World Vignettes

The figure was unchanged from a September 1997 poll and two points above a similar poll in April 1993, the paper said. Fifty-three per cent supported the monarchy, compared to 50 per cent in September 1997 and 56 per cent in 1993. Support for the monarchy was strongest among pensioners at 72 per cent and people on low incomes at 62 per cent. The New Zealand poll contrasts sharply with neighbouring Australia where some recent surveys have shown nearly 60 per cent support for going republic.

Sarah’s Life

An Israeli civil court took a step toward revealing secrets from the previous marriage of the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sarah Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s third wife, has beenfighting in the name of privacy to keep her ex-husband from publishing an autobiography containing secrets from their marriage and showing her in an unfavorable light. The Ramat Gan court said that it should decide if Doron Neuberger, 38, could use “cassettes, photos and manuscripts” in his possession and whether publishing them “would hurt Mrs Netanyahu’s private life”.

The court said it should also decide whether the documents are authentic and will be in the public interest, as Neuberger claims. In February 1998, the court rejected her opposition to its hearing the various parties to the dispute. The documents most embarrassing for Sarah Netanyahu include a 93-page letter she sent to her parents-in-law in 1987 while her marriage to Neuberger was falling apart.

Judicial officials said Neuberger told the court that publishing his book was in the public interest because he shows that his ex-wife is incapable of fulfilling the role of Israel’s first lady. The hearing occurred behind closed doors butthe court published information about the session. Sarah Netanyahu said Neuberger had recorded her without her knowledge and that he had made secret videotapes of their life as the marriage was foundering.

The Israeli press has attacked Sarah Netanyahu regularly since her husband was elected in May 1996 to head the government. She has been depicted as unstable, jealous and tyrannical with household personnel.

Hillary’s Plug

United States First Lady Hillary Clinton said women’s rights continue to be trampled on throughout the world and pointed to Afghanistan as one of the worst violators.

“An estimated one to two million women and girls are trafficked every year around the world, forced into labour, domestic servitude or sexual exploitation,” she said in an address delivered to the UN. The First Lady said Afghanistan probably is unrivaled in its “egregious and systematic trampling of fundamental rights of women today”.

They have shunned western fashion and barred women from work andeducation, besides making it compulsory for them to cover themselves from head to toe outside the home. “It is no longer acceptable to say the abuse of women and men is cultural, it should be called what it is: criminal,” the First Lady said. The US President’s wife is in New York, fueling speculation that she was testing the political waters for a US Senate run next year to replace retiring Democratic New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.