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Deutsche Welle English Service News 18.09.2002, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Transatlantic Divide Widens Over Iraq Issue As Bush seeks support for a possible attack on Iraq, despite its offer to resume weapons inspections, criticism grows over Germany's "isolationist" position in the debate. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_637452_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USA says Iraqi offer a ploy The United States on Wednesday dismissed the Iraqi offer of an unconditional return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq as a ploy. President George W. Bush called on both houses of Congress to pass a resolution giving his administration the authorization to launch a military strike before it recesses for mid-term elections. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, "No terrorist state poses a greater and more immediate threat to the security and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." However, dozens of our other countries said Iraq must be given the opportunity by the United Nations to put into practice what it had promised. Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, will meet with an Iraqi delegation in Vienna late next week to finalize plans for the inspectors return. Israeli killed in suicide blast At least four people were killed in three separate incidents in the Middle East on Wednesday. An Israeli civilian was killed and three others were injured, two seriously, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in northern Israel. Israeli army radio said the bomber detonated the device as police approached him, killing himself outright. Also on Wednesday, a missing Jewish settler was found dead. Police officials suspect Palestinian extremists in the West Bank for the kidnapping and murder. And, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man near Jenin after the man had shot at soldiers from his car, who was then chased and killed in an ensuing gun battle. Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers retreat on independence Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels at the end of a landmark peace conference on Wednesday said they would settle for autonomy rather than a separate state. The switch in tone came after three days of Norwegian-mediated talks in Thailand, where the rebels and government expressed optimism that the latest discussions would succeed. Chief government negotiator G.L. Peiris said the Tigers' dreams could be achieved without breaking up the country. The two sides also announced they would meet again at the end of October and then in December and January for further rounds of talks to try to end a civil war that has killed 64,000 people. EU proposes "Kaliningrad Pass" The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled a special travel "pass" for residents of Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad which it hopes will end a row with Moscow over the European Union's eastward enlargement. Kaliningrad, which has about one million inhabitants, will be surrounded by EU territory once its neighbours Poland and Lithuania join the bloc, probably in 2004. Commission President Romano Prodi outlined how residents of the Russian enclave could travel in and out of the EU. "Russian citizens who travel frequently by road or by rail will get a simplified transit document which will allow them to carry out several direct trips between Kaliningrad and the rest of Russian territory," "You could call it a Kaliningrad pass." The Commission plan has still to be approved by EU member states, which are due to discuss it on September 30, and by the candidate countries involved as well as by Russia. The Commission wants to reach an agreement with Moscow on the Kaliningrad issue ahead of a Russia-EU summit in Copenhagen in November. French Nazi collaborator Papon released from jail amid protests Maurice Papon, the 92 year-old convicted French Nazi collaborator was released from a French prison on Wednesday after an appeals court ruled he was too ill to serve the rest of his sentence. Papon was sentenced in 1998 to 10 years in prison for complicity in crimes against humanity, including his role in organising the transport of 1,560 Jews to a Paris transit camp on the way to Auschwitz. Papon left Sante prison to the jeers from a waiting crowd. Stunned by the court's unexpected decision, Jewish and anti-racist groups protested loudly against the early release. Papon served only three years of his sentence, having entered prison in 1999. Economics institute sees no upturn in German economy The German economic think-tank, IfW, estimated on Wednesday the much-touted upturn in the German economy is still a long way off. The Kiel-based institute said there is no broad based recovery in the euro-zone's largest economy, predicting an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) of only four tenths of a percent this year and 1.8 percent next year. It added the overall economic conditions in Germany had deteriorated, not least as a result of the renewed slump on the stock markets and the fear of war in Iraq. Austria's FPOe chooses new leader Mathias Reichhold, has agreed to lead Austria's Freedom Party in this November's snap election. Reichhold a long-time ally of Joerg Haider said he had agreed to lead the deeply divided Freedom Party pledging to reduce the influence of the party's xenophobic wing. Reichhold, is Austria's transport minister, and is expected to be confirmed in the post at an extraordinary congress of the Freedom Party (FPOe) on Saturday. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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