41.   Pakistan has failed to protect religious minorities and women and prisoners still face torture and even death, rights group Amnesty International said in its annual report released Tuesday.

42.   President Bill Clinton challenged his Republican rival Bob Dole Wednesday on his gun control about-face and promised to protect minorities from the conservatives controlling Congress.

43.   The French, acting on a UN mandate, describe the operation as a mercy mission aimed at protecting minority Tutsis from ethnic slaughter by the Hutu majority.

44.   The motion, which condemns the riots as a failure by the government to protect religious minorities, is not a confidence resolution and cannot bring down the government.