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Deutsche Welle English Service News 07th January, 2001, 16:00 UTC Violence on Kashmiri border continues as Blair arrives in Pakistan Four Pakistani civilians have been wounded by Indian shelling, this is according to police sources, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Pakistan on a mission to defuse tension between the hostile neighbours. One Indian and five Pakistani soldiers were also killed along the line of control in Kashmir in a fresh exchange of fire between troops of the two countries. Fearing a conflict, some 20,000 Pakistani villagers have reportedly fled their homes near the border with India in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir over the last week. Blair is to hold talks with President Pervez Musharraf on the military standoff with India. His trip follows talks in New Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who Blair said was willing to talk with Pakistan if it rejected terrorism in all its forms. Solana takes up talks in Middle East A senior European Union official, picking up where a U.S. envoy left off, has pursued talks with Israel and the Palestinians in the latest international effort to build on a lull in violence. But a row continued to rage between Israel and the Palestinians over the Israeli military's seizure of a ship which it said was carrying Iranian-supplied arms to the Palestinian Authority, an allegation the Authority and Tehran denied. Javier Solana, the European Union's top foreign policy official, followed fast on a four-day visit by U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni, who is trying to end 15 months of bloodshed. Zinni flew home after brokering security talks between Israeli and Palestinian representatives. He is scheduled to return next week. U.S. jets bomb suspected al Qaeda training camps U.S. jets have bombed suspected Osama bin Laden training camps in eastern Afghanistan and on the ground special forces have pursued scattered fighters of the al Qaeda network set up by the world's most wanted man. British paratroopers arrived in Kabul to bolster a foreign force with a United Nations mandate to ensure security in a capital battered by years of civil war and by U.S. jets in the last few months. In another devlopment tribal elders in Khost in eastern Paktia province postponed a meeting to decide what to do with a teenager believed to have shot the first U.S. soldier killed in the war when the 14-year-old disappeared. Scharping praises role of German armed forces in Afghanistan German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping has highlighted the international responsibility of the German armed forces in the Afghanistan mission a day before an advance team leaves for Kabul. Scharping wrote in commentary in the mass-circulation tabloid newspaper "Bild", that Bundeswehr troops came as "helpers" not as "occupiers". He added that the fight against the Taliban and international terror had still not been won yet. But the German minister said a lot had been achieved, especially the respect of basic rights for women and children. An advance force of 70 German and 30 Dutch paratroopers are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan on Tuesday, after heavy snow in Turkey delayed the military operation by 24 hours. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation pledges to combat terror China, Russia and four Central Asian states, seeking to revive their role in the global war on terror, have pledged to combat terrorism in all forms at home and abroad. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation also hailed the demise of the Taliban regime, hoping it would end Afghanistan's days as a source of terror and narcotics, and stressed there should be no meddling in the country's affairs. Meeting for the first time since the former Shanghai Five welcomed Uzbekistan last June and renamed itself, the ministers also established a crisis-response mechanism under which they would meet to coordinate positions and consider joint action. Argentina hopes currency devaluation will reverse recession President Eduardo Duhalde has bet on currency devaluation to reverse a recession despite fears it could boomerang into inflation and corruption as Argentines began to raise prices, hoard goods and hunt for black market dollars. Duhalde, a populist Peronist power broker offering himself as political savior for the poor after food riots shook Latin America's No. 3 economy, decreed on Sunday a devaluation of the one-to-one peso peg to the dollar by nearly 30 percent. Duhalde, the fifth president since mid-December, hopes the devaluation will cheapen exports and labor, unshackling an economy from a peg blamed for a four-year recession that has already heralded the biggest sovereign debt default ever. Italy's Berlusconi tries to contain damage over Ruggiero Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, critisized over the resignation of his foreign minister, has sought to reassure sceptics at home and abroad that his government was committed to a strong Europe. Two days after the surprise resignation of Renato Ruggiero, Berlusconi chose Italy's leading newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, to attempt some damage control. In an interview, Berlusconi also made clear that he would hold the foreign affairs portfolio himself for at least six months,- longer than many had expected,- because he wanted to make major changes at the ministry and make it more pro-business. Central African Ebola death toll creeps higher An outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 24 people in the central African countries of Gabon and Congo Republic and nine more have the deadly disease. The World Health Organisation said the death toll has been creeping up since the first death was reported a month ago and Gabon decided on Saturday to seal off its northeast province of Ogooue-Ivindo to help contain the deadly virus. In neighbouring Congo, seven of the 13 people to contract the virus have died. Ebola is passed on through contact with body fluids and 90 percent of those it infects bleed to death within days. 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