February 2001 World Headlines

Friday, February 23, 2001 - Web posted at 8:19:42 AM GMT

World News Summary

JOHANNESBURG - Organised South African agriculture and leaders of a whites-only enclave rejected offers of help from the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan in the United States against brutal attacks on white farmers.

An umbrella group representing 31,000 white and 32,000 black farmers, Agri South Africa, said it was working closely with the government to halt attacks and murders of predominantly white farmers and would not welcome the Klan's involvement.

*LONDON - An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in England sparked alarmacross the world, prompting governments to impose immediate import bans on British livestock and animal products in an effort to halt its spread.

The European Union, the United States, Canada and South Korea led the way in announcing quick crackdowns on Wednesday after Britain disclosed that the highly infectious disease had been found in a small group of pigs at an English abattoir.

*MAPUTO - Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano visited flood-hit centralMozambique, where state radio reported hundreds of people were stranded in treetops awaiting rescue and aid.

Chissano made the trip a day after his government appealed for US$30 million in aid as the southern African nation battled fresh floods that have killed 41 people and forced thousands to flee their homes.

*KAMPALA - Ugandan police released a senior aide of President Yoweri Museveni's main challenger in next month's election one day after his controversial arrest.

Okwir Rabwoni told newspapers after his release that he had withdrawn for a second time from the campaign team of Kizza Besigye, who is gaining ground rapidly on Museveni according to some opinion polls.

*CAIRO - Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, arrested this week for reaching an agreement with southern rebels, had expected to be detained, the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

Turabi and his aides were arrested in Khartoum on Wednesday.

The government said they would be questioned about a memorandum of understanding signed with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the main rebel group in the 18-year-old civil war.

*MADRID - A car exploded killing two people and injuring at least three others in the Spanish city of San Sebastian in an attack that bore the hallmarks of the Basque separatist group ETA, officials said.

The powerful explosion came just two days after the Basque government called an early election in the region.

*TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, under intense pressure to resign over a string of gaffes and scandals, faced a new threat after a report that a heavyweight in his party could face bribery charges.

Mori, one of Japan's least popular prime ministers ever, is struggling to cling to his post amid calls to step down from lawmakers in the ruling camp who fear he will lead them to certain defeat in a July election for parliament's Upper House.

*NEW DELHI - India dropped month-by-month renewals of its Kashmir ceasefire, extending the suspension of hostilities against militants in the troubled Himalayan territory by a further three months.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told the lower house of parliament that the three-month-old truce would now run until the end of May.

Nampa-Reuters