The Ottawa treaty is part of the international response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the global proliferation of anti-personnel mines. Millions of these deadly weapons are already contaminating more than 70 countries, creating one of the most serious man-made problems of our time. Their longterm impact upon individuals, communities, and entire societies is startling. Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, countries from all regions of the world voluntarily came together in 1997 and negotiated the Ottawa treaty, an international agreement comprehensively banning the

Walker told a press conference in Prishtina on 30 November that he expects all 2,000 unarmed OSCE "verifiers" to have arrived in Kosova by 1 January. He added that "bringing in 2,000 people from 54 countries is not an easy function. We will be up and operational in a very robust fashion within the next few weeks." Walker also noted that a political settlement must be in place before the monitors can begin one of their most important tasks, namely organizing elections for offices to be determined in the political settlement. U.S. envoy Chris

ITAR-TASS reported on 29 November that there is a critical shortage in Tajikistan of supplies necessary for the winter. Compared with 1997, Tajikistan's coal supplies are down by half and domestic heating oil by 21 percent. Industries purchased less than half the oil they did in 1997, when there were also shortages. The government cannot afford to purchase additional supplies. Consumer goods are also reported to be in short supply, but 98 percent of those goods are dealt with by the private sector. Also, the government has already rationed electricity supplies to homes and industries. BP

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that rocked remote islands in eastern Indonesia has jumped to 25 as search teams find more dead and injured.

Another 89 people were injured, 23 seriously, and hundreds of buildings destroyed when the quake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale hit Mangole island just before midnight on Sunday.

Most of the deaths were on the westen part of Mangole, a timber producing island of 38,000 people near the quake's epicentre and 2,010 miles northeast of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Mosques, churches and a timber factory

BAGHDAD, Dec 1 (AFP) - Iraq has handed its new food distribution plan to the United Nations, despite complaining that the "oil-for-food" accord fails to meet its humanitarian needs, a UN spokesman said here Tuesday.

George Somerwill, spokesman for the UN humanitarian programme, said Iraq delivered the new plan on Saturday at the United Nations.

An additional 1,500 pages of annexes on food, medicine and other supplies were handed over to the offices of the UN humanitarian coordinator in Baghdad, Hans von Sponeck.

Somerwill told AFP that the annexes were

HANOI, Dec 1 (AFP) - Emergency aid of 13 million dollars is to be distributed to typhoon-ravaged coastal regions of central Vietnam, a report said on Tuesday.

Typhoons Chip, Dawn, Elvis, which struck 700 kilometers (110 miles) of central coastline between November 11 and 26, claimed 267 lives, with a further 16 missing, the Vietnam News said.

The death toll from Typhoon Dawn, which hit the coast in late November, was 211, with 73 injured and 12 missing, mostly fisherman caught at sea.

The typhoon, the deadliest and most destructive since 1964, left two million people homeless.

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 30 (AFP) - One month after Hurricane Mitch roared through Honduras, officials are struggling to come up with precisely how many thousands of people are dead or missing.

"We don't know exactly how many died" in the floods and landslides triggered by Mitch's torrential rains in the last week of October, presidential spokesman Frederico Duarte conceded Monday.

The preliminary figure for dead and missing stands at 14,000, but it could change.

Amid press reports that it had inflated the death toll, the government announced that it would release more specific

JOHANNESBURG, 1 December (IRIN) - South African President Nelson Mandela pledged on Tuesday that Pretoria would work closely with neighbouring countries and the UN in the fight against AIDS.
In a speech marking World AIDS Day, Mandela disclosed new government figures showing that 1,500 people a day were being diagnosed with the disease in South Africa where the number of those infected currently tops three million.

In remarks delivered at Mtubatuba, in KwaZulu/Natal province, the area worst-affected by AIDS in South

The Political Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has drafted a proposal recommending Georgia's acceptance as a full member of that body, Reuters and ITAR-TASS reported on 30 November. The proposal characterizes Georgia as a pluralistic, democratic state but sets conditions for full membership, including ratifying the European Human Rights Convention and the framework convention on national minorities, and taking measures to safeguard the freedom of the press and improve the work of local authorities. Georgian press reports had suggested