Deutsche Welle English Service News 17. 12. 2002, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Iraqi Report Could Prove Damaging to Germany Iraq's declaration of its weapons programs contains explosive news for Germany, a Berlin paper has reported. The dossier is said to detail covert arms deals between German defense firms and Iraq. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_716376_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Iraqi dissidents rally to federal plan Leaders of Iraqi dissident groups reached agreement in London on Tuesday on plans for a post-Saddam Hussein era. They agreed to form a joint 65-member body that would follow the ouster of Saddaam Hussein, which would also pave the way for eventual free political activity in Iraq. But the organizers stressed the follow-up committee would not be a transitional government, saying such a government would be formed in Baghdad after Saddam's downfall, not in London. The united opposition also called for a democratic and federal Iraq, after the ousting of the Iraqi president. A source close to the US team confirmed that Washington did not want the Iraqi opposition to set up a provisional government. China to invite UN human rights experts immediately China announced Tuesday in talks with the United States that it would allow the visits of three United Nations human rights experts to report on the state of torture, arbitrary arrests and religious freedom in China, a US official said. The announcement came during two days of human rights dialogue Monday and Tuesday between China and the United States. During the talks the United States also handed over a list of 298 prisoners in Chinese jails that Washington believes are being held as political prisoners and urged Beijing to review their cases. China has long maintained a dismal record in all three areas of rights abuse, with international human rights groups often accusing Chinese police of routinely arresting people arbitrarily and torturing confessions out of them. ENERGY-VENEZUELA Despite efforts by Venezuelan President Chavez to break the 16-day general strike, oil shipments by the world's No. 5 crude exporter remained virtually paralyzed on Tuesday.The stoppage has cut Venezuelan oil output to less than a fourth of the 3 million barrels per day produced in November and has cut off more than 13 percent of the crude imported daily by the United States, the world's biggest consumer. President Chavez has to tried to use replacement workers, including military officers, to restart the oil industry, but only three oil tankers have been dispatched in more than a week. Death toll rises from Liberian ferry disaster More than 80 bodies have been pulled from a lake in Liberia after an overloaded ferry capsized and the final death toll is expected to be far higher, government officials said on Tuesday. The wooden ferry pitched its nearly 200 passengers into Lake Piso near the coastal town of Robertsport over the weekend, as they returned from the funeral of a popular local footballer. Only 15 survivors were rescued. The ferry normally carries less than 100 people.Survivors said the captain pleaded with passengers crowding onto the boat to get off but they refused. The ferry had started rocking as soon as it set off back to Robertsport.The boat's captain was one of the survivors. Congo parites sign peace deal Warring parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement in South Africa on Tuesday to end the four-year-old civil war that has drawn in six foreign armies and killed an estimated two million people. After months of stop-and-go talks, negotiators for the Congolese government, rebel factions, opposition parties and civil groups reached agreement that all hoped would put Africa's third biggest country on the road to a transitional government and new elections, officials said.Some 70 negotiators signed the deal in Pretoria.Under the Congo agreement, President Joseph Kabila will remain in office. Four new vice presidents will be drawn from the government, the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy, the Ugandan-backed Movement for the Liberation of Congo and opposition groups. The plan also calls for new elections in the country in about two years. Albright speaks in support of indicted Bosnian Serb leader Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright on Tuesday praised former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic for her commitment to end the Bosnian war. The most senior US official to give evidence at the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, she was a key witness in the three-day sentencing hearing for Mrs. Plavsic. Mrs. Albright said she found the hardline views of pro-Serb nationalists such as Mrs. Plasvic repugnant. But she praised the Bosnian Serb leader for breaking away from other hardliners, in her support of the 1995 Dayton peace accord which ended the three-year war. But it was obvious she said that Mrs.Plavsic was involved in horrendous things. Mrs. Albright also evoked the barbarity of rapes and summary executions of the Bosnian war, drawing parallels with World War II, which she experienced as a child in Prague. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information please turn to our internet website at http://dw-world.de/english Here you'll find out what's happening in Germany, Europe and the rest of the world. News and background reports from the fields of current affairs, culture, business and science. And of course the DW website also has information about DW-RADIO and DW-TV programmes: topics, broadcast times and frequencies. You can even listen to all programmes as audio-on-demand. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
