Deutsche Welle
English Service News
October 29th, 2001, 16:00 UTC
Now into its fourth week of bombing, U.S. warplanes have again
targetted Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold, amid claims that U.S.
troops might set up a first base inside northern Afghanistan.
There's been no official confirmation of a "USA Today" report that
said 300 elite soldiers plus 600 support troops could assist the
Afghan opposition northern alliance. It's bid to seize the city of
Mazar-i-Sharif from the Taliban has stalled. So far in its attempt to
oust the Taliban and Al Qaeda militants led by Osama bin Laden, the
USA has disclosed only one brief commando raid, more than a week ago.
Japan has enacted a controversial bill to allow its military to go
abroad to support U.S.-led strikes in Afghanistan with logistics. The
move paves the way for a possible first overseas dispatch of Japan's
sophisticated Aegis destroyers. A previous law barred Japan from
engaging in any type of military action except homeland defense.
Japanese officials said Tokyo was tentatively planning to send a
fleet of military vessels to the Indian Ocean by the end of November.
They would be used for rearguard activities, such as transporting
fuel, food and water.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on a visit to India expressed a
strong interest in expanding political and trade ties with New Delhi.
The chancellor proposed yearly high-level meetings. On Sunday, the
chancellor was in Pakistan where he pledged funds for Pakistan
development aid projects and financial support for Afghan refugees.
He also said the U.S.-led strikes against Afghanistan should
continue. Schroeder is scheduled to fly on to China with a large
German trade delegation.
After withdrawing troops from Bethlehem and Beit Jala, Israel's
government has said further pullouts from four other West Bank towns
would depend on whether the Palestinians met security demands.
Israel made the withdrawals on Sunday night, under mounting U.S.
pressure, despite the killing of four pedestrians by Palestinian
Islamic Jihad militants in the northern Israeli city of Hadera.
Meanwhile, German opposition CDU chairwoman Angela Merkel has visited
Palestinian President Yasser Ararat in Gaza. Underscoring EU policy,
she said Middle East peace efforts would not be successful unless the
legitimate rights of both Israel and the Palestinians were respected.
Merkel was also due to meet Israel President Moshe Katzav.
The seventh in a series of U.N. world climate conferences has opened
in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh as delegates from 180 nations try
to tie up the loose ends of a compromise reached in Bonn in July.
Organisers hope the two-week event will result in ratification of the
1997 Kyoto Protocol by the required 55 nations. So far, only 40 have
done so - mostly nations with low emissions of greenhouse gases
blamed for climate warming. The compromise would let industrial
nations use some forest and farmland as gas absorbers and trade in
emission licences. Moroccan police have imposed tight security. It's
the first major U.N. conference since September the 11th.
In Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, a suicide bomber has killed himself
and at least three other people in an attack police think was aimed
at Prime Minister Ratnasir Wickramanayake.
A military spokesman said two of dead were police officers who
stopped the bomber on a motorcycle close to a public rally attended
by the premier. Fourteen other people were wounded. Police suspect
Tamil rebels were behind the bombing. Sri Lanka faces a snap election
on December the 5th after a coalition government fell apart.
A gunman armed with a shotgun has run amok in the French city of
Tours, killing four passers-by and wounding another eight people.
Police eventually wounded and detained the attacker who'd fled into
an underground garage near Tours central railway station. Officials
identified him as a 44-year-old employee of French SNCF railways
without a previous criminal record. No motive has yet emerged. The
four people killed were men aged between 33 and 66. At least two of
the wounded were police officers. During the drama, the city centre
was evacuated and an elite French RAID police squad called in.
South Africa's Health Minister has urged the World Trade
Organisation, which meets in Qatar next month, to make AIDS drugs
cheaper for poorer patients in the developing world.
The minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said health care was a human
right, not a luxury. The WTO should require drugs firms to ease their
patents. Industry says it needs long patents to fund research. In
Malaysia's state of Johor, according to the "New Straits Times"
newspaper, from next month couples must test for AIDS before
marriage.
The German charter airline LTU, which is 49 percent owned by troubled
Swissair, has denied that it's also in financial difficulty.
An LTU spokesman rejected a report in the newspaper "Financial Times
Deutschland" that LTU only had funds until mid-November. It could
continue flying, at least until year's end, the spokesman insisted.
LTU, based in Dusseldorf, has begun funding guarantee talks with the
regional government of its home state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Another shareholder in LTU is the German grocery chain REWE.
Forensic experts has so far recovered 45 bodies of crew members from
the wreck of the Russian nuclear submarine "Kursk" as it lies in dry
dock near Murmansk.
The first cruise missiles on board have also been secured. The
"Kursk" was recently lifted from the bed of the Barents Sea by a
salvage company. It sank last year after mysterious explosions.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
