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Deutsche Welle English Service News February 27th 2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Germany Refuses to Provide More Aid to Turkey German leaders think they have provided their NATO partner of Turkey with enough military aid to defend itself from Iraq. America, meanwhile, awaits a Turkish go-ahead on deployment of U.S. troops in the north. 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_788271_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Iraqi response on Al-Samoud Thursday night or Friday Iraqi officials have said Baghdad will respond either tonight or Friday to the UN demand for it to destroy its banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles, diplomats in contact with the officials said Thursday. Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has ordered Iraq to begin scrapping the missiles by Saturday, saying they exceed the permitted range of 150 kilometres. But Iraq insisted that, when armed they did not exceed the permitted range and are a element of the country's defence. Turkish parliament to debate US troops on Saturday The Turkish parliament is to convene on Saturday to vote on allowing 62,000 US soldiers to deploy in Turkey ahead of a possible war in Iraq, deputy parliament speaker Sadik Yakut said Thursday. The parliament had been expected to vote on military cooperation on Thursday, but the ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP asked for a postponement. The AKP leadership has been holding meetings with its deputies since Wednesday, trying to convince them to vote in favor of the deployment of US troops. The U.S. has offered Turkey a multi-billion dollar package of compensation in return for Ankara's support in a possible war. Republic Guards moving toward Tikrit A major element of a Republican Guard division has been spotted moving out of northern Iraq toward Tikrit,the hometown and political bastion of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a US defense official said Thursday. He said the move southwards was most likely influenced by Turkey's decision to allow the US to stage a military attack on Iraq from the north and that the Iraqi leader was reinforcing defenses around his most important political stronghold with his best trained and most loyal units in anticipation of an invasion. A senior US defense official said the regime has been concentrating military forces in Baghdad, and increasingly are using residential neighborhoods, mosques and other civilian facilities as cover against air attacks. US forces massed against Iraq grow to 225,000 About 225,000 US forces are now massed against Iraq, including 111,000 in Kuwait, the main staging area for a possible US ground offensive, a US defense officials said Thursday.The arrival of aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its battle group in the Gulf region boosted the numbers of sailors and marines aboard warships to 46,000, the official said. Putin and Bush pledge to work on acceptable Iraq solution Russian President Putin and U.S. President Bush agreed on Thursday to work towards a solution to the Iraq crisis taking into account the interests of the world community, the Kremlin said. The statement said a telephone conversation had taken place at Washington's request. A U.S.-backed draft resolution aimed at authorising the use of force against Iraq was submitted to the Security Council this week. But Mr. Putin said on Wednesday, after Kremlin talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that Russia could not back any resolution which could allow hostilities to be launched in the near future. Moscow backs an alternative plan, promoted by France and Germany, that would give inspectors an additional four months to search Iraqi sites for weapons of mass destruction. US downplays North Korean nuclear plant start-up The White House on Thursday downplayed North Korea's restart of a key nuclear plant, hinting that the move was just more troublesome behavior, as it put it, to be expected from the Stalinist state.On Wednesday, US officials said that Pyongyang has restarted a nuclear reactor at its controversial Yongbyon complex in another significant step toward making new nuclear weapons. The complex was closed under a 1994 accord with the United States that headed off a confrontation on the Korean peninsula at the time over the North's nuclear arsenal.In the last six months, North Korea had admitted to re-starting it's nuclear programme and expelled international nuclear inspectors. UN court sentences former Bosnian Serb leader Plavsic to 11 years The UN court in The Hague on Thursday sentenced former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic to 11 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.Known as the Bosnian Serb Iron Lady,the 72-year-old pleaded guilty last year to playing a leading role in the campaign of persecution against Croats and Muslims in Bosnia that killed thousands and left tens of thousands more homeless. The prosecution had sought a sentence of up to 25 years for Mrs.Plavsic, who was one of fugitive wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's closest allies, serving as his deputy and on the supreme command of the Bosnian Serb army.She is the highest-ranking political leader involved in the Balkan wars in the 1990s to have been sentenced by the court so far. Israel's new government includes Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been requested to step down as Israel's foreign minister, accepted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer to become finance minister on Thursday, reversing his earlier decision to reject the job, political sources said. Mr.Netanyahu, prime minister from 1996 to 1999, will be asked to quickly turn around Israel's economy, battered by a global slowdown and nearly 2-1/2 years of Palestinian-Israeli conflict.Prime Minister Arial Sharon has now completed forming his new government, which includes a coalition of ultra-right parties, all hostile to the idea of a Palestinian state. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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