The United Nations should be ready to launch a tsunami warning

The United Nations should be ready to launch a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean by June 2006 with the rest of the world to follow a year later, the official in charge of the program said on Wednesday. The Indian Ocean system will cost about US$30 million, with most of that paid by donor nations, said Koichiro Matsuura, director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). "If everything goes according to plan, the initial system should, provisionally, be put in place by June 2006," Matsuura said. -- Reuters

Slovakia pledges $1m for tsunami survivors

The Slovakian government has released almost $1 million to help the victims of the Dec. 26 tidal waves that devastated coastal areas in South Asia and killed nearly 160,000 people. Just under half the money will go to UN agencies and the Red Cross, Slovak interior minister Vladimir Palko said on Wednesday. He said that another chunk, about $350 million, would be given to Slovak non- governmental organizations for reconstruction projects. The rest, amounting to just over $200 million, was released at the end of December in the form of humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka, Palko said. Slovakia has also decided to give US$100,000 to the UN children's organization, Unicef. -- AFP

Haradinaj says Kosovo to be independent by 2006

Kosovo's prime minister and former guerrilla leader Ramush Haradinaj said on Wednesday that his UN-administered Serbian province would gain independence by the year's end. "The only option and possibility to fulfill the wishes of Kosovo people is the independence of Kosovo," Haradinaj told the Croatian weekly newspaper Globus in an interview. Talks over Kosovo's status should begin this year under the auspices of the UN. The southern Serbian province became a UN protectorate after NATO intervened to end the 1998-99 war between Serbian forces and separatist ethnic Albanian guerrillas. Haradinaj said he was confident that by the middle of this year, Pristina would show considerable improvements on implementing a set of basic democratic standards, which is a prerequisite for status talks. -- AFP