 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
The world in briefCompiled from Times wires © St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2001 Myanmar junta starts talks with Suu KyiUNITED NATIONS -- Myanmar's military junta and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- bitter rivals since the junta took power 13 years ago and violently crushed a democratic uprising -- have launched face-to-face talks, the United Nations announced Tuesday. It was the first confirmation that Suu Kyi and the Southeast Asian nation's military rulers have ever spoken. The announcement came hours after U.N. envoy Razali Ismail concluded a five-day mission to Myanmar, where he met with the military government and with Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner. "During his mission, Mr. Razali was able to confirm that the two sides had started a direct dialogue since last October," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. He said the sides are "satisfied with the results achieved so far in the area of confidence building" and are expected to start more substantive discussions on national reconciliation soon. German officials quit over mad cow diseaseBERLIN -- Germany's health and agriculture ministers resigned Tuesday amid allegations that they mishandled the country's growing mad cow disease crisis. "I must acknowledge that the confidence of German citizens in the government's ability to solve the crisis has been shaken," said Health Minister Andrea Fischer, a member of the Green Party. Agriculture Minister Karl-Heinz Funke also resigned, saying he wanted to "clear the way for a new beginning." For years, Germany insisted that its herds were free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which experts have linked to a new variant of its human equivalent, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. However, a first case of BSE was identified in a German cow in November, and the number of confirmed cases rose to 10 Tuesday. A government commission began work Monday on a plan to combat the disease in Germany with the aim of issuing recommendations on consumer protection by summer. Pinochet to undergo medical examinationSANTIAGO, Chile -- Gen. Augusto Pinochet has dropped his earlier opposition and agreed to undergo medical tests and submit to questioning by a judge, opening the door to a possible renewal of his indictment on homicide and kidnapping charges. Lawyers for the 85-year-old former dictator said he was returning to Santiago from his countryside residence Tuesday for the medical tests and questioning by the judge seeking to try him. Judge Juan Guzman indicted Pinochet last month, but the Supreme Court dropped the homicide and kidnapping charges because Guzman failed to interrogate Pinochet first, as required by law. Pinochet's defense expects that the medical tests, due to start today, will convince Guzman that the general's deteriorated health won't even allow for an interrogation. Russia won't make all payments on huge debtMOSCOW -- Playing hardball with Western governments to win further debt relief, Russia confirmed Tuesday that it does not intend to make all of its scheduled repayments this quarter to the Paris Club of creditor nations. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said his government failed to budget to meet its full repayment obligations and that he has asked Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to quickly begin negotiations with the Paris Club members. "Uncertainty concerning the sources of additional revenue is growing," the prime minister was quoted as saying. He said the harsh winter in eastern Russia and Siberia is putting a strain on government finances. Most analysts see the Russian action as a tactic to press Western governments to grant more lenient terms for repayment of Russia's Paris Club liabilities, which were inherited from the Soviet Union and total $48-billion.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
