Hague

On Thursday, August 26, 2004, CHARLES SYLVESTER HAGUE, JR., 84, of Chestertown, MD, died at his home. Mr. Hague was born in Easton, MD, the son of the late Charles Sylvester Hague, Sr. and Anna Mc Ivin Hague. Mr. Hague was a 1934 graduate of Chestertown High School, a 1938 graduate of Washington College with a degree in Chemistry and a 1940 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Mr. Hague began working as an Electrical Engineer for the Westinghouse Corp.

In response to the recent commentary by Howard Alstein ("International adoption, once common, dries up," Nov. 13), the real story about what happened to international adoption is about poverty and the lack of investment in women. Trafficking and the coercion that everyone loves to cite as a root cause for the end of international adoption did not play a large role. The Hague did, however, crush adoption through unneeded bureaucracy. We need transparency to determine orphan status, but what we really need is social work infrastructure to help women get education so that they can keep their children and have healthy families in their own countries.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for one of five Croatian journalists it accused of repeatedly ignoring secrecy orders by judges. All five were charged this year with "knowingly and willfully" publishing the name of a protected witness and, the indictments added, with publishing excerpts from private testimony by that witness. Four have come to The Hague to plead not guilty. The arrest warrant for the fifth, Josip Jovic, a former editor in chief of the Croatian daily Slobodna Dalmacija, was issued after he did not come to The Hague on Monday for a hearing.

WASHINGTON -- Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has let the nationalist genie out of the bottle and may be unable to put it back anytime soon. This will have serious repercussions for Serbia's relations with the European Union and the United States, Montenegro's independence referendum, the future status of Kosovo and cooperation with The Hague war crimes tribunal. By providing Slobodan Milosevic with a state funeral in all but name, Mr. Kostunica disgraced Serbia and demonstrated his commitment to preserving Mr. Milosevic's legacy and interpretation of history.

LONDON -- Britain's Conservative Party named its youngest leader in more than 200 years -- and also turned to the right -- when it selected 36-year-old William Hague to succeed John Major as party leader yesterday.Hague now faces the formidable challenge of rebuilding the Tories, whose 18 1/2 -year reign ended in a May 1 landslide that brought to power the Labor Party and Prime Minister Tony Blair, 43."People are sick and tired of this party behaving like a school debating society," said Hague, the youngest Tory leader since 24-year-old William Pitt the Younger in 1783.

The appeals court upheld Judge Jackson's finding against Microsoft, but rebuked him for explaining himself to others. The Hague tribunal's coming examination of crimes by the Serbian state is the best hope for a better future for the Serbian state. In skipping college to go pro, Kwame Brown is only doing what Cal Riken Jr. did long ago, so it must be all right. Cheer up. California has a new power plant.

WASHINGTON -- Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has let the nationalist genie out of the bottle and may be unable to put it back anytime soon. This will have serious repercussions for Serbia's relations with the European Union and the United States, Montenegro's independence referendum, the future status of Kosovo and cooperation with The Hague war crimes tribunal. By providing Slobodan Milosevic with a state funeral in all but name, Mr. Kostunica disgraced Serbia and demonstrated his commitment to preserving Mr. Milosevic's legacy and interpretation of history.

In response to the recent commentary by Howard Alstein ("International adoption, once common, dries up," Nov. 13), the real story about what happened to international adoption is about poverty and the lack of investment in women. Trafficking and the coercion that everyone loves to cite as a root cause for the end of international adoption did not play a large role. The Hague did, however, crush adoption through unneeded bureaucracy. We need transparency to determine orphan status, but what we really need is social work infrastructure to help women get education so that they can keep their children and have healthy families in their own countries.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - On his farewell trip through Europe this week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered a consistent message in the Old World's corridors of power: America wants to move beyond the damaging rift over Iraq and reach out to begin a new era of cooperation. At successive meetings in Sofia, Bulgaria, Brussels, Belgium and The Hague during which he saw most of the continent's foreign ministers, Powell spoke about America's desire for reconciliation. For the most part, Europe's diplomats listened politely, smiled - and offered little.

