February 2001 World Headlines

Thursday, February 8, 2001 - Web posted at 9:40:51 AM GMT

World News Summary

* WASHINGTON - President George W.Bush has decided to shut own the White House offices on AIDS policy and race relations, angering activists who say the move sends the wrong signal about his commitment to those issues, USA Today has reported.

* LONDON - A senior UN official this week asks European oil majors involved in Angola to consider using their clout with the African country's government in helping end 25 years of civil war.

"What we are saying (to the oil companies) is 'be an ally in the peace process'," Ibrahim Gambari, an undersecretary-general for Africa, told Reuters in an interview.

* WASHINGTON - A few days after former vice president Al Gore conceded the US presidential election, he and former president Bill Clinton had what sources described as a "blunt" exchange, the Washington Post reported.

In what sources close to both men described as uncommonly blunt language, Gore forcefully told Clinton that his sex scandal and low personal approval ratings were a major impediment to his presidential campaign, the Post said.

* BHUJ, India - Bereaved Hindus in the earthquake-ravaged town of Bhuj prayed for the dead in a ceremony that marked the end of mourning.

Many shops opened for the first time in almost two weeks, but as relief workers cleared mountains of rubble and prepared to demolish damaged homes, no one expected normal life to resume soon.

* DJIBOUTI - Djibouti's 70-year-old Prime Minister Barkat Gourat Hamadou said he had tendered his resignation on the grounds of ill health.

Barkat Gourat, who has been prime minister of the tiny Red Sea state for 22 years, spent six months in hospital in Paris last year after suffering a stroke which left him partially paralysed.

* MANILA - Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos filed a complaint of human rights violations against former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos, saying assets seized from her family after her husband was overthrown were legally acquired.

* DHAKA - Bangladesh was bracing for another day of violence as an opposition alliance called a strike to demand the overturning of a court ruling banning edicts that could subject women to torture for breaking Islamic law.

Nampa-Reuters

•  Angolan president sees big win and promises new constitution
•  India's Nano car threatened
•  Zimbabwe's opposition says lost faith in talks
•  Nato raids home of Mladic supporter
•  Russian actions in Georgian Republic 'illegitimate'
•  Israeli Police to recommend Olmert's indictment
•  Cosatu may become friend of court in Zuma case
•  India court orders security for Christians
•  Palin provides 'perfect populist pitch'
•  Poll: Media partisan
•  East Congo risks plunging back into war
•  Pakistan PM escapes assassination attempt
•  900 prisoners on hunger strike
•  Ex-wife stripped naked for friends
•  SADC leaders pay their respects to Mwanawasa
•  World's tallest building just got even taller
•  Russia shuts its embassy in Georgia
•  Child porn ring broken
•  Next US president must lead on climate
•  Palin takes centre stage at convention
•  Iraqi girl tells of ordeal as suicide bomber
•  Solange Knowles, so now
•  14 African migrants die on way to islands