ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997            TAG: 9701220055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-7  EDITION: METRO 

IN THE WORLD

Czechs, Germans bury WWII hatchet

PRAGUE - The leaders of Germany and the Czech Republic signed a formal reconciliation pact Tuesday that buried one of the most enduring ethnic conflicts to emerge from World War II and removed a major obstacle to Prague's bid for membership in NATO and the European Union.

Under the agreement, the Bonn government expressed sorrow for the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 1945, and Prague regretted excessive brutality in the post-war expulsion of 2.5 million Sudeten Germans. Sudetenland, located in Czechoslovakia along its border with Germany, was ceded to the Nazis in 1938, and its occupants were routed when it was restored to Czechoslovakia after the war.

- The Washington Post

Greece says Nazi is hiding in Syria

ATHENS, Greece - Greece says it has evidence that Alois Brunner, the world's most-wanted Nazi war criminal, is in hiding in Syria.

Brunner, a senior Nazi SS officer and elusive fugitive for years, is accused of directing the deportation and killing of at least 130,000 Jews from European countries, including Greece, during World War II.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said Greece, which has close ties with Syria, has evidence that Brunner, 84, is in hiding in Syria. He refused to elaborate or say where the evidence came from.

Previous reports have said Brunner has been living in Syria since 1954. Syrian officials have always denied this, and they denied Tuesday's report as well.

More than 55,000 Greek Jews died in concentration camps.

Brunner is wanted by Austria, France, Israel, the former Czechoslovakia and Germany, where a $345,000 reward has been posted for his capture.

- Associated Press

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