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Rumors swirled late yesterday that Gen. Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb commander accused of orchestrating Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II, had been captured and was being transferred to an international court in the Netherlands to be tried on war crimes charges. Serbian officials quickly denied the reports, and a spokesman for the court in The Hague said the panel had no information that an arrest had been made. People close to the Serbian government and Western sources indicated that intense negotiations are under way between the government and Mladic to persuade him to surrender.

LONDON -- With rumors rife about the circumstances of Slobodan Milosevic's death, Dutch authorities conducted an eight-hour autopsy yesterday and invited the government of Serbia to send a pathologist to observe. Preliminary results, announced last night, indicated that Milosevic died of a heart attack, but earlier in the day, Carla Del Ponte, the war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, said she could not rule out the possibility that Milosevic had committed suicide. "It's possible," she said at a news conference in The Hague, adding that "until we have precise facts and results, it's absolutely rumors."

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Rumors swirled late yesterday that Gen. Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb commander accused of orchestrating Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II, had been captured and was being transferred to an international court in the Netherlands to be tried on war crimes charges. Serbian officials quickly denied the reports, and a spokesman for the court in The Hague said the panel had no information that an arrest had been made. People close to the Serbian government and Western sources indicated that intense negotiations are under way between the government and Mladic to persuade him to surrender.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for one of five Croatian journalists it accused of repeatedly ignoring secrecy orders by judges. All five were charged this year with "knowingly and willfully" publishing the name of a protected witness and, the indictments added, with publishing excerpts from private testimony by that witness. Four have come to The Hague to plead not guilty. The arrest warrant for the fifth, Josip Jovic, a former editor in chief of the Croatian daily Slobodna Dalmacija, was issued after he did not come to The Hague on Monday for a hearing.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - On his farewell trip through Europe this week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered a consistent message in the Old World's corridors of power: America wants to move beyond the damaging rift over Iraq and reach out to begin a new era of cooperation. At successive meetings in Sofia, Bulgaria, Brussels, Belgium and The Hague during which he saw most of the continent's foreign ministers, Powell spoke about America's desire for reconciliation. For the most part, Europe's diplomats listened politely, smiled - and offered little.

On Thursday, August 26, 2004, CHARLES SYLVESTER HAGUE, JR., 84, of Chestertown, MD, died at his home. Mr. Hague was born in Easton, MD, the son of the late Charles Sylvester Hague, Sr. and Anna Mc Ivin Hague. Mr. Hague was a 1934 graduate of Chestertown High School, a 1938 graduate of Washington College with a degree in Chemistry and a 1940 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Mr. Hague began working as an Electrical Engineer for the Westinghouse Corp.

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide bomber killed eight people yesterday aboard a crowded commuter bus in Jerusalem, the day before the International Court of Justice in The Hague is to begin hearings about Israel's construction of a West Bank barrier that Israel says is intended to prevent similar attacks. The blast brought morning rush hour to a sudden halt, replacing the blare of car horns with the wail of sirens as ambulances rushed to tend to the dead and the nearly 60 people injured.

Most days, David Brown doesn't dare use the dishwasher in his home near Havre de Grace.Herman Hague, another Webster-area resident, says there are days that he can't wash clothes in his washing machine."

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Tucked in an opulent government villa on Uzicka Street, guarded by soldiers from an army he led to four defeats and bolstered by three dozen civilian true believers milling around the front gate, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic awaits the final act of his ruinous appearance on the Balkan stage. Nearly six months after he was ousted in a popular uprising, Milosevic is apparently headed for an arrest as the legal net tightens locally and internationally.

JERUSALEM - Israel said yesterday that it would not participate in a hearing this month at the International Court of Justice on the legality of the separation barrier under construction in the West Bank. The court is to hear oral arguments at The Hague beginning Feb. 23. and is expected to issue a non-binding ruling on the barrier, which has stirred fierce opposition from Palestinians and much of the international community. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said in a statement that the court "has no authority to discuss the terrorism prevention fence since it concerns Israel's basic right of self-defense."

Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the retired U.S. general and former NATO commander, testified this week at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, where Slobodan Milosevic faces charges in the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995. The session of the United Nations tribunal was closed because of U.S. security concerns, but a transcript of Clark's testimony was released yesterday after review by State Department lawyers. Clark testified that Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader, knew in advance about the massacre.