February 2001 World Headlines

Tuesday, February 20, 2001 - Web posted at 9:29:47 AM GMT

World News Summary

*JOHANNESBURG - Inhabitants of central Mozambique were urged to flee to high ground as another river threatened to burst its banks under heavy rain.

Thousands of people have already fled their homes due to recent flooding, and the World Food Programme said the region was on further alert as the Save River rose after weekend rains.

*BAGHDAD - Iraq voiced defiance as it reported Western warplanes carrying out fresh patrols of its skies following last week's US and British air strikes near Baghdad.

*JERUSALEM - Israel's newly elected leader, Ariel Sharon, and outgoing PrimeMinister Ehud Barak were waging a joint battle to win support for a unity government amenable to peacemaking with the Palestinians.

*BELGRADE - Yugoslavia said it was still committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict near the Kosovo boundary despite a day of violence which left three Serb policemen and one ethnic Albanian guerrilla dead.

*TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, his support in tatters and his job on the line, rejected calls to resign soon and said he wanted to pass the 2001-02 budget and achieve an economic recovery.

*SEOUL - Hundreds of pipe-wielding workers protesting against forced layoffs at Daewoo Motor Co clashed with police outside the main factory as Korea's top economic official said the company needed foreign help to survive.

*COLOMBO - A machete-wielding mob attacked a Christian church in north central Sri Lanka, wounding several worshippers and wrecking the building, police and residents said.

*BHUJ, India - A tremor measuring 5,1 on the Richter scale struck India's western state of Gujarat, three weeks after the region was devastated by a killer earthquake, a meteorological official said.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.

*SUVA - Fiji's military commander told a court that the armed forces assumed power in May 1999 and overturned the country's two-year-old multi-ethnic constitution to prevent the total collapse of law andorder.

* - Floods, famine, epidemics and other disasters could hit rich and poor countries around the world in coming decades if the current rate of global warming persists, United Nations-backed scientists warned.

Nampa-Reuters