HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
Deutsche Welle English Service News 13.03.2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Serbia: A Place Where Deadly Crime Is Part of Life Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, assassinated on Wednesday, lived and governed in a land of violent crime. The government is blaming organized crime for the killing. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_807059_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Diplomatic efforts at avoiding war in Iraq Diplomatic efforts to avoid a war in Iraq are continuing this Thursday, but they appear to be running out of steam. In an effort to get a second U.N. resolution passed in the Security Council, Britain on Wednesday unveiled a plan to set out six conditions, which if fulfilled, would allow Iraq to avoid a war. This proposal, however, has been rejected outright by both France and Russia. Following a cabinet meeting on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed frustration with the French in particular. Later in the day, Straw said that Britain was willing to drop one of the six conditions to get the second resolution passed. Straw said if the sticking point was the demand that Saddam Hussein go on TV to publicly state that he will give up his weapons of mass destruction, London would be willing to drop the demand. He added that Britain would continue to seek to get a second resolution on Iraq passed at the Security Council, with the next meeting due to start in about 4 hours' time. In a sign of Washington's increasing impatience with the United Nations route, American Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte as far as the U.S. was concerned, the deadline of next Monday remained on the table. White House officials have now said that Washington is prepared to wait until next week for a vote on the resolution. France, Russia oppose new ideas French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the British proposals did not address the issue of seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis. His Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying that Russia would veto any UN resolution paving the way for war either indirectly or directly. China said it had taken note of Britain's proposals but still felt there was no need for a second UN resolution. UN surveillance flights south of Baghdad Surveillance flights supporting the work of United Nations weapons inspectors continued over two centres south of Baghdad this Thursday. According to Iraq government officials, U.N. arms inspectors searched a total of eight facilities. Also on Thursday, U.N. inspectors observed the destruction of more of Iraq's Al Samoud 2 missiles. So far, about half of the approximately 120 short-range missiles have been destroyed. Parliament to convene for possible vote on US troops Turkey's ruling party has said it was asking parliament to convene over the weekend. Observers say this could mean that it may vote again on a US request to allow the deployment of around 60,000 troops on Turkish soil ahead of a possible war against Iraq. New Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has hinted that he will put the vote to parliament again, which narrowly rejected the first motion last month. Court outlaws party with Kurdish links Turkey's constitutional court has outlawed the People's Democracy Party, HADEP, ruling that it had close links to Kurdish rebels. HADEP did not run in last year's general election but supported the Democratic People's Party which made significant gains in the Kurdish souteast of the country. The court said HADEP had long maintained close ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast. Serbia in state of emergency following assassination Serbia is in a state of emergency following Wednesday's assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Government officials have said that they now believe that a criminal organisation led by Milorad Lukovic, a former commander of special police unit, was behind the killing. Police say they have taken several members of the group into custody. Officials think the killing was in response to Djindjic's efforts to fight organised crime in the country. Lukovic also opposed Djindjic's decision to hand over former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. European leaders have called on Serbia not to let the assassination disrupt the democratic reforms that Djindjic in particular had worked so hard to introduce. Japan sends destroyer to monitor possible test preparations The Japanese government on Thursday announced that it was sending a navy destroyer out to patrol the Sea of Japan. According to government sources, the navy vessel will be charged with observing possible preparations by North Korea to conduct more test firings of ballistic missiles. However a government spokesman denied Japanese newspaper reports that Pyongyang was close to conducting a test of its Rodong ballistic missile. Yasuo Fukuda said there was still not enough evidence to say for sure whether this was the case. North Korea's Rodong missile has a range of 1,000 kilometres, which puts Japan within its range. Two Israelis shot dead by army by mistake - radio Two Israelis have been killed near a Jewish settlement south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Israel Radio reported that they were short by mistake by Israeli soldiers. An army spokesman had no immediate comment on the incident near the Jewish settlement of Pnei Hever. However the radio report said soldiers apparently mistook the victims for armed Palestinian infiltrators. It reported the troops had received intelligence information that an attack by Palestinian gunmen was imminent. Teenager found alive 9 months after abduction A 15-year-old kidnapped American teenager has turned up safe and well nine months after she was abducted. Police said Elisabeth Smart was found in the state of Utah in the town of Sandy only 24 km from her home. A police spokesman said a man and a woman were with her when she was found. The man was believed to have worked at the family's home. Police said they could be the kidnappers. The girl said she was abducted from her bedroom by a man who threatened her with a knife. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information please turn to our internet website at http://dw-world.de/english Here you'll find out what's happening in Germany, Europe and the rest of the world. News and background reports from the fields of current affairs, culture, business and science. And of course the DW website also has information about DW-RADIO and DW-TV programmes: topics, broadcast times and frequencies. You can even listen to all programmes as audio-on-demand. --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
