Deutsche Welle English Service News September 22nd 2002, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Exit Poll Shows Conservative Lead in German Election The first exit poll of voters taken in Germany on Sunday showed the conservative Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union leading Chancellor Gerhard Schr�der's Social Democrats by 2 percentage points. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,6591_A_641614_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Centre-left coalition ahead in first German election projections. Just after the polls closed in Germany's federal election, the first projections indicate the governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens may be back in for another 4 years. According to projections by the German public television station ARD, the Social Democrats took 38 percent of the vote, compared to 39 percent for the opposition Christian Democrats. But the Greens, the junior partner in the coalition got 9.5 percent, with the liberal Free Democrats taking 7 percent. The other national public television station, ZDF, has both the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats at 38 percent. But it also has the Greens stronger than the Free Democrats, with 9, compared to 7.5 percent. According to both projections, the Social Democrats and Greens would have enough seats to form a government. The former communist Party of Democratic Socialism appears to have been missed the 5 percent hurdle, with just over 4 percent. Meanwhile, voters in the eastern-German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania are also going to the polls to elect a new state government. The first results from that vote aren't expected for a couple of hours. Justice minster denies report that she will step town Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin has denied a newspaper report that she would resign shortly after the polls close in Germany's federal election Sunday evening. The Sunday edition of the mass-circulation "Bild" newspaper had reported that the Social Democrat would step down over a comparison she allegedly made between U.S. President George W. Bush's approach to the Iraq problem and the methods of Adolf Hitler. Daeubler-Gmelin has denied making the remark, and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has sent a written apology to the U.S. president. However relations between the two allies remain strained. Arafat weiter unter starkem Druck Israeli forces are continuing their siege of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. Israeli bulldozers have torn down most of the headquarters compound, except for the building in which Arafat and as many as 300 supporters are trapped. Electricity and water supplies to Arafat's building have been cut off. Israel has said that its sole aim is to force the surrender of 20 Palestinians believed to be in the building, who are alleged to have been involved in attacks against Israelis, and it has no intention of harming Arafat. Israeli troops reportedly shot dead four Palestinian protesters on Sunday as thousands of people took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to demonstrate against the siege. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has called on both parties to the conflict to exercise restraint. Centre-right coalition set to retain power in Slovakia Voters have also gone to the polls in Slovakia this weekend, and there, it appears that there will be no change in government. Early official results indicate that nationalist former Premier Vladimir Meciar's HZDS was the strongest single party, with 19.5 percent of the popular vote. However the four parties that have comprised Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda's centre-right coalition for the past four years won more than 42 percent. That makes the coalition, known as the New Citizens' Alliance, the strongest grouping, with 78 seats in the the 150-seat parliament. Its victory is seen as a positive step in Slovakia's aspirations to join the European Union and NATO. Ivory Coast rebels call for talks with government Rebels in Ivory Coast's second city of Bouak� said on Sunday they wanted talks brokered by France to avoid a bloodbath as loyalist troops headed toward the city. The country's worst violence since gaining independence from France in 1960 began when rebel soldiers launched a pre-dawn coup attempt last Thursday. At least 270 people have died and hundreds of others have been wounded. The rebellion was quashed in the capital Abijan, but rebels still control Bouak� and Korhogo. President Gbagbo has threatened the rebels with all-out war and blamed former junta leader Robert Guei, who was shot dead by loyalist forces last Thursday, for fomenting the revolt. Bomb kills at least 15 in northern India At least 15 people were killed when a bomb exploded on Sunday inside a small passenger-carrying truck in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state. A police official said it was unclear who might be responsible for the blast, which occurred near a railway crossing about 120 kilometers from the state capital Lucknow. The official said 13 of the dead were travelling in the truck, the two other victims were bystanders. Ten illegal immigrants drown trying to reach Italy At least 10 illegal immigrants died on Sunday as they attempted to swim ashore in rough seas to the Italian island of Sicily. Police said the 10 bodies were found on a beach in the southeast of Sicily, after some 50 immigrants were unloaded from a ship off the island's coast. A policd official said local residents reported having seen a ship anchor off the coast. He said police were searching for migrants beleived to have made it safely to the shore. Many still missing after Russian mudslide Authorities in Russia's Caucasus region now say at least 100 people have likely been killed after massive chunks of glacier ice up to 100 meters thick roared down a mountainside, crushing several villages in their path. They said the effort to recover the dead would likely continue for a number of weeks. So far, 24 bodies have been recovered in the area around Karmadon in North Ossetia. 40 killed in fighting in Nepal At least 40 people are reported to have been killed in Nepal in fighting between government troops and Maoist rebels. The defence ministry in Kathmandu said in a statement that 17 Maoist rebels had been killed in a battle in Rolpa, about 300 kilometres west of the capital. The rebels are seeking to impose a communist system of government on the Himalayan kingdom. Demonstrators march in London to protest against Fox hunt At least 200 thousand people gathered in London on Sunday to protest against a possible ban on hunting with dogs in Britain. The demonstrators were also protesting against what they say is the systematic discrimination of rural areas under the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Each year about a million people in Britain take part in fox hunting using dogs, which the Labour government argues amounts to cruelty toward animals. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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