By JAMES PALMER
Child porn ring
Seven British members of a global child-porn ring, the so-called Wonderland Club, were jailed yesterday for up to 30 months for distributing 750,000 images of child
sex abuse over the internet.
The British dailies are outraged by the lenient sentences.
The Independent says children's charities took the unusual step of uniting to condemn the sentences, which The Express denounces as "sickening".
The Mail calls them a "perversion of justice".
The Independent's editorial says the case has
proved that even cyberspace offers no safe hiding place for paedophiles, but adds in another article that this case is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Guardian says detectives thought the judge had passed the longest sentences he could under British law.
The Telegraph isolates one case where an 8-year-old girl
was "raped to order" by a friend's father while a dozen paedophiles logged on to the internet to watch.
Helicopter assassination
One of Yasser Arafat's Force 17 bodyguards was killed in his car by an Israeli gunship yesterday, The Independent reports.
In the first allegation that the Lebanese Islamic militia is operating in the West bank and Gaza Strip, Israel accused its victim, Massoud Ayyad, of leading a Hizbollah cell involved in kidnap and arms smuggling, the paper says.
The Guardian says Ayyad was killed by a volley of rockets from two helicopters in an unprecedented attack to the heart of Yasser Arafat's administration.
The Telegraph says Palestinian leaders have vowed to take vengeance, calling the killing a "political assassination" and a "war crime".
The International Herald Tribune quotes a UN peace co-ordinator as saying "anger and uncertainty" have replaced many Palestinians' hopes for peace, under the gloom of findings that the Palestinian economy is losing $8.6 million a day and 32 per cent of the population are living in poverty.
Fishcer and the Palestinians
German foreign minister Joschka Fischer is under renewed pressure to clarify his past, The Independent reports, over links with Palestinian guerrillas and an allegation he had attended a PLO (Palestine Liberation
Organisation) conference in Algiers in 1969.
Second quake hits El Salvador
Up to 200 are feared dead in El Salvador after a quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck yesterday, The Independent reports.
The paper says Tuesday 13 is considered an unlucky day in Latin America, and the quake struck exactly one month after a 7.6 quake devastated the Central American
country on January 13.
The Guardian says dozens are feared buried after what its sources say was a 6.6 reading.
The capital, San Salvador, was left untouched by the quake, the paper says. The death toll varies in the papers from 100 in the Telegraph to 200 in the Independent.
The Telegraph quotes a presidential spokesman as saying official figures were conservative. Reports were still coming in from some towns of schools collapsing on
classes.
Bush warns Europe
George W Bush has issued a sharp warning to America's Nato allies against pursuing unilateral action that might split the alliance, The Independent
reports.
The paper says Bush did not mention the European rapid reaction force specifically, but his comments were barbed with implication.
"We did not prevail together during the Cold War just to go our separate ways, pursuing separate plans with separate technologies," he is quoted as saying.
The Guardian reports that Bill Clinton has gone to Harlem, New York's celebrated black district, for support in an attempt to deflect attention from his recent troubles.
He wants to put his post-presidential office there, the papers say.
Meanwhile, The Guardian says, Bush is filling his foreign and defence ranks with Cold War veterans.
Serbian TV boss on the rack
The former head of Serbian state TV was arrested yesterday, accused of knowing in advance about a Nato air raid that killed 16 of his own staff in April 1999, The Independent reports.
Civilians sat at sub controls
Civilians were seated at two of the three main controls of the US submarine that surfaced under a Japanese fishing boat, The Washington Post reports.
The Guardian says one guest was at the helm.
The Independent says the rapid ascent drill may have been a stunt to impress the guests. One retired commander is quoted in the Washington Post as saying the guest would have the ersatz experience of, "Wow, I'm driving a nuclear sub."
Afghans freeze
Dozens of Afghan children have been freezing to death at makeshift refugee camps, The Herald Tribune reports.
They are part of a migration of hundreds of people fleeing drought and war, the paper says.
Gladiator leads Oscar race
Ridley Scott's film Gladiator is leading the race for this year's academy awards with 12 nominations, the papers report.
Ang Lee's Chinese-language film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is second with 10 nominations.
- INDEPENDENT
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