On this day in 1998, The Philippines were celebrating their newly sworn-in President former Box Office Attraction Joseph Estrada. Nobody in America seemed to be particularly taken by the nuance, since we'd weathered almost an entire decade with one. Still, Estrada had his work cut out for him. And Secretary General Kofi Annan paid a visit to the Military government of Nigeria in an attempt to get them interested in trying out Democracy for a change. Speaking of Hopeful, President Clinton while visiting China remarked that he was optimistic some form of improved relations could happen between the U.S. and Iran. Just exactly when and how was another story. Italy, however had no problems cozying up to the Iranians as Prime Minister Romano Prodi touched down in Tehran on a first-ever State visit by the Italian government.
Speaking of governments, the French were busy touting the results of their own-generated findings on Nuclear testing in the South Pacific. It seems, after some 190 nuclear tests, both above ground and below ground, the government proclaimed nothing harmful ever came of them and that radiation levels were so low they barely cracked the Geiger counter. Skeptics abounded and the likes of Greenpeace called the French somewhat less than realistic in their disclosures.
On the subject of disclosures, the UN IEAA were going back and forth on Nuclear inspections of various facilities being run in Baghdad getting ready to put the inspections on a low-key footing. It wasn't the nuclear weaponry they were so concerned about as much as all the chemicals they had lying around and those chemical warheads cammed with the nerve agent V-X they were rumored to have had, and that the Iraqi's were falling over themselves denying.
And this day in 1998 marked the one year anniversary since Britain handed over Hong-Kong to the Chinese. The one year celebration was considerably more low-key than the blow-out the previous year.
It also marked the opening in Frankfurt of the first European Central Bank in anticipation of the single currency of the EU. scheduled to come in the next year.
And that was June 30, 1998 as reported on the BBC World Service Newsdesk program.
