Deutsche Welle English Service News 24. 09. 2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
The Chancellor's Long Road Back Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has come up to the halftime of his second term as the country's leader. The road so far has been extremely rocky - is a turnaround in sight? To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1337988,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you mad about soccer and betting? DW-WORLD's new betting pool lets you match your wits against experts and soccer fans from around the world, game by game. You can play individually or as part of a team. You can test your ability to determine winners and losers, the up-and-coming and the has-beens as well as your general soccer expertise with friends and colleagues. Best of all: We'll be awarding fabulous prizes after each game. http://bundesligatip.dw-world.de/english.do ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Two Egyptians seized in Iraq The Iraqi Foreign Ministry says two Egyptians working for a telecoms company in Baghdad have been kidnapped from their offices. The two men have been named as Mustapha Abdel Latif and Mahmoud Turki. So far no word has been heard from their captors. Meanwhile, the fate of a British man abducted in Iraq one week ago is still unknown. The kidnappers are threatening to behead Kenneth Bigley unless all Iraqi women are freed from US-run jails. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the United Nations in New York that the government was doing all it could to gain his release. But he said it would never negotiate with terrorists. Two Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, who were abducted with Bigley, have since been killed by their captors. Rumsfeld doubts full Iraqi elections US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has cast doubt on whether Iraq's interim government will be able to hold full elections in January. Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, Rumsfeld said unless the security situation in Iraq improved significantly by then, some parts of the country may have to be excluded from the vote. Rumsfeld's comments came just hours after Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi reiterated a pledge to hold general elections next January as planned, despite the ongoing violence in the country. Allawi also used his speech to a joint session of the US Congress to thank the United States for toppling former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Musharraf says no Pakistani troops in Iraq Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has ruled out sending troops to help restore stability in Iraq. His decision comes despite pleas from the Iraqi interim government and the United States. Musharraf said Pakistani troops did not want to be seen as occupation forces in Iraq. He also noted that no Muslim country had so far been prepared to contribute troops to the US-led force in Iraq. Musharraf is later due to meet with India's new prime minister, Manmohan Singh, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The leaders are expected to review the peace process between their two countries. Israeli woman killed in Palestinian mortar attack An Israeli woman has been killed and another wounded in a Palestinian mortar attack in the southern Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokesman said the mortar fell in the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim. It was the first fatality in the hundreds of Palestinian attacks on Jewish settlements in Gaza over the past four years. The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes as Israel goes on a high alert ahead of the Jewish holy day, Yom Kippur. In response, Israeli tanks fired on the nearby Palestinian town of Khan Younis, injuring two people. The army said it was targeting the source of the mortar fire. Germany seeks Security Council seat Germany's bid to be granted a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council has been given a boost by two of its permanent members. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said London backed a joint bid by Germany, Japan, India and Brazil to be given permanent seats. He said Britain favoured this as part of an expanded Security Council. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier pledged France's support for the four applicants, saying Africa should also be represented. Earlier, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer used his speech at the General Assembly to make Berlin's case for a permanent seat. He said Germany was ready to take on the extra responsibility. EU praises Turkey's reform efforts The European Union and Turkey have resolved a dispute over Ankara's proposed changes to its penal code. During a one-day visit to Brussels, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen that the reforms would be passed by parliament on Sunday. He also said they would not include the source of the dispute, a proposal to make committing adultery a criminal act in Turkey. Verheugen said the European Commission would now almost certainly recommend that the EU open formal membership talks with Turkey. The European Commission is to issue a report early next month on whether Ankara has satisfied the EU's conditions for opening negotiations. Prodi warns on EU constitution Outgoing European Commission President Romano Prodi has warned of enormous political consequences if the EU constitution were to be rejected by several states. In an interview with the French daily, La Croix, Prodi said that the European Union would continue as a legal entity even if some countries failed to approve the constitution. But he went on to say that such a rejection would be what he called "a mortal crisis for the project of a political Europe". Both France and Britain have said they will hold a national referendum on the text. The constitution needs approval by all 25 member states to enter into force. UN refugee chief starts Darfur mission The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has begun a five-day visit to Chad and Sudan. He will be assessing the crisis there caused by the flight of over a million people from the troubled Darfur region. Some 190,000 refugees are now sheltered in camps along Chad's border with Sudan, with thousands more expected. Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Lubbers said the Darfur region should be granted greater autonomy to end the conflict there. Darfur has been devastated by a 19-month conflict following an uprising by black African rebels. Arab Janjaweed militias in the region are accused of persecuting African villagers with the backing of the Sudanese government. The UN estimates that as many as 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict. AU seeks 5,000 peacekeepers for Darfur The African Union is to determine over the next couple of weeks whether it can mobilise a force of as many as 5,000 peacekeepers to help stop atrocities in Sudan's western Darfur region. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York that the AU needed $200 million in contributions from wealthy countries or help with transport and logistics. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has said Ottawa would contribute about $16 million. Arab Janjaweed militias are accused of persecuting African villagers in Darfur. As many as 50,000 people are believed to have been killed and more than a million forced to flee their homes, since the conflict in Darfur broke out early last year. Haiti facing risk of disease due to floods International aid agencies are warning of the danger of epidemics breaking out, following flooding that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people in Haiti. About 1,200 people are still unaccounted for. Aid agencies say contaminated water supplies and a broken down sewage system are putting survivors at risk of contracting diseases like cholera or typhoid fever. Conditions are especially bad in the northern port city of Gonaives. The Red Cross says drinking water and food are urgently needed. Earlier this week, the German Foreign Office responded with 200,000 euros in immediate aid. The flooding was caused by the latest in a series of storms to hit the Caribbean in recent weeks, Tropical Storm Jeanne. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy our "World News" newsletter? Why not also subscribe to "Daily Bulletin", DW-WORLD's latest daily digest of the day's top German and European stories, delivered to you around 18:30 UTC. To find out more and sign up, please go to http://www.dw-world.de/english/newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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