Deutsche Welle
English Service News
07th January, 2001, 16:00 UTC
Violence on Kashmiri border continues as Blair arrives in Pakistan
Four Pakistani civilians have been wounded by Indian shelling, this
is according to police sources, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair
arrived in Pakistan on a mission to defuse tension between the
hostile neighbours. One Indian and five Pakistani soldiers were also
killed along the line of control in Kashmir in a fresh exchange of
fire between troops of the two countries. Fearing a conflict, some
20,000 Pakistani villagers have reportedly fled their homes near the
border with India in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir over
the last week. Blair is to hold talks with President Pervez Musharraf
on the military standoff with India. His trip follows talks in New
Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who Blair said
was willing to talk with Pakistan if it rejected terrorism in all its
forms.
Solana takes up talks in Middle East
A senior European Union official, picking up where a U.S. envoy left
off, has pursued talks with Israel and the Palestinians in the latest
international effort to build on a lull in violence. But a row
continued to rage between Israel and the Palestinians over the
Israeli military's seizure of a ship which it said was carrying
Iranian-supplied arms to the Palestinian Authority, an allegation the
Authority and Tehran denied. Javier Solana, the European Union's top
foreign policy official, followed fast on a four-day visit by U.S.
Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni, who is trying to end 15 months of
bloodshed. Zinni flew home after brokering security talks between
Israeli and Palestinian representatives. He is scheduled to return
next week.
U.S. jets bomb suspected al Qaeda training camps
U.S. jets have bombed suspected Osama bin Laden training camps in
eastern Afghanistan and on the ground special forces have pursued
scattered fighters of the al Qaeda network set up by the world's most
wanted man. British paratroopers arrived in Kabul to bolster a
foreign force with a United Nations mandate to ensure security in a
capital battered by years of civil war and by U.S. jets in the last
few months. In another devlopment tribal elders in Khost in eastern
Paktia province postponed a meeting to decide what to do with a
teenager believed to have shot the first U.S. soldier killed in the
war when the 14-year-old disappeared.
Scharping praises role of German armed forces in Afghanistan
German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping has highlighted the
international responsibility of the German armed forces in the
Afghanistan mission a day before an advance team leaves for Kabul.
Scharping wrote in commentary in the mass-circulation tabloid
newspaper "Bild", that Bundeswehr troops came as "helpers" not as
"occupiers". He added that the fight against the Taliban and
international terror had still not been won yet. But the German
minister said a lot had been achieved, especially the respect of
basic rights for women and children. An advance force of 70 German
and 30 Dutch paratroopers are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan on
Tuesday, after heavy snow in Turkey delayed the military operation by
24 hours.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation pledges to combat terror
China, Russia and four Central Asian states, seeking to revive their
role in the global war on terror, have pledged to combat terrorism in
all forms at home and abroad. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
also hailed the demise of the Taliban regime, hoping it would end
Afghanistan's days as a source of terror and narcotics, and stressed
there should be no meddling in the country's affairs. Meeting for the
first time since the former Shanghai Five welcomed Uzbekistan last
June and renamed itself, the ministers also established a
crisis-response mechanism under which they would meet to coordinate
positions and consider joint action.
Argentina hopes currency devaluation will reverse recession
President Eduardo Duhalde has bet on currency devaluation to reverse
a recession despite fears it could boomerang into inflation and
corruption as Argentines began to raise prices, hoard goods and hunt
for black market dollars. Duhalde, a populist Peronist power broker
offering himself as political savior for the poor after food riots
shook Latin America's No. 3 economy, decreed on Sunday a devaluation
of the one-to-one peso peg to the dollar by nearly 30 percent.
Duhalde, the fifth president since mid-December, hopes the
devaluation will cheapen exports and labor, unshackling an economy
from a peg blamed for a four-year recession that has already heralded
the biggest sovereign debt default ever.
Italy's Berlusconi tries to contain damage over Ruggiero
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, critisized over the
resignation of his foreign minister, has sought to reassure sceptics
at home and abroad that his government was committed to a strong
Europe. Two days after the surprise resignation of Renato Ruggiero,
Berlusconi chose Italy's leading newspaper, the Corriere della Sera,
to attempt some damage control. In an interview, Berlusconi also made
clear that he would hold the foreign affairs portfolio himself for at
least six months,- longer than many had expected,- because he wanted
to make major changes at the ministry and make it more pro-business.
Central African Ebola death toll creeps higher
An outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 24 people in the central
African countries of Gabon and Congo Republic and nine more have the
deadly disease. The World Health Organisation said the death toll has
been creeping up since the first death was reported a month ago and
Gabon decided on Saturday to seal off its northeast province of
Ogooue-Ivindo to help contain the deadly virus. In neighbouring
Congo, seven of the 13 people to contract the virus have died.
Ebola is passed on through contact with body fluids and 90 percent of
those it infects bleed to death within days. There is no vaccine and
no cure.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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