Deutsche Welle English Service News September 6th 2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
A Mrs. President for Germany? Germany’s President Johannes Rau only announced on Thursday that he will not seek a second term, but the race to replace him is already heating up. Chancellor Schröder has said he supports having a woman president. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_964515_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Palestinian PM resigns Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has submitted his resignation to Yasser Arafat, following a power struggle with Arafat over control of Palestinian security forces. It's not sure whether Arafat has accepted the resignation. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Arafat had several options and up to five weeks to make a decision. On Thursday, Abbas had told members of parliament he would quit if he did not obtain more authority from the Palestinian president. Abbas was seeking more powers to carry out democratic reforms and reign in militant factions, as called for in the US-backed peace roadmap. Israel warns it will not accept Arafat-dominated Palestinian government Israel has warned the Palestinians that Arafat was threatening stability in the Middle East and ruled out any talks with the Palestinian leadership if it was controlled by him. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that it would not accept a situation where control of the Palestinian Authority was returned to Arafat or anyone of his bidding. EU Foreign ministers meeting in Italy warned that the resignation of Mahmud Abbas had plunged the Middle East peace process into a "grave" and "critical" phase. EU Ministers denounce Hamas as terrorists, way open to freeze assets European Union foreign ministers have denounced the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation, following the group's claim of responsibility for last month's bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem which killed 22 people. Israel and the United States had long sought the decision, which now opens the way for assets of the Hamas group to be frozen and for its leaders to be placed on a terrorist blacklist. Italian foreign Minister Franco Frattini who heads the EU Council, said no date has yet been set for a formal decision. Hamas Spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin 'slightly hurt' in Gaza army raid The Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin has been "slightly hurt" in an Israeli raid in Gaza City on Saturday. The AFP newsagency, quoting Hamas officials, reports that wheel-bound Yassin was treated at a hospital for injuries sustained when a missile struck a building in the densely populated Al-Rimal neighbourhood. Israel has killed 11 members of the militant Islamic group and four civilians in helicopter gunship strikes in the past two weeks. US defence secretary winds up trip to Iraq U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has met with Polish commanders controlling a central sector of Iraq while winding up a three-day tour of the country. Rumsfeld also visited a mass grave said to contain the bodies of thousands of mainly Shi'ites killed under the regime of Saddam Hussein. The US defence secretary was in Iraq to assess the deteriorating security situation there. He said forces would stay as long as needed. Rumsfeld pledged that the continued attacks against US forces would not drive them out of the country. Rumsfeld is due to visit Afghanistan on Sunday. More British troops to be sent to Iraq About 150 British troops are being sent to Iraq this weekend, ahead of further deployment of another 2000 troops overall. Ten-thousand soldiers already stationed there. The reinforcement comes as Washington lobbies to get more nations to help shoulder the burden of stabilising and reconstructing Iraq. Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi on hunger strike, reports say The International Committee of the Red Cross says Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is not on a hunger strike. Members of the Red Cross visited Suu Kyi on Saturday, and said she was well. The Red Cross announcement contradicts statements made by the U.S last Sunday that Suu Kyi had launched a hunger strike to protest her three-month detention by the Junta, following an outbreak of violence between her supporters and a mob backed by Burma's military junta. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the result has never been recognised by the ruling military. Bermuda resident mop after "Fabian" whips up waves of 7 meters, several people missing Bermuda residents are mopping up after hurricane "Fabian" pounded the Caribbean island group with winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour, whipping up waves of up to seven meters high and flooding coastal regions. At least four people are missing, and power is out in 25,000 homes as what was the worst storm in 50 years. Economics Minister Clements predicts 2 percent growth for Germany in 2004 The German economy will grow by two percent in 2004, according to the Economics Minister, Wolfgang Clement. He also told the Berliner Zeitung that he expects unemployment figures to improve by the middle of August of next year. Germany's unemployment rate is currently 10.4 percent with 4.3 million people officially out of work. FBI on the hunt for four suspected terrorists The FBI has issued details and pictures of four men it believes are plotting attacks against the United States. The men include two Saudi citizens, a Tunesian and a Morroccan. Specific threats or dates for any attacks have not been given, but the FBI said al-Qaeda may be planning to mark the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Six die in car bombing in busy Indian Kashmir marketplace At least six people have been killed in bomb attack in a busy marketplace in Kashmir. The explosion took place as an army convoy drove through a fruit market on the outskirts of the summer capital Srinagar. Army officials said 31 people were injured. The pro-Pakistani movement Hizbul Mujahedin has claimed responsibility for the attack. British Airways looks into missile defence Europe's biggest airline, British Airways, has said it was looking into anti-missile technology to protect its planes against possible terrorist attacks. Analysts say the main obstacle to such a defence system is cost. Israeli airliners are believed to use anti-missile counter-measures, but most commercial airliners flying world-wide have nothing to protect them from being downed by a shoulder-mounted, surface-to-air missile. SFOR peace troops discover two large weapon storage SFOR peacekeepers Bosnia-Herzegovina have discovered two large caches of weapons left over from the war in the former Yugoslav republic in the early 90's. They discovered hundreds of mortal shells, anti-tank mines, rockets and rocket launchers hidden in the cellars of several houses in the Serb-controlled towns of Prijedor and Cerno. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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