ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
Poland gets new prime minister
WARSAW, Poland - Poland swore in a new prime minister and Cabinet on Wednesday, replacing a government toppled by allegations that the former prime minister passed state secrets to Moscow.
Taking the oath of office before President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz and his 20 ministers became Poland's seventh government since the 1989 fall of communism.
The new government is ``proof of Polish stability ... consistency and a proof that we can act effectively,'' Kwasniewski said.
- Associated Press
Lesotho swears in ceremonial king
MASERU, Lesotho - King Letsie III took the throne of this tiny mountain monarchy for the second time Wednesday, formally replacing his father, King Moshoeshoe II, who died in a car accident last month.
Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle, whom Letsie had once tried to unseat, was among the government officials, foreign ambassadors and other dignitaries who attended the swearing-in ceremony. in a packed palace hall. The king's mother, Queen Regent Mamohato, sat at her son's side.
Letsie, wearing a blue double-breasted suit, was solemn as he pledged to ``abstain from involving the monarchy in any way in politics or with any political parties or groups.''
Letsie, 32, first became king in November 1990 after his father was dethroned by former military rulers. Letsie staged a palace coup in 1994 to oust Mokhehle's elected government in a bid to force his father's reinstatement.
Under a deal brokered by South Africa, Moshoeshoe returned to the throne in January 1995 as a constitutional monarch with only a ceremonial role.
- Associated Press
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