 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Profile Travel Books Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Name row
EGYPTIAN Foreign Minister Amr Moussa yesterday left for Algeria and Morocco on a two-day visit aimed at trying to settle a procedural dispute over the Africa-European Union Summit scheduled to be hosted by Cairo in April.Algeria, the current chair of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), insists the name of the organisation, which is co-sponsoring the summit with the EU, should be included in the summit's title. Morocco, which suspended its membership in the OAU in protest against its recognition of the independence of the Western Sahara, has said it was not keen on attending a summit co-hosted by the OAU even though the Western Sahara will not attend.
Relations between Algeria and Morocco have been tense over the Western Sahara dispute which threatens to undermine the summit.
Crew escape
FOUR crew members of the hijacked Afghan jet grounded at London's Stansted airport dramatically escaped early yesterday, amid speculation of an asylum motive for the hijacking.The four men, who made their daring escape from the Boeing 727 using an emergency exit window in the cockpit, were identified as the captain, his deputy, a navigation officer and a flight engineer. The escape led to a breakdown in negotiations and the hostage-takers pushed out of the plane a flight steward held among the hostages. A police spokesman said calm was later restored.
The Ariana Airlines jet was hijacked four days ago during a domestic flight in Afghanistan. Interviews with hostages released from the plane in the past two days showed that there were between six and 10 armed hijackers and more than 150 hostages, including 17 women and 21 children.
Officially, London police have said the hijackers made no political demands, but the Daily Mail reported that they might be requesting political asylum and said a London-based representative of the UN refugee agency UNHCR arrived at Stansted yesterday.
Support rate
US SECRETARY of State Madeleine Albright told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that the Pentagon will accelerate its programme to provide training and material assistance to the opposition Iraqi National Congress at a rate commensurate with the organisation's capacity to absorb this support.Questioned by committee members on the slow progress in mobilising opposition in Iraq, Albright said that internal divisions continued to hamper the movement but insisted that Washington remains committed to a "regime change" in Iraq -- a goal that is the second component of the US "containment" policy towards the country adopted in 1998. The US Congress has allocated approximately $100 million to finance the activities of the Iraqi opposition.
