Israel reopens border with Egypt: Israel on Wednesday reopened the border with Egypt to allow stranded Palestinians into the Gaza Strip but it continued to turn away trucks carrying food and other imports Egyptian officials said. AFP reports from Rafah.
Israel is still maintaining its closure since last Wednesday of the Rafah post of vehicles transporting Egyptian products to the Palestinian autonomous territories, said border official Mosaad Badawi. It has turned out that the reopening Wednesday morning by the Israeli authorities of the border post applies only to Palestinians and not to goods, he said.
Albanian shot dead in Italy:
Albanian man recovering from a shooting last month was shot to death in his hospital bed Wednesday in violence police linked to drug dealing in Milan, AP says from Milan.
Three Albanians walked up to hospital employees to find out the room number of the orthopedic ward where Jeamal Kumbaro. 28. was recovering from a leg wound, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Then one of the trio walked into the room and openea fire, the report said. Two visitors In the room dove under the bed for cover and escaped injury, ANSA said.
NZ health minister sacked: n™ Zealand's one seat majority coalition government was yesterday thrown into a crisis when associate health minister Neil Kirton was sacked from his post in a row over the hiring of his brother-in-law for an advertising campaign. AFP reports from Wellington.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who heads the junior New Zealand first coalition partner, said he sacked Kirton for breaching an agreement not to speak to media. "This morning Kirton went on radio in disregard to that instruction and accordingly I have dismissed him." Peters said. Kirton had no immediate comment.
Typhoon 'Victor' claims 65 so far: sixty five j^ople died and more than 300 were injured when Typhoon Victor scoured China’s south qoast last weekend with deadly rain$ that t riggereeffloods and landslides, an official report Said Thursday. AP reports from Beijing.
Estimates of damage and casualties have continued to rise as officials tally losses from remote parts of southern Guangdong province. Earlier reports had put the number killed at 49. Total economic losses from the Typhoon, which destroyed or damaged more than 85,000 homes and inundated more than 850.000 hectares (2 million acres) of farmland, have risen to more than 2 billion yuan (dlrs 241 million), the newspaper China Daily reported.
US official to meet Jiang Zemin: US National Security adviser Sandy Berger win meet Chinese President Jiang Zemin in China next week to discuss preparations for an October summit, the White House said on Wednesday. Reuter reports from Washington.
Spokeswoman Anne Luzzatto said Berger would depart on Saturday for Beijing and would have talks with Jiang and other Chinese leaders before returning to Washington next Wednesday.
ADB to set up mission in Lanka: 1 he Manila-based Asian Development Bank has decided to set up a resident mission in Sri Lanka, to facilitate loan transactions, a government official said Thursday, AP reports from Colombo.
The planned mission follows a request by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. the official said.
Jakarta urged not to build N-plant: a., environmental group called on the government Thursday to abandon all plans to build nuclear power plants and not just postpone construction. AP reports from Jakarta.
Lastweek the government announced it had shelved plans to build the first of several nuclear power plants by early next