Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Deutsche Welle English Service News August 14th, 2001, 16:00 UTC Israeli tanks with bulldozers have wrecked a Palestinian police headquarters building at Jenin deep inside the autonomous West Bank during a raid overnight, in reprisal for recent suicide bombings. Hours later, the army withdrew as Palestinian leaders demanded U.N. Security Council intervention. Israel said Jenin was picked because it was the origin of Palestinian suicide bombers who recently struck in Jerusalem and Haifa, killing 15 people. It accused Palestinian leaders of not doing enough to rein in militants. The raid left four Palestinian officers wounded, according to Palestinian sources, and sparked gunfire - also in other parts of the West Bank. Two Israeli civilians and three additional Palestinians were wounded. Monday's signing in Skopje of Macedonia's peace treaty has been widely welcomed, but coupled with an appeal from the U.N. Security Council to ethnic Albanian extremists in the Balkan country to end clashes with government troops near Tetovo. German and American leaders stressed the urgency of implementing the plan which outlines rebel disarmament and safeguards for Macedonia's minority Albanian population. 15 NATO military advisors are heading to Skopje to assess a fragile ceasefire. NATO ambassador Hansjoerg Eiff told German radio the alliance would decide this week whether to send 3,500 troops to collect rebel weapons. Any go-ahead depended on a "durable ceasefire" taking hold between rebels and troops, he said. Since last week, 30 people have died in clashes. Macedonia's slav-majority parliament now has 45 days to ratify the treaty. IRA guerillas in Northern Ireland have withdrawn their offer to disarm voluntarily, citing dismissive reactions from pro-British Protestants and London's brief spell of direct rule at the weekend. Last week, Protestant leaders, including former first minister David Trimble, had demanded that the IRA go beyond its offer to put its arms "beyond use" and fix a start date for disarmament. On Saturday, London suspended Northern Ireland's power-sharing regional assembly for 24 hours, using a legal loophole to give all sides six more weeks for talks. After visa delays, three western diplomats have arrived in Kabul where Afghanistan's ruling Taliban says 24 arrested aid workers will face trial on charges of trying to convert Moslems to Christianity. So far, the diplomats have been told they won't get access to four Germans, two Americans and two Australians, who with 16 Afghans, belong to the German-based relief agency "Shelter Now". They were arrested nine days ago. If convicted, the Afghans could be executed. The Taliban has alarmed other agencies by saying that they too would be put under surveillance. Shelter Now's German president Udo Stollte has denied that the group was proselytising, saying its workers only provide relief aid such as food and housing components. Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf has pledged that national elections will be held in October of next year, followed by a transfer of power to the elected government. He said polls would take place between the 1st and 11th of October, 2002. Musharraf seized power in 1999. At that time Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the holding of elections within three years. Recently, Musharraf assumed the post of president after dismissing Rafiq Tarar. UNITA rebels in Angola have admitted ambushing a train last Friday near the town of Dondo but said it was loaded with military hardware and was not a refugee train as claimed in initial reports. On Sunday 152 people were buried. State-run Luanda Railways, however, insists that the train was packed with civilians. Survivors told Reuters that the train was derailed by a landmine and caught fire. Attackers then shot passengers. UNITA in its version said the train was transporting fuel and military goods to a government outpost in Dondo. UNITA said it had killed 37 soldiers and policemen escorting the train. Reports from Algeria say that 17 farmers were shot dead by gunmen at a fake roadblock on Sunday night, near the city of Relizane, after their truck was stopped. The ambush - 300 kilometers southwest of the capital Algiers - brings to at least 26 the number of civilians killed since Friday. Independent newspapers say suspected rebels killed nine people in two raids on villages on Friday and Saturday near the city of Chlef. Heavy flooding after torrential rains has left at least 300 people dead in northeastern Iran. Official sources said hundreds of others were still missing. Using helicopters, the Iranian air force rescued some 15,000 people from the flood waters which officials said were the worst in 200 years. ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
