[00:00.00] News No. 15

[00:07.31]At 18 hours universal time. Here is the news on the Voice of America.

[00:13.37]I'm Steve Norman in Washington.

[00:20.11]15.1   Serbian police have blocked antigovernment protesters from marching through the capital.

[00:24.74]Officers prevented more than 20,000 opposition supporters from marching through Belgrade after a rally in the city central square.

[00:31.95]The crowd later dispersed and no major incidents have been reported.

[00:35.42]The opposition has staged almost daily protests for five weeks now to pressure President Slohodan Milosevic

[00:41.27]to recognize local election races they won last month.

[00:44.93]15.2  Japan has welcomed the Peruvian government success of securing the release Saturday

[00:49.58]of twenty hostages held by rebels at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima,

[00:54.07]but a greater sense of urgency has developed since Japanese officials

[00:57.73]have received a letter from Japanese businessmen still being held captive.

[01:01.78]They say their situation is getting more dangerous by the day.

[01:05.25]There are 83 people still being held. More than 400 people have been released since the crisis began two weeks ago.

[01:11.63]15.3  Central America's longest running civil war will officially come to an end later today

[01:16.54]when Guatemalan government officials and representatives of four guerrilla factions sign a formal peace treaty.

[01:22.52]VOA's Jim Tibo reports from Guatemala City several guerrilla leaders returned home late Saturday to a tumultuous welcome.

[01:30.31]Representatives of Guatemala's four guerrilla groups flew into the capital's airport Saturday night

[01:42.32]and were greeted by thousands of supporters.

[01:44.83]After years of negotiations,the guerrillas and Guatemala's president will sign eleven peace accords later Sunday

[01:50.60]bringing to an end the 36-year-old war.

[01:53.42]One of two rebel commanders to arrive Saturday night was Lulanda Maron.

[01:57.32]He says fulfilling all of the peace agreements will be difficult,but he is glad to see an end to more than three decades of conflict.

[02:04.53]"I'm...I think that this is the greatest experience in my life."

[02:09.85]Commander Maron and other members of the 4-member guerrilla coalition,

[02:13.62]known as the URNG, say they will now work within the Guatemalan political system to accomplish their goals.

[02:19.31]Under the peace accords, several thousand guerrillas will be free to live openly in Guatemala

[02:23.65]once they are disarmed by the United Nations,a process which observers say will take several months.

[02:28.56]Jim Tibo,VOA news, Guatemala City.

[02:31.28]15.4  There is more extremist violence being reported in Algeria.

[02:35.01]VOA Middle East correspondent Lorrie Kasman reports

[02:38.98]Algerima state-run news agency says Moslem radicals have slaughtered at teast 28 people in the village,southwest of Algiers.

[02:46.27]This came on the same day a car bomb exploded in the capital.

[02:48.99]The news agency issued the security statement about the killings just a few hours after it reported another car bombing

[02:55.39]outside a popular cafe in the southern El Harash neighborhood of Algiers,

[02:59.91]At least three car bombs have exploded since last Monday in the capital.

[03:04.19]They have killed at least a dozen people and wounded more than 150 others.

[03:08.19]No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings.

[03:11.24]But Algerian authorities usually blame Moslem extremists for the attacks.

[03:14.87]The radicals have been waging a bloody battle against the authorities since 1992,

[03:20.25]when the military cancelled general elections the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win.

[03:25.22]The party was outlawed.

[03:26.86]Its leaders fled into exile or landed in jail.

[03:29.76]Since then,the extremist violence in Algeria has claimed more than 50,000 victims.

[03:34.83]Human rights monitors have denounced the atmosphere of terror that prevails in Algeria blaming both sides for the violence.

[03:41.26]Lorrie Kasrnan, VOA news, Middle East Bureau.

[03:44.31]15.5  North Korea has officially apologized for an incursion by its submarine in South Korean territory last September.

[03:50.14]It was a brief statement today carried by the official central news agency

[03:53.59]and in it a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman expressed deep regret for the submarine incident.

[03:58.97]The spokesman also pledged that North Korea will never repeat such an act.

[04:02.96]Seoul cautiously accepted the statement calling it adequate.

[04:06.20]15.6  Some 20,000 angry strikers massed in Seoul to demand South Korean legislators abolish a law that, workers say,threaten their jobs.

[04:14.98]Police have authorized Sunday's rally, but used tear gas to break up street demonstrations after the gathering.

[04:26.34]Subway service in Seoul and Pusan was erratic aster unionized workers walked off the job joining South Korea's biggest labor action ever.

[04:34.73]More than 370,000 workers are now on strike there.

[04:38.83]15.7  Palestinian leader Yasser Ararat will meet with Israeli Defense Minister Yitzak Mordicai about security in Hebron

[04:45.28]after Israeli troops leave the West Bank city.

[04:47.87]This news comes as talks on an expected Israeli troop pullout enter the final stages.

