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Deutsche Welle English Service News 07.03.2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Fischer Remains Committed to Peaceful Solution German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says he continues to see weapons inspections as the best way to disarm Iraq, despite President Bush latest push for a possible war. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_800699_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Security Council convenes for crucial briefing UN Security Council delegations, including 11 foreign ministers, are now listening to a briefing on Iraq by chief UN disarmament inspectors as the Bush administration seeks UN approval for war. Chief inspector Hans Blix said Iraq's disarmament was "moving on and may yield results". The council is deeply split, with Russia, France, Germany, backed by China, wanting extended inspections while Britain, as a U.S. ally, seeks an amended resolution to set Iraq a deadline of up to seven days. Seven other council members appear undecided. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the British proposal would lead to military action and he was "very sceptical" about that. On Thursday night, U.S. President George W. Bush warned that the crisis was only "days away" from a final decision. Iraq's state newspaper "Ath-Thawra" urged the council to reject the latest British-U.S. draft resolution. An Iraqi oil ministry official vowed that Iraqi oil wells would not be set on fire in the event of war. Gaps cut in Kuwaiti border fence UN observers along the Kuwait-Iraq border say armed persons in civilian clothing have opened seven gaps in the 200-kilometre-long electified border fence, wide enough for tanks. The USA now has nearly 100,000 soldiers and marines based in Kuwait as part of its military build-up. Britain's army chief of staff General Mike Jackson said British forces were ready to move if an order came to invade Iraq. His troops would be fully equipped within a week, once ships arrived with supplies, he said. Speculation on bin Laden sons Conflicting reports from Pakistan suggest that two sons of the fugitive terror network leader Osama bin Laden might have been captured by U.S. soldiers inside Afghanistan. The claim was made by a provincial minister in Pakistan's southwest province of Baluchistan. But, in Washington a U.S. official said there was "absolutely no information to substantiate" that claim. Shares tumble further, Bundesbank alert Share markets in Asia and Europe fallen further, hit by a gloomy U.S. jobs data and mounting worries over a looming U.S.-Iraq war. Frankfurt's DAX tumbled to a seven-year low, under the 2,400 level, but later recovered slightly. Likewise, the Euro-Stoxx-50 index fell briefly to a six-year low. By late-afternoon it was down 2.2 percent at 2,035. Aside from war worries, traders said another factor was disappointment that Thursday's European Central Bank interest rate cut of a-quarter-of-a-percent was insufficient. Sounding alarm over Germany's economy, the German Bundesbank has sent a letter to Chancellor Schroeder's government and party heads in parliament, demanding urgent economic structural reforms. In its unusual move, the Bundesbank said public finances must also be consolidated. Blast in Kabul injures ISAF personnel An explosion near Kabul, thought to involve a landmine, has left injured a Dutch soldier and killed his Afghan interpreter working for the international force ISAF. According to initial reports, the incident happened in a street lined by shops and houses, about 15 kilometres from the city centre. An ISAF spokesman said the men had been on patrol. Havel's successor inaugurated The Czech Republic's new president has been inaugurated in Prague, filling a month-long vacancy. He is the former premier, Eurosceptic and free-marketeer Vaclav Klaus, who replaces his rival Vaclav Havel. Klaus becomes the second Czech head of state since communism's fall in 1989. His re-emergence since a government collapse in the late- 90s follows the failure of current Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla to muster a majority for his Social Democrat's presidential candidate. Havel stepped down last month after 13 years that included Czech accession to NATO. A referendum on EU membership is due in June. Castro elected president for five more years President Fidel Castro has been reelected to another five-year term by Cuba's National Assembly. 76-year-old Castro is the world's longest ruling leader, having been in power since leading a guerrilla revolution against right-wing dictator Batista in 1959. The Cuba National Assembly was elected in January in polls that were not accepted by Cuban dissidents because there are no alternatives to the ruling Communist Party. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information please turn to our internet website at http://dw-world.de/english Here you'll find out what's happening in Germany, Europe and the rest of the world. News and background reports from the fields of current affairs, culture, business and science. And of course the DW website also has information about DW-RADIO and DW-TV programmes: topics, broadcast times and frequencies. 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