Egypt opens border with Libya:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Wednesday ordered Immediate opening of the country's borders with Libya and the cabinet was busy working on details for carrying out the order, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported. Xinhua from Cairo says.
During the one-day visit. Mubarak and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi discussed their countries' bilateral relations in addition to the Middle peace process.
Libyan citizens will be allowed free passage but incoming motor vehicles will have to be registered at the border checkpoints. MENA said, quoting Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif.
Cabinet members were also discussing long-term cooperation with Libya in security, transport, public health and agriculture, the official added.
2 Lakh Burmese evacuated.
n, country's worst floods in 50 years have inundated more than 44.000 houses in southwestern Burma and forced the evacuation of more than 210.000 people, a state-owned newspaper reported Wednesday, reports AP from Rangoon.
The Working People's Daily said one person was feared drowned In the flooding in the Irrawaddy delta region.
Rivers swollen by heavy July rains burst their banks in the fertile delta and flooded more than 200.000 acres (80.000 hectares) of rice fields, the newspaper said.
The flooding affected 1,386 villages In seven townships, the brief report said, inundating schools, hospitals and rice warehouses.
Rall and road traffic was Interrupted and schools and government offices in the region had suspended activities. It said.
US builds wall along Mexico
The US army is building a steel wall along the Mexican border and hopes to complete the work "in no time.’ according to a defence department letter released on Tuesday, reports Reuter from Washington.
Military engineers are welding steel planking to the border fence to deny access to drug traffickers, who in the past would simply drive their trucks through the wire - fencing, according to a congressional spokesman.
Iraq experimented with anthrax:
Iraq has admit!ted it experimented with anthrax — one of the most deadly known diseases - as part of a biological weapons research programme, the UN's chief germ warfare Inspector said Tuesday. AP reports from Baghdad.
David Kelly, leader of a 28-member biological warfare Inspection team, said there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein's military had produced biological weapons but added that the level or research seen so far was "not inconsistent with that capability."
In a formal declaration to Kelly's group when it arrived in Baghdad Friday. Iraqi authorities acknowledged that research had been conducted on biological weapons. But they declared Iraq did not have such weapons and had not produced any.
Kelly disclosed for the first time Tuesday that Iraq also acknowledged that anthrax and Clostridium botulin, which produces deadly neurotoxins, had been used in the research.
Anthrax spores enter the body through Inhalation afid multiply, producing poisons that cause the veins in the lungs to hemmhorage.-The spores can survive being launched In an artillery shell, rocket or bomb.
Rockefeller won't seek presidency:
us Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia has decided not to run for the Democratic Presidential nomination next year, two television networks said on Tuesday. Reuter from Washington reports. .
CBS and NBC said they had learned of Rockefeller's decision but gave no other details.
Rockefeller s press aide would not confirm or deny the reports saying Rockefeller would make the announcement on his decision at a press conference in West Virginia at noon on Wednesday
Menem loosens protectionism :
vn President Dan Quayle signed agreements with Argentina for satellite technology, tourism and mining development that signalled President Carlos Menem's loosening of longstanding protectionist policies, reports AP from Buenos Aires.
Quayle sought to give Menem, whose popularity is sagging in the polis, a political boost by praising his programme of
"On behalf of President George Bush, let me congratulate you on the progress you have made for the people of Argentina." Quayle said. "We have great confidence in you personally and ... for the bright future of the people of Argentina
In private talks. Menem criticized the United States for selling hundreds of thousands of tons of subsidized wheat to Brazil and other potential customers of Argentine farmers. Quayle said
Quayle said the subsidy programme was not "aimed at the people of Argentina nor the hard working farmers Who produce these commodities ' but was Intended to pressure the European Community to reduce its farm subsidies
Ceasefire deadline goes in Croatia :
War torn areas of the Croatian republic were reported quiet early Wednesday as a new. unconditional cease-fire proclaimed by Yugoslavia s federal presidency took effect, reports AP from Zagreb.
Croatian security sources tn Ostjek. the regional centre of Croatia's Sahonia region, reported overnight gunfire in the towns of Vukovar and Bell Manastir. But they said they had no reports of fighting as the cease-fire deadline passed
Late Tuesday night, as the cease fire was being proclaimed, Serb militiamen unleashed a mortar attack that for the first time damaged residential areas of Osljek
Macedonia calls polls on freedom :
Macedonia has become the latest Yugoslav republic to announce a referendum on independence and the poll has been set for September 8. the dally newspaper Borba said Wednesday reports AFP from Belgrade.
The paper said the decision to hold the referendum was reached after two days of stormy debate in the southern republics' parliament.