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English Service News April 17th, 2001, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Bethlehem Fighting Hits Home in Cologne The Middle East conflict may geographically be far from the Cologne suburb of Zündorf. But for some elementary schoolchildren here, the fighting in Bethlehem is anything but abstract news. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_499907_1_A,00.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Powell heads home; peace mission failed U.S.Secretary of State Colin Powell is on his way back to the United States with little to show for his peace mission.He has stopped over in Egypt for talks with the country's foreign minister on his peace trip, but he will not see President Mubarak, who is reported to be indisposed. After Mr. Powell's second meeting with President Arafat at his besieged headquarters in Ramallah, he said that a ceasefire could only be achieved with a complete Israeli withdrawl from all occupied areas. A timeline for a withdrawl was given to him by Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, he said saying that this could be within a week.He also indicated that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories were a major obstacle to peace in the region. Indonesia hails old foe Gusmao's Timor election win Indonesia on Wednesday congratulated former enemy Xanana Gusmao, the man who led the bitter fight against Jakarta's rule over the territory not long after an announcement that East Timor's independence hero had scored a sweeping victory to be president of the world's newest nation. Mr.Gusmao spent some seven years in a Jakarta jail in the 1990s for his resistance to Indonesia's invasion of the former Portuguese colony in 1975. East Timor voted in a U.N.-organised ballot in 1999 to break from Jakarta's often brutal rule, unleashing widespread violence by local militias opposed to the decision. East Timor will be declared fully independent on May 20th, when the U.N. transition commissiojn hands over power. Kabul ready for King's return. International peacekeepers in Afghanistan on Wednesday declared the capital, Kabul safe for the return of former King Zahir Shah. Interim leader Harmid Karzai, along with 6 ministers are in Rome to escort the 87-year-old former monarch home. Officially he returns as a private citizen, however, many Afghans hope he'll unite many of Afghanistan's ethnic community ahead of June's Loya jirga or grand council. King Zahir Shah ruled for 40 years before being forced into exile in 1973. Norway's peace envoy in Sri Lanka to meet LTTE leaders Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen took his shuttle diplomacy to the jungles of northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday for talks with Tamil Tiger rebel leaders to push forward a growing peace process. Mr. Helgesen, is trying to finalise details for direct talks between the Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for self rule in the north of the country and the government to end nearly two decades of war that has left an estimated 64,000 dead. It would be the first face-to-face talks in seven years and are expected to take place in May or June in Thailand. Nepal says kills 11 Maoist rebels in crackdown Nepal said its soldiers had shot dead 11 Maoist rebels in a crackdown that began on Tuesday after last week's deadly attacks on police posts in which over 300 people are thought to have died.The rebels, who want to set up a one party communist republic and abolish the monarchy, resumed violence last November after walking out of peace talks. More than 3,500 people have been killed since the insurgency began in early 1996 , about 1,500 of them since the peace talks failed. Lord Owen on Srebrenica A former British peace envoy to Bosnia, Lord Owen said on Wednesday that a lack of commitment by the international community,led by the United Nations, the United States,France and Britain and not a failure by Dutch troops had led to the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims in a supposed safe-area in Srebrenica in 1995. Lord Owen was joint author of the Vance-Owen peace plan, which preceded the Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. Prime Minister Wim Kok and his government resigned yesterday in the aftermath of a report, which blamed Dutch politicians and military for the failure of Dutch UN-peacekeepers to protect Muslims in the Srebrenica safe haven. A top Dutch army general also resigned today in connection with the report. Belgrade issues Hague wanted list, urges surrender The Yugoslav government on Wednesday published a list of 23 suspects wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal at the Hague and called on them to agree within three days to give themselves up. Belgrade, under strong Western pressure to hand over suspects to the war crimes court, indicated it would launch a legal procedure leading ultimately to arrests for those who did not surrender within the time limit. The dramatic move came after parliament last Thursday adopted a law authorising the reformist authorities to send people accused of atrocities during the Balkan wars of the 1990s to the Netherlands-based court. Britain seeks German compensation for demo damage Britain is asking Germany for compensation after demonstrators damaged its new embassy building in Berlin, the British ambassador said on Wednesday. Some of the 11,000 people demonstrating against the Israeli military offensive on the West Bank last Saturday threw stones at the embassy, causing what Ambassador Paul Lever said was tens of thousands of euros of damage. Mr. Lever told journalists he had written to Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit and to the German foreign ministry, saying it was the responsibility of the German state to protect the institutions of other countries on its territory. British Postcard Delivered 100 years late Kathy Russell of Heaton Mersey, England recently received a postcard. Why is that news? Well it arrived at her address some 100 years after being mailed. The postcard had a stamp of King Edward the 7th who ruled England from 1901 through 1910. A red-faced British postal official said he finds it hard to believe the postcard would be in the mail system that long. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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