After the political fireworks of six weeks ago at the ANC party conference in Mafikeng it

After the political fireworks of six weeks ago at the ANC party conference in Mafikeng, it was a surprisingly soft occasion. At the Mafikeng conference he appeared to serve notice on the privilege of the white minority, in an attack on what he said was their lack of effort to achieve racial reconciliation.Yesterday the President, who has handed his party and day-to-day running of government to his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, dropped the language of accusation for a more moderate appeal to conscience. Women and disabled people made up the guard of honour for Nelson Mandela when he opened Parliament yesterday. Mary Braid in Cape Town says they could not shield him from harsh criticism over rising crime and other failings. It may have been the most politically correct opening of parliament in the world. But, he warned, the process could be expected to be long and difficult.A similar process foreshadowed the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989; but then, it was East Germany which began demolishing its own barrier.The ambassador said the issue now depended on a political decision from South Korea which, though immersed in an economic crisis, is certain to fear a flood of refugees southwards, victims of a famine brought on by floods, drought, tidal waves and a poor harvest.. And South Korea’s president- elect, Kim Dae-jung, has been talking about increased exchanges and economic co-operation with his Northern neighbours.According to Itar-Tass, North Korea “proposes making passages” in the wall, which was built by the South in the Seventies, as a “first step towards its full demolition”.

Despite a long record of crowing at the shortcomings of the South, the famine-stricken and backward North has been unexpectedly quiet about South Korea’s sudden plunge from boom to melt-down.Fears about the North’s nuclear programme have eased after it agreed to suspend sensitive development work in exchange for light-water nuclear reactors from the South, Japan and the US. Technically, they are still at war.Last year, North Korean negotiators sat down with American, South Korean, and Chinese officials for the first substantive peace talks in 40 years. The South regards the North as an aggressive adversary, possibly armed with nuclear weapons, and is unlikely to be impressed.Less than four years ago an official from the North threatened to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire” after talks broke down. Two years later, the North also threatened to test its No Dong missiles and mounted a show of aggression by sending armed troops into the demilitarised zone.North Korea’s ambassador to Russia, Son Song Pil, was yesterday quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying that the move could eventually lead to the destruction of the entire wall, a development which would constitute a significant step towards peace between the two Koreas and even reunification.His remarks follow several recent signs that bitterly hostile relations between the Koreas may be easing, 45 years after the Korean War. However, the barrier it wants to demolish belongs to its rival South Korea.

In recent years, their attacks have usually consisted of midnight bombings of deserted government offices, state-owned businesses and tourist homes There are usually no injuries.- Ajaccio, AP. He often went out without his bodyguard.Moments after the killing, labour minister Martine Aubry interrupted a late-night debate in the National Assembly in Paris to announce the death and called for a minute of silence.Corsica has been the site of bloody separatist violence for the past 23 years. The wall dividing North Korea from the South is up for demolition – if the North has its way. But,

Phil Reeves reports from Moscow, the secluded Stalinist state must first win the trust of its capitalist neighbour and long-time enemy.
North Korea wants to open up Berlin Wall style holes in the heavily militarised barrier that has long divided the Korean peninsula, according to one of its senior diplomats.It might sound like a magnanimous gesture from the highly secretive Stalinist state, long secluded from the world. Corsican militants want greater autonomy and aid from the central government in Paris.The Corsican National Liberation Front-Historic Wing (FLNC), the most radical militant faction, on announced on 26 January the end to a 7-month- old truce, saying France’s Socialist-led government, which took power last June, had failed to meet their demands. They gave the flight recorder back after an angry denunciation by the public prosecutor.A special military team flown out from the Marine base in Cherry Point, North Carolina, is working on its own investigation and intends to press any charges that arise in the United States.Yesterday, leaks from Aviano, the US military base where the aircraft was based, suggested that the pilot, Richard Ashby, 30, was having problems with his altimeter at the time of the impact and did not intentionally dip so low into the valley above Cavalese. The Italian lawyer representing the crew also maintained that the cable car lines were not marked on two of the three maps in the plane..

A senior French government official was assassinated on the violence- torn island of Corsica yesterday evening, police said. Police immediately set up a cordon sealing off the neighbourhood in the coastal city of Ajaccio where Claude Erignac, regional prefect of Corsica, was shot after attending a classical music concert, police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the slaying. He was shot in the head several times outside the Le Kallyste theatre by an unknown number of men. The high-calibre bullets nearly ripped Erignac’s head off, police said.

His body was taken to the Notre Dame de la Misericorde hospital.At the time of the shooting, the victim was with his wife and the street was full of people Police were questioning witnesses at the scene. Mr Erignac, appointed prefect two years ago, was the representative of the state in the region, essentially a governor appointed by Paris. He also sought to mend a disagreement with the Italian Defence Ministry about the plane’s flight path. He acknowledged that the plane was not on “the centreline of the flight track” when it hit the cable car, merely within a 10-nautical-mile-wide corridor.The general’s finely-tuned words were symptomatic of the tension that has built up between the two countries since Tuesday’s accident. Despite pledges of full co-operation, the two countries have fallen out on everything from the causes of the accident to their respective rights to prosecute the Prowler aircraft’s pilot and crew.Yesterday, the Americans were forced to admit they had removed the plane’s flight recorder after it returned to base even though it had been impounded by the Italian judiciary.