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Deutsche Welle English Service News March 4th 2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Chancellor Fails to Bring Unions and Employers Together Gerhard Schröder has failed to budge the country's unions and employers' groups over the issue of job creation. The chancellor is now turning his focus to his own solutions. 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_792300_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- US to send 60,000 more troops to Gulf The United States has ordered up to 60,000 additional troops to deploy to the Gulf to join the massive build-up of U.S. and British forces already in the region for a possible war with Iraq, U.S. defense officials said on Tuesday. They would join more than 250,000 U.S. and British troops already in the Gulf region along with dozens of warships and more than 500 attack aircraft for a possible attack on Iraq that could be launched within weeks. Russia says it may use veto power to stop war Speaking on BBC, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Tuesday that Moscow would not support any measure leading to a war on Iraq and might be prepared to use its veto in the U.N. Security Council. Mr.Ivanov said Moscow, which like China, France and Germany opposes the hawkish stance by Washington and London against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, would not abstain in any future U.N. Security Council vote on Iraq. He said it would be a serious mistake with serious consequences, if the United States went to war against Iraq without the approval of a Security Council second resolution. Germany warns its nationals to leave Iraq Germany warned its nationals Tuesday to leave Iraq and avoid all travel to the Gulf state given the growing threat of war, the foreign ministry said.It said on its Internet site that Germans in Iraq were invited to immediately plan for their departure. On February 12th, it warned Germans against travelling to Kuwait, which borders Iraq, because of security concerns in the region. The ministry currently has travel warnings out on 11 countries, most of them in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East or near Afghanistan. At least 209 killed in Phillipine explosion The U.S. embassy in Manila confirmed on Tuesday that one American had died after being severely wounded by a powerful explosion at an airport in the southern Philippines. At least 20 people were killed and more than 145 wounded, including three other Americans, in the explosion in a shelter outside the airport in Davao, the second-biggest city after the capital, Manila. The attack came amid heightened security against attacks by Muslim separatist rebels in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country. U.S. special forces are now on the southern island of Mindanao, training Philippine units in counter-terrorism tactics. Alleged 9/11 mastermind flown to US base in Afghanistan Alleged al-Qaeda terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was flown to Afghanistan early Tuesday, after three days of interrogation in Pakistan. Along with a Middle Eastern al-Qaeda suspect, arrested in the pre-dawn raid Saturday, Khalid Mohammed was handed over to US custody and flown to the US base at Bagram north of Kabul, after permission was granted by Kuwait. He was was born in Kuwait to Pakistani parents, but Pakistan considers him a Kuwaiti national.His capture is the biggest coup of the 18-month old war on terrorism. Khalid Mohammed is believed to be al-Qaeda's operational commander and the architect of the September 11 terror attacks in the US that killed more than 3,000 people. Sri Lanka offers amnesty to 51,000 army deserters amid truce Sri Lanka Tuesday offered immunity from prosecution to some 51,000 military deserters in line with a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels. The defence ministry said deserters would be legally discharged from the security forces, after they pay any money they owe the military for training them, while those wanting to rejoin will also be considered. An official spokesman said the move would help a large number of young men to come out of hiding and seek employment without taking up a career of crime. Both government troops and the rebels are currently observing a truce arranged by peace broker Norway, since February 23rd last year. More cheering crowds as Chirac ends Algeria visit Algerian crowds gave French President Jacques Chirac another rousing welcome on Tuesday in the city of Oran, where he ends a state visit meant to help reconcile France to its former colony. Tens of thousands of cheering people lined the streets of Algeria's second city, to cheer the first state visit by a French president since 1962, when the country won independence from France, after a brutal war. Mr. Chirac, who served as a French army lieutenant in Algeria during the war, received a rapturous welcome in the capital Algiers on Sunday, when half a million people turned up to cheer him and shower him with confetti. Turkish court acquits all defendants in trial of German NGOs A Turkish court on Tuesday acquitted all 15 defendants in a controversial trial of six German non-governmental organisations charged with espionage and undermining Turkish state security. The judge ruled that there was no evidence to show that the accused, six Turks and nine Germans had committed any of the offences they were charged with.If they had been found guilty, the accused could have faced sentences of up to 15 years in prison each. The trial had threatened to strain political relations between Turkey and Germany. Nigeria unrest death toll jumps to 110 At least 110 people have been confirmed dead in fighting over the past few days between nomads and farmers in northeast Nigeria, the president of the Nigerian Red Cross said Tuesday. Fighting erupted on Friday when Fulani cattle herders stormed the village of Dumne, 700 kilometres , east of Abuja the capital and began killing people, including women and children, police said Monday. Both the Red Cross and the police said that the fighting had now died down, since the deployemnt of a joint police and military peacekeeping force to the remote rural area, near Nigeria's hilly border with Cameroon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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