Deutsche Welle
English Service News
03rd January, 2001, 16:00 UTC
Afghan authorities release some 250 taliban prisoners
Afghanistan's new government on Thursday released about 250 Taliban
prisoners, some of them captured as long as five years ago by the
Northern Alliance. An official of the International Committee of
the Red Cross said the new government had asked his organisation to
arrange for the prisoners to be sent home after their release from a
Kabul prison.The new government has pledged to go easy on
rank and file Taliban fighters and only punish the leadership ,
including Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is still at large. Meanwhile,
Afghan militias, allied with US troops say they are trying to
negotiate the surrender of Mullah Omar, who's thought to be hiding
in the rugged Helmand province, north of Kandahar, protected by up
to 1,000 heavily armed Taliban.The whereabouts of Al Qaeda's leader
Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, remains unknown.
Pakistan tells China it wants peace.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf told China's Premier Rongji on
Thursday his country hopes for peace and was willing to work to
ease current tensions with India through dialogue. Mr.Musharraf was
in Beijing, enroute to the South Asia summit in Nepal, as the
United States and China urged nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to
use diplomacy to prevent their crisis escalating into war. His
visit to old ally China, the second in as many weeks,comes as
Pakistan's and Indian forces face off in the biggest military
buildup along their border in nearly 15 years. Exchanges of gunfire
occur almost daily. Relations between the two nuclear rivals took a
turn for the worse after the December 13th attack on India's
parliament which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based Kashmiri
separatist groups.
Fourteen killed in Nepal crackdown of Maoist rebels
Twelve Maoist rebels and two soldiers were killed in separate
gunbattles in Nepal on the eve of a South Asian summit in the
Nepali capital, the defence ministry said on Thursday. Security has
been tightened in Nepal ahead of the three-day summit of seven
South Asian nations including India and Pakistan which gets under
way in Kathmandu on Friday. Maoist rebels are trying to set up a
one-party communist republic in Nepal, the world's only Hindu
kingdom and trying to topple the constitutional monarchy. The
rebellion which started in 1996 has so far claimed over 2,200 lives.
Blair urges Bangladesh to join Afghan force
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday urged Bangladesh to
contribute troops to the international stabilisation force in
Afghanistan. Arriving in Dhaka for talks with Bangladeshi leaders
at the start of a South Asian tour that will also take him to India and
Pakistan, Mr. Blair said it was important that Muslim nations in the
region made a contribution to the force. A reconnaissance
team from 12 nations contributing to the security force in Kabul
began inspecting the city on Wednesday.
Zambia to invoke Public Order Laws
Zambian police said on Thursday they would invoke public order laws
to put down planned demonstrations against the election of new
president Levy Mwanawasa, after he said such protests amounted to
treason. Ten opposition parties have accused the ruling Movement
for Multiparty Democracy of fixing Mr. Mwanawasa's victory. Police
had clashed with demonstrators in Lusaka and the copperbelt city of
Kitwe on Wednesday.The Public Order Act, a legacy of British
colonial rule gives them power to detain people without trial for
long periods in the interest of state security, to ban meetings and
to seal off townships to prevent people travelling. European
observers said the election had clear, glaring irregularities.
Australian fires still out of control
Bushfires raged from the mountains to the sea on Australia's east
coast on Thursday as thousands of firefighters ended their 11th day
of battling more than 100 fires with no rain in sight. Anger with
the arsonists blamed for lighting many of the fires is rising and
Australians are urging stiffer penalties for whom some are calling
the country's real terrorists. Some 10,000 firefighters are facing
fires on fronts totalling 2,000 km . The fires have destroyed 160
homes and burned an area twice the size of greater London, but
there have been no deaths. Arsonists in New South Wales face a
maximum of 14 years jail.
Cold grips Europe
Plunging temperatures killed 10 people in Moscow overnight into
Thursday in a cold spell that even saw snow fall on palm trees
along Russia's sub-tropical Black Sea coast. Central Europe
meanwhile dug its way out of snowdrifts from the worst blizzards in
15 years and road and rail travel remained hazardous. Avalanche
warnings were posted in mountain resorts. In Poland, temperatures
sank to minus 20 Celsius . Five major southern roads remained
closed, down from 40 on Wednesday. Temperatures sank to minus 22
Celsius in northern Italy's Dolomites region and farmers said the
cold had damaged fruit and flower plantings in the Liguria region.
Israel eases blockade
Israel eased its military stranglehold on parts of the West Bank on
Thursday, but seized at least five suspected militants in fresh
raids into Palestinian territory, just hours ahead of the arrival
of a U.S. peace envoy. Anthony Zinni, a former Marine Corps
general, was due to launch his second mission aimed at forging a
lasting truce, after a sharp decline in violence in the past two
weeks. Israel took steps toward easing its economically crippling
blockade after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrested scores of
militants belonging to groups behind the violence.But Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon still insists that Mr. Arafat would not be
allowed to leave Ramallah until he arrested the killers of a
far-right cabinet minister, who was assassinated in October to
avenge Israel's killing of a militant leader.
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