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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 November13th , 2001, 16:00 UTC Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar urged his scattered fighters on Tuesday to regroup and fight , AIP, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said. It said he repeatedly urged his fighters to obey their commanders, suggesting that massive desertions were taking place,or that there was chaos in the Taliban ranks. It was the first statement of the leader of the fundamentalist Taliban since the Northern Alliance launched their lightning strike across north and west Afghanistan last Friday. Taliban fighters fled from Kabul to their stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar and there are reports that the opposition is now heading for this stronghold. The capital, Kabul,finally fell on Tuesday, dealing the heaviest blow to the hardline Islamic movement on day 38 of blistering attacks by U.S.-led forces. U.S. investigators said on Tuesday initial information from the cockpit voice recorder retrieved from the wreckage of an American Airlines plane indicated that Monday's crash was an accident. They said there were no unknown voices in the cockpit before the plane crashed, just minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport en route to the Dominican Republic, squashing speculation that hijackers might have been on board in a repeat of the Sept.11th aerial attacks on America. Up to 269 people died in Monday's crash in a residential area in the borough of Queens in New York. Of those killed, 251 were passengers and nine were crew on board the plane while nine people are missing on the ground.The search is still going on for the aircrafts flight data recorder. Israel said on Tuesday its forces would remain in two Palestinian West Bank areas despite a demand by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for a pullout. The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France,Russia and China also called on Palestinians to end more than 13 months of violence in a joint statement issued on Monday at the U.N. General Assembly meeting. Israel reoccupied areas in and around six Palestinian-ruled cities in the West Bank after Palestinian radicals assassinated a far-right cabinet minister on October 17. It has withdrawn from four of the areas. At least 703 Palestinians and 188 Israelis have been killed in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that erupted in September 2000 after peace talks deadlocked. In the Indian state of Assam India, thousands of children have fallen ill and one girl has died after allegedly being given contaminated doses of Vitamin A in an immunisation drive against blindness, police said on Tuesday. Hundreds of children between the ages of one and six arrived at hospitals, complaining of fever and stomach pain.Last Sunday, health officials in the state of Assam held a day-long drive sponsored by UNICEF to immunise children with concentrated solutions of vitamin A. The head of state health services said that a preliminary investigation showed the doses were not contaminated and the children may have fallen ill due to an overdose. In South Africa's north-western town of Upington, hundreds of demonstrators protested outside the courthouse on Tuesday, demanding the death penalty for six men accused of raping a nine-month-old girl. The baby's 16-year-old mother had left her in the care of a friend. The crime has shocked South Africa, which with about 21,000 cases has one of the world's highest rates of child rape, most committed by male relatives of the victims. The attacks are fuelled by the myth that sex with a virgin will protect a man against AIDS or even cure him of the incurable disease. Calls have grown for the government to reintroduce the death penalty, which was ended for all crimes, after the end of the apartheid era of white minority rule in 1994. Russia has destroyed the last Ukrainian nuclear warhead, handed over under a 1994 three-way disarmament deal with the United States, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. The Russian leader, who is currently making his first official visit to the United States, said Ukraine's nuclear-free policy boosted the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Under the 1994 pact Ukraine agreed to hand over all its nuclear rockets, warheads and nuclear-capable bombers to Russia for destruction. Ukraine inherited the weapons following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Turkey's security forces raided two Istanbul districts on Tuesday to end a hunger strike that has cost more than 40 lives and spotlighted the country's poor human rights record. In one district, police fought about 50 people, who threw stones and petrol bombs. A second operation led to the arrest of seven hunger strikers and many of their supporters. The raidscame eight days after security forces dragged away four dead bodies in a similar swoop on the homes of hunger strikers. The hunger-strikes began last year to oppose inmate transfers from old dormitory-type jails to new cell-style prisons, where critics say inmates will be subject to isolation and abuse by police. The European Union wants Turkey to improve its poor human rights record, before starting membership talks. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
