FRANCE: The head of the EU's Convention on the Future of Europe retreated yesterday from earlier controversial remarks that Turkish entry would spell the end of the European Union. "I did not say the entry of Turkey into the Union would spell its death," Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing told Le Figaro newspaper ahead of an EU summit in Copenhagen on Thursday which Turkey hopes will set a clear start date for membership talks.
"What I say is, first we must create the European Europe and afterwards we shall see," said the former French president. "Let's properly integrate the 10 new member states, then Romania and Bulgaria," he said in comments to be published today. Ten mostly eastern European states are due to join the 15-member bloc in 2004. - (Reuters)
SYDNEY: Conditions ease around bush fires
Australian fire authorities say conditions eased yesterday after Sydney's bush fire crisis shifted dramatically to the Blue Mountains, where helicopters used water bombs to stop a fresh blaze from reaching a historic landmark. Helitankers and dozens of ground crew battled fiercely before pushing back flames as high as 30 or 40 meters from the rambling 98-year-old Hydro Majestic hotel on the edge of the Megalong Valley in the Blue Mountains, 120 km west of Sydney. "It sounds like Apocalypse Now with so many helicopters overhead," Ms Jill Shepherd of the nearby Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre said. "We're losing our concentration."
The new outbreak occurred as 4,500 firefighters appeared to gain the upper hand in fighting raging fires which have killed one person and driven hundreds of residents from their homes, with about 50 houses now confirmed destroyed. "By tomorrow we should see this crisis begin to ease considerably," the Rural Fire Service Commissioner, Mr Phil Koperberg, said after firefighters beat the flames back from the Hydro. - (Reuters)
ABIDJAN:New rebels emerge in Ivory Coast
Rebels have pressed deeper into Ivory Coast's western cocoa-growing region as the West African country's embattled government urged young men to mobilise en masse to fight an increasingly messy civil war.The emergence of new rebel factions in the west of the world's largest cocoa producer has aggravated the creeping chaos in a country of 16 million which was already split after a failed coup in mid-September.
Hundreds died in four weeks of fighting after the attempted coup. Hundreds more were killed in battles in the west over the past week between rebels fighting to topple President Laurent Gbagbo and loyalist troops backed by mercenaries. Soldiers from former colonial power France said western factions had advanced 120 km east from the Liberian border and were closing in on the town of Guiglo. French soldiers are evacuating foreigners caught in the latest fighting, which has shattered an October 17th ceasefire they were monitoring. - (Reuters)
Kennedy defends quiz appearance
Liberal Democrat leader Mr Charles Kennedy has defended his decision to host an edition of the satirical television show Have I Got News For You, insisting that it would help convince stay-at-home young voters that they should take an interest in politics. Mr Kennedy's decision to become the latest in a string of celebrity presenters to take the helm of the BBC1 show after Angus Deayton's dismissal, surprised many at Westminster.
The Lib Dem leader has made considerable efforts to position his party as a credible alternative to the Conservatives as the "effective opposition" to Labour. Some observers suggested that he risked undermining that work by reviving the "chatshow Charlie" nickname he picked up after a series of TV appearances before becoming leader. - (Reuters)