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DW-WORLD - Deutsche Welle's new website launches on November 15th. We're improving our service for you. Starting November 15th, DW-WORLD will have a new and improved look with better navigation and exciting content. At our new site you'll find even more news, information and service from the heart of Europe. No matter what you're looking for -- from current affairs to business, arts and technology -- you'll easily find the topics that interest you. And you can quickly catch up on the latest details for your favorite DW-RADIO and DW-TV programs. DW-WORLD: your source of information in 31 languages. Interested? Have a look! http://www.dw-world.de ===================================================================== Deutsche Welle English Service News November 12th, 2001, 16:00 UTC At 9:20 am Eastern Standard Time an American Airlines Airbus with 254 people on board crashed shortly after takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration said the jet was bound for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Eye witnesses said one of the plane's engines exploded and fell to the ground seconds before the plane's fuselage slammed into a residential neighbourhood in the New York borough, Queens. The New York Fire Department has confirmed at least 12 buildings, mostly homes have been damaged or destroyed. The FAA and Pentagon in Washington have both said that they do not believe the crash is a terrorist attack as nothing unusual was reported before the crash. The authorities taking no chances, have closed all three major New York area airports. Also all bridges and tunnels have been closed and the United Nations where the UN General Assembly attended by scores of world leaders has been locked down. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was meeting with representatives of Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikestan at the UN have been taken to a secure position. The US government has also closed the airspace over New York, and live television pictures have shown F-16 fighter jets patrolling the New York cente airspace. The authorities have refused to say how many people have been killed or injured on the ground. In Afghanistan, the opposition forces of the Northern Alliance have claimed further military successes following their capture of the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif from the ruling Taliban. The Alliance claims to have taken the key western city of Herat and Kunduz, the last Taliban holdout in the north of Afghanistan. The Taliban has denied that the opposition had captured Herat and said they were close to retaking a town lost at the weekend in northwestern Badghis province. Earlier the Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said his forces had now secured more than half the country, compared with only ten percent three days ago. Abdullah also did not rule out the possibility of a move on the capital, Kabul. U.S. President George W. Bush has however urged the Northern Alliance not to enter Kabul, saying this might endanger hopes for a future broad-based government for the country. Meanwhile, U.S.-led aerial strikes against Afghanistan continue. Three foreign journalists have reportedly been killed in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan. Two French radio journalists reporting from northeast Afghanistan died in an ambush by ruling Taliban forces, their employers at RTL radio and Radio France International confirmed. In Germany, Stern confirmed that a male freelance writer working for the magazine was also killed. An Australian reporter in Afghanistan said the three journalists were accompanying Commander Hassan of the Northern Alliance on an inspection of a Taliban trench they thought had surrendered, when they were killed. Protesters greeted a rail convoy of nuclear waste that crossed the border into Germany Monday afternoon. The six CASTOR containers are expected to arrive at a nuclear storage facility in Gorleben, in northern Germany sometime on Tuesday. In anticipation of demonstrations along the shipment's route German authorities have assigned some 15,000 police officers to a security detail, and have also closed the airspace above the route. Israeli troops have entered a Palestinian-ruled village in the West Bank and have killed one member of the Islamic group Hamas. Dozens of Israeli soldiers entered Tell village west of Nablus after the army told Palestinian officials there that it planned to search and arrest militants. Israel has made frequent incursions into Palestinian-ruled areas to arrest or kill militants behind attacks on Israelis during the 13-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation. Hamas claimed responsibility last week for an attack on Israeli soldiers driving in a jeep near Tell village in which an Israeli soldier was killed. After several weeks of virtual peace in Macedonia, the conflict there has gathered momentum once more. Official sources say three Macedonian policemen were killed in fighting with ethnic Albanian rebels near the city of Tetovo. And police in the capital Skopje report that armed rebels have taken several Macedonian civilians hostage. The hostage-taking was in retaliation for the arrest by Macedonian security forces of seven ethnic Albanians identified as former guerillas. The Macedonian government had promised an amnesty for the rebels as part of a Western-brokered peace deal, but it has not yet taken force. The death toll from Algeria's worst flooding in 20 years rose to 575 on Monday. Algerian state media has reported that at least 500 people died in the capital Algiers alone. The heavy rain started on Friday and was whipped by gale force winds. Flash floods have washed away thousands of home, with coastal regions hardest hit. A number of countries including Algeria's former colonial master France have sent emergency supplies and rescue teams to assist local authorities. Russian President Vladimir Putin's office has confirmed that the President will depart for Washington later this evening for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush. It will be Putin's first official visit to the United States. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
