Ruling Coalition

The Israeli Parliament on Tuesday stripped former Interior Minister Arye Deri of his immunity to criminal prosecution, clearing the way for formal charges of fraud and misuse of public funds to be brought against him. The vote was 65 to 9 with one abstention. Deri resigned from the Cabinet last month but kept his seat in Parliament. His ultra-Orthodox Shas party has all but formally dropped out of the ruling coalition.

Malaysia's leader stunned Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama by declaring that Tokyo should stop apologizing for World War II and start being a world leader in keeping the peace. With his comments, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed leaped head-first into a roiling domestic debate in Japan, embarrassing his guest by highlighting major policy differences within Murayama's ruling coalition.

Giulio Andreotti abandoned an 11-day effort to form a new Italian government, and President Francesco Cossiga turned to caretaker leader Bettino Craxi to try to solve the monthlong problem. Andreotti, the prime minister-designate since June 27 when Craxi lost a routine parliamentary vote, made a final effort to forge a new coalition in talks with leaders of the former five-party ruling coalition but could not agree.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus again narrowly failed to win reelection in a parliamentary vote that has deeply split the ruling coalition. The right-winger Klaus, 66, fell one vote short of the necessary majority in the two houses of Parliament to earn another five-year term. He remains the favorite over challenger Jan Svejnar, an independent economist, for a new vote expected next week. Presidents help steer the EU member country by appointing prime ministers, central bank chiefs and top judges.

Mongolia's parliament dissolved its government after the biggest political party pulled out of the 15-month-old ruling coalition, prompting two days of protests amid complaints about poverty and corruption. After the vote to dissolve the government of Prime Minister Tsakhiagiin Elbedorj, the premier was appointed to lead an interim administration.

At least eight people were killed and 130 injured today as three of India's 24 states went to the polls in elections considered Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's toughest popularity test yet, the Press Trust of India reported. PTI said all the killings took place in the southern state of Kerala in clashes between supporters of the ruling coalition led by Gandhi's Congress (I) Party and a Communist-led front.

After a heated debate, Congress voted to remove three members of Peru's Constitutional Court who rejected President Alberto Fujimori's plan to run for a third consecutive term. The Fujimori-controlled Congress voted 52 to 33 to remove the judges for violating the constitution and exceeding authority by signing a document on behalf of the full constitutional tribunal without the power to do so.

Switzerland's Parliament elected a female trade unionist to the Cabinet, ending a dispute that had threatened the ruling coalition. But the move left simmering a national debate on sexism in government. Ruth Dreifuss was elected by 144 votes out of 228. The vote followed Parliament's rejection last week of the center-left Social Democrats' original nominee, labor leader Christiane Brunner. That decision brought accusations of sexism from the media and from thousands of enraged feminists.