Deutsche Welle
English Service News
June 28th, 2001, 16:00 UTC
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said he believed monitors
would be needed to observe confidence-building measures foreseen
under a U.S.-led Middle East peace plan. Palestinians want an
international force sent to the region after nine months of violence
that has killed about 600 people, but Israel has opposed any
significant foreign presence. Powell said little about his vision of
a monitoring presence after talks with Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The proposed confidence-
building measures, such as the freezing of building in Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are planned under a
blueprint for peace drawn up by a committee led by former U.S.
Senator George Mitchell.
Yugoslavia's Constitutional Court has suspended the implementation
of a government decree intended to pave the way for former president
Slobodan Milosevic's transfer to the U.N. war crimes tribunal. The
court said it had decided to suspend the implementation of the
decree while it decided whether the measure was in accordance with
the constitution. Many reformist leaders had indicated before the
court hearing they intended to press on with moves to hand over
Milosevic whatever its decision. They said the court was not
independent as many of its officials were Milosevic appointees.
Milosevic was indicted by the UN tribunal in May 1999, charged with
crimes against humanity and accused of responsibility for mass
killings and expulsions of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The European Union's new envoy, former French defence minister
Francois Leotard, has arrived in Macedonia to try to prevent another
Balkan war. Diplomats say neither the Macedonian government nor the
rebels have so far demonstrated a sincere desire to bring to an end
the four-month-long conflict that has brought the nation to the
brink of civil war. About 100,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanian
villagers, have been displaced. Thousands of others remain trapped
in the northern hills held by the rebels in conditions described by
some aid workers as close to a humanitarian catastrophe. Leotard's
task is to try to kickstart stalled peace talks and avoid the
prospect of NATO getting dragged into yet another conflict in former
Yugoslavia.
In a historic move, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted
a declaration outlining steps to combat HIV/AIDS and asked rich
nations to pay billions of dollars over the next decade to help
fight the disease that has so far claimed 22 million lives.
At the end of the first high-level United Nations conference
dedicated to halting the relentless advance of the killer disease
and after weeks of negotiations, the 189-member assembly approved a
detailed blueprint that sets timetables for countries to devise and
implement strategies for education, prevention, treatment and a
network of care programs, especially for millions of orphans.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, currently on an official visit
to Germany, has urged world leaders to study his proposals for
economic recovery across Africa at a Group of Eight summit next
month. After talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder he said he did not expect the July summit in Genoa of the
world's top industrialised nations to examine the plan in detail,
but saw the meeting as a platform to get the project moving. He said
Schroeder had assured him of Germany's support for the Millennium
Africa Recovery Plan, which Mbeki drafted together with the leaders
of Algeria and Nigeria to foster stability and economic growth
across the continent.
A car has exploded in the Spanish capital Madrid and is believed to
have been a getaway vehicle used earlier in the day by suspected
members of Basque separatist group ETA to carry out a bomb attack.
ETA often blows up getaway cars used after carrying out attacks to
destroy any evidence and distract police. Earlier Earlier 15 people
were injured, including a retired general, when a bomb went off in a
busy street in central Madrid. It was the first ETA-linked attack in
the Spanish capital since the group's political allies suffered a
stinging defeat in Basque regional elections in mid-May.
Veteran actor Jack Lemmon, whose roles ranged from brash or
befuddled young men to grumpy old ones and who formed one of
cinema's great odd couples with late partner Walter Matthau, has
died at age 76. Lemmon, a two time Oscar winner and an Emmy winner
died Wednesday night of complications from cancer. He starred in
more than 60 films, including "Some like it hot" and the "Odd
Couple".
And finally some news just in...
A U.S. Appeals Court has reversed in part the proposed break-up of
Microsoft Corp. for alleged violations of antitrust law. In a
ruling that upheld some parts of the order and disagreed with
others, the appeals court also rebuked Judge Thomas Penfield
Jackson's earlier handling of the case, citing an "appearance of
partiality."
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
