, triggering a relentless spiral of currency devaluation’s and destabilizing financial markets around the world.
• 6/13/98 Ambassador says U.S. needs China as ally. China Ambassador Li Zhaoxing suggests that the United States needs China as an ally in a region troubled by fresh nuclear threats and financial crisis.
• 6/13/98 Senate panel warns of possible blackouts in millennium. Washington – The power utilities claim they are working to solve the millennium computer problem, but can not guarantee, the lights won’t go out on Jan. 1, 2000. They can only project how severe the disruptions are going to be.
• 6/15/98 U.N. opens battle to formulate rules for new world court. Rome – Who will control the court of 181 nations? The battle begins.

Last updated November 27, 1998.