[04:53.17]Meanwhile,Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli troops will leave the West Bank,

[04:58.06]but no one should expect Israeli presence in the region to end.

[05:01.51]"Anyone who tells you that we are leaving Hebron is telling you a lie.

[05:05.16]We are there, and we are there to stay, forever,for all time."

[05:08.35]That was Benjamin Netanyahu.

[05:09.89]He is the Prime Minister of Israel.

[05:12.24]15. S  Syria says it would welcome new peace talks with Israel

[05:15.22]if negotiations can resume at the same point where they broke off nearly ten years ago.

[05:19.69]The Syrian Foreign Minister Farugal Shara says that means Israel must make a commitment

[05:24.78]to withdraw all of its troops and all its presence from the Golan Hights territory,

[05:29.59]which it captured during that 1967 Middle Eastern War.

[05:33.56]I'm Steve Norman reporting from Washington.

[05:36.67]This is the Voice of America.

[05:39.10]15.9  Afghanistan's capital Kabul reported quiet today after three days of fighting between forces of the ousted government

[05:46.33]and fundamentalist Taliban Islamic group.

[05:48.71]UN workers said they planned to continue using Kabul airport despite light damage caused by bombing

[05:54.40]from the former government forces that happened on Saturday.

[05:57.49]The presidential palace was also targeted, but it was not clear what if any damage actually occurred there.

[06:03.52]15.10  Hundreds of people remain trapped in a snow clogged highway tunnel in Russia's Caucuses Mountains.

[06:10.18]Officials say teams or foot on foot have been able to take food and blankets to about 300 trapped motorists.

[06:16.82]Its heavy snow and avalanches have made it impossible to free the stranded motorists by helicopter.

[06:22.33]Troops and highway crews are trying to reopen the snow-blanketed roads in the area in the Eastern and Central Europe

[06:27.92]in general has been ravaged by snow and record cold temperatures.

[06:31.26]Subzero temperatures have killed dozens of people in that area.

[06:35.28]15.11  Rwanda Radio today quotes the director of Rwanda's Refugee Repatriation Program as saying all refugees in Tanzania

[06:42.78]are now back home with none remaining either in camps or on the road to Rwanda.

[06:47.28]State radio says 485, 000 refugees have returned since Tanzania began the repatriation two weeks ago.

[06:54.30]Aid workers agree hat no large group of refugees remain in Tanzania.

[06:58.46]15.12  Residents of the island nation Madagascar went to the polls Sunday to elect their new president.

[07:03.94]In a final runoff balloting,the voters were faced with the choice of two old political figures,

[07:09.14]impeached President Arbel Zarbi and ousted military ruler Didia Rashirag.

[07:14.18]Mr.Rashirag made a strong comeback bid,and is now the favorite candidate.

[07:18.83]Correspondent Sonia Laurence Green has nore from the VOA East Africa Bureau.

[07:23.45]Some six and half million residents of Madagascar were eligible to vote in the country's presidential runoff election,

[07:29.65]but voter turnout was extremely low as many voters stayed home saying they did not like either candidate.

[07:35.78]The two candidates on offer are both old political hands and both have public records which are less than sparkling.

[07:42.55]President Arbel Zarbi, who was impeached by parliament in September,falls in the current election.

[07:47.62]The other candidate is former military ruler Didia Rashirag,

[07:51.59]who has made a remarkable comeback and is against all odds the favorite candidate.

[07:55.92]Mr.Rashirak,a self-styled Marxist who published his own little red book of policies,

[08:01.52]ruled impoverished Madagascar for seventeen years.

[08:04.68]He was forced from power after an angry public accused him of human rights abuses and corruption in the government and his family.

[08:11.31]Final results will not be tallied for days or even weeks given poor communications on the island,

[08:16.80]which is often now in the midst of its rainy season,hampering work further.

[08:20.48]Sonia Laurence Green,for VOA news, East Africa Bureau.

[08:24.40]15.13  Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to leave her home for the second time

[08:29.54]after being confined to her home for most of the last month.

[08:32.60]The Nobel Peace laureate attended a wedding Sunday held by a member of her National League for Democracy.

[08:38.32]Later she visited a museum dedicated to her late father, independence hero, General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947.

[08:46.89]Aung San Suu Kyi, out of her house for the first time in a month there in Burma.

[08:50.91]15.14  These are the hour's news headlines.

[08:52.58]Serbian police blocked street marchers by thousands of antigovernment protesters.

[08:56.53]Japan welcomes the Peruvian government's success at securing the release of twenty hostages Saturday at the Japanese ambassador's residence.

[09:03.92]Guatemala's government and four rebel leaders prepare to sign a peace treaty to formally end a 36-year-old civil war.

[09:10.40]And Afghanistan's capital Kabul is reported,calm today after three days of fighting

[09:15.23]between the forces of the ousted government and the Taliban.

[09:18.16]That's the news on the Voice of America.