United States will do everything required for demilitarisation of the Kosovo liberating army, as this demilitarisation is stipulated by the resolution of the UN Security Council, the representative of the US State Department James Dobbins declared. The demilitarisation means that the Kosovo rebels have to hand out the heavy weapons to the officers of the peacemaking forces. Yesterday American marines disarmed a 200-persons group of fighters of the Kosovo liberating army under threat of use of force. According to the American captain David Ailand, six commanders of the Kosovo rebels were arrested. Last night, the representative of the peacemaking forces confirmed that the Serbian troops had left the southern regions of Kosovo. 26000 of Yugoslavian soldiers were withdrawn from the province. About 14000 of Yugoslavian soldiers are still there. According to the conditions of the peace treaty, the withdrawal of Serbian army from Kosovo is to be completed on Sunday.
The President of Russia Boris Yeltsin announced that the main issue of the negotiations of the Defence Ministers of Russia and USA in Helsinki is sectors for placement of the peacemaking forces. �They do not want to give Russia a sector,� Yeltsin said. He added, that he had ordered Igor Sergeev to inform the partners at the negotiations in Helsinki, about �his categorical disagreement with such an approach.� The US Defence Minister Koan announced, that in the result of the yesterday�s negotiations lasted for 8 hours, �some agreement on separate issues� had been achieved. Koan emphasised that to achieve an agreement, it was required to settle all the problems, including issue regarding the single command of the peacemaking contingent in Kosovo.
US and French Presidents Bill Clinton and Jack Shirak negotiated in Paris. Their attention was focused on the problem of peace regulating in Kosovo and perspective American-French relations. Bill Clinton emphasised closeness of the positions of USA and France during the NATO military operation in Yugoslavia and thanked France for activity directed to regulation of the conflict. The American president emphasised the importance of the mutual efforts for further stabilisation of the situation on the Balkans. Today Bill Clinton will arrive to Cologne, where the summit of �the big seven� and Russia is to be held.
After on Tuesday there was a battle in the Yellow Sea between the naval ships of North and South Korea, the situation in the Korean peninsula is still tensional. During this battle the North Korean motor-torpedo boat was sunk the United States sent two military ships and 4 intelligence planes to the conflict zone. Two nuclear submarines reached the South Korean ports. It arose decisive protests of Pyongyang. The authorities of the People�s Democratic Republic of Korea forbade visits to Pyongyang to all citizens of the South Korea and abandoned the ceremony of handing out the remains of American soldiers died during the Korean war in 1950 to 1953.
The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle announced his move to the western Kosovo and called Serbs not to leave the region. Pavle announced about this, in connection to the outcome of the Kosovo Serbs fearing vengeance of the returning Albanians. On Wednesday the regional orthodox bishop Artemy Rodoslavlevich left Prizren under protection of the German peacemakers. The Patriarch Pavle stated that he was going to settle in the town of Pech in the western Kosovo.
Number of the died during powerful earthquake in Mexico has come to 17 persons, 200 persons were wounded. However, according to the Mexican authorities, they have not received data about situation in the far-away regions. The force of the earthquake, which was felt in 10 states of the country, was equal to 6.7 according to Richter scale.
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