IV287 - April 1997

The 20th century ends as it began: with the humiliated and exploited masses taking to the streets. In Albania this time. The combination of economic crisis, fraud during the May 1996 elections, and the collapse of the financial organisations running the pyramid schemes stripped the Berisha regime of all legitimacy, and exposed it as the number one enemy of the overwhelming majority of Albanians.

Britain is facing a general election, with a real chance of ending 18 years of Tory rule.

The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) headed by Nawaz Sharif won an unprecedented landslide win in the February 3rd parliamentary elections B. Skanthakumar discusses the election with London-based journalist and activist Arif Azad.

With over 1.5 million deaths officially estimated in the last 12 months, AIDS is overtaking and interacting with other mass killers. In mid 1996 the United Nations (UNAIDS) estimated that 28 million people had contracted HIV infection world-wide, of whom 6 million had already died. 94% of people with HIV are in Third World countries.

Interview with Marc Nectar, president of Act Up Paris.

Tests show that the spermicide Nonoxylol 9 destroys the HIV virus. Good news for women at risk of infection through heterosexual relations? Lise Thiry thinks what you put in your mouth is much more important.

Powerful, expensive new medicines can delay the development of AIDS for years, if they don’t kill the patient first.