Deutsche Welle
English Service News
June 5th, 2001, 16:00 UTC
Hannelore Kohl, the wife of former chancellor Helmut Kohl, was found
dead in her home Thursday morning. Mr. Kohl's office in Berlin has
confirmed that Mrs. Kohl took her own life. A police spokesman in
Ludwigshafen said, the wife of Mrs. Kohl's chauffeur, who had often
helped her around the house, had discovered the body. In a final
letter to her husband and two sons, Peter and Walter, Mrs. Kohl
wrote she had taken her life voluntarily because of the hopeless
that her illness had brought into her life. Mrs. Kohl suffered from
a light allergy, which forced her to avoid bright lights and
sunlight. Her illness also forced her to miss her son's wedding in
May of this year in Turkey. The former First Lady of Germany,
Hannelore Kohl, dead at the age of 68.
Macedonia and the ethnic Albanian rebels have signed separate
ceasefire agreements brokered by NATO. The ceasefire, will take
effect nationwide at midnight local time (2200GMT), and has been
widely welcomed. The agreement is seen as the first step towards the
deployment of NATO troops to oversee a rebel disarmament. The
conflict has at times threatened to spill into an all-out civil war.
NATO spokesman Mark Laity said the truce, struck with the help of
the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, on June
24th is technically, already in place.
Just hours before the announcement of the truce, six civilians were
hurt in heavy fighting on the edge of the country's main Albanian
city, Tetovo. The army confirmed it had blasted guerrilla positions
on the outskirts of Tetovo, in response to heavy rebel fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a brief trip to Europe said
he is still committed to peace. At a news conference in Berlin, Mr.
Sharon said "We are prepared for the painful compromises for real
peace for generations." Ever sensitive to Germany's awkward
relationship with Israel, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said
Israel should show "more flexibility" in the matter of Jewish
settlements adding that his words were friendly advice and not a
demand or request. Mr. Sharon's 26 hour visit is his first to
Europe since taking office and will take him Thursday evening to
Paris for meetings with French President Jacques Chirac.
A second Polish cabinet minister has resigned in as many days, over
Poland's conservative minority government handling of a business
fraud probe. The resignations come just two months before the
country's general election in September. Culture Minister Kazimierz
Ujazdowski said he quit out of loyalty to his right-wing party
leader Lech Kaczynski, who was fired by Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek
on Wednesday. Opposition social democrat leader Leszek Miller called
on President Aleksander Kwasniewski to convene an emergency meeting.
In a press scrum he said "The ongoing situation, makes a laughing
stock of the country in the eyes of its own citizens and abroad,
(and this) can no longer be tolerated". Miller's ex-communist
Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) is poised to win the September 23
general election by a landslide. The government's woes could come to
a head in a parliamentary vote of no confidence on Friday.
Two and a half weeks after his stunning election victory, the former
Bulgarian monarch King Simeon II observed the first meeting of the
newly elected Bulgarian parliament. Simeon, who did not run for a
parliamentary seat but led his movement to a resounding victory in
the June 17 poll, remained vague about his future, saying "This is a
very important day for Bulgaria". During the session, President
Peter Stojanov called upon parliament to continue the reform process
and described Bulgaria's admission into the NATO alliance as the
most important objective of the government. In the coming days
Stojanov will ask Simeon to form a government after which he will
have one week to introduce a cabinet. Most observers agree it is
just a matter of time before the 64-year-old ex-king gives in to the
pressure from his National Movement and accepts the most powerful
post in the Balkan state.
Typhoon Utor is bearing down on Hong Kong after ripping through the
Philippines and Taiwan, killing at least 55 people and leaving at
least 30 people unaccounted for. Most of the deaths were in the
Philippines where 20 people were electrocuted as live wires fell
into flood waters. Another 70 people were treated for severe burns.
55 towns and some 3000 villages have been flooded with neck high
water. The typhoon is expected to make landfall in Hong Kong during
the early morning hours of Friday. Supermarkets in the city of 7
million people on Thursday were packed as residents stocked up on
food and other essentials. Schools and public buildings closed early
and Cathay Pacific Airways has diverted or cancelled numerous
flights to the city.
Peru has been hit by another earthquake on Thursday, registering
5.1 on the Richter scale, causing some structural damage but there
were no initial reports of injuries according to eye witnesses and
experts. The Andean nation only two weeks ago was devastated
8.1-magnitude quake near the same region that killed 77 people and
left more than 200,000 homeless.
Ethnic clashes in central Nigerian state of Nasarawa have spread to
neighbouring Taraba where at least 20 people have been killed in a
fresh outbreak of violence. The government owned newspaper, Daily
Times reported that 25,000 people fled their homes following an
attack by men of the Fulani and Jukin tribes. The fighting erupted
on June 12 when the chief of the Azara people was assassinated.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
