February 2001 World Headlines

Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - Web posted at 9:10:17 AM GMT

World News Summary

UNITED NATIONS - With fighting subsiding in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations intends to reduce sharply the number of peacekeepers it had planned to deploy, but dispatch them much sooner to the vast central African nation.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the undersecretary-general in charge of peacekeeping, said the world body had to build on the longest period of subdued fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo since a 1999 ceasefire pact.

*KAMPALA - Ugandans will have to hold a run-off election to choose between incumbent President Yoweri Museveni and his closest challenger, Kizza Besigye, according to an opinion poll released on Tuesday.

The poll, commissioned by the independent Monitor newspaper and managed by Kenyan company, Strategic Public Relations and Research Limited of Nairobi, found that Museveni had 46,8 per cent support, with Besigye close behind with 42,6 per cent.

The winning candidate must secure more than 50 per cent of the total vote, or a run-off will have to be held.

*UNITED NATIONS - West African foreign ministers asked a wary UN Security Council to delay threatened sanctions against Liberian diamonds for two months as well as help finance a refugee rescue operation in Guinea.

The ministers, who travelled to New York from Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, said the United Nations should give financial support 90 days after they mounted a peacekeeping operation to save Sierra Leone and Liberian refugees trapped in cross-fire in Guinea.

*LONDON - BP Amoco is to publish a range of information about its oil operations in war-torn Angola in a step a human rights group said was a good example for other energy giants in their dealings with the African country.

The Global Witness group said it had been informed by BP that it would publish total net production by block, aggregate payments to state oil firm Sonangol related to production sharing and total taxes and levies paid to the government as a result of operations.

*MANILA - Deposed Philippine leader Joseph Estrada has failed to answer allegations that he committed major crimes, making his trial on corruption and other charges more likely, senior state prosecutors said.

Estrada, ousted from power in a popular revolt on January 20, is under investigation for alleged economic plunder - an offence punishable by death - and for bribery and corruption.

BEIJING - China dismissed as "rumour and hearsay" a report by the human rights group Amnesty International accusing it of widespread and increasing torture of prisoners and detainees."

"Amnesty International often makes irresponsible remarks about China based on rumour and hearsay," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told a news conference.

- Nampa-Reuters-Sapa-AFP

•   UK doctors planned 'wholesale' bombing
•  Pope defends Pius XII over Holocaust
•   Le Clezio wins Nobel literature prize
•   New SA party needs strong leaders to challenge ANC
•   Dems hopeful economic crisis will secure landslide
•   Bombs aimed at police kill 10, hurt 14