Deutsche Welle English Service News 11.09.2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Swedish Foreign Minister Lindh Dies After Attack Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh died early on Thursday morning, after she was stabbed by an unidentified man in a Stockholm department store on Wednesday. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1433_A_967834_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden's foreign minister dies of stab wounds Sweden's Foreign Minister Anna Lindh has died from injuries sustained after being stabbed by an unidentified attacker. Ms. Lindh was shopping in downtown Stockholm when a man stabbed her in the chest, arms and stomach and then fled. After hours of surgery, doctors said she had died of heavy internal bleeding from her injuries. The 46-year-old had been a leading campaigner for Sweden to adopt the euro, but there was no known motive for the attack. German foreign minister Joschka Fischer has expressed his shock at Lindh's death, calling her "a great European, a great foreign minister and also a very good friend." Meanwhile, Sweden's Prime Minister Goeran Persson has said that the referendum on adopting the euro would go ahead as planned on Sunday. EU reiterates solidarity with US two years after 9/11 On the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, commemoration services have been being held across the country. Relatives of those killed in the World Trade Center in New York gathered at the site for an almost four-hour ceremony. US President George W. Bush remained in Washington to lead services for the 184 people killed at the Pentagon. Around 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, when hijacked airliners were crashed into buildings in New York and Washington, and another came down in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the European Union has reiterated its "heartfelt solidarity" with the people and government of the United States on the anniversary of the attacks. An EU presidency statement said the EU has promoted several responses to the attacks, including fostering dialogue between cultures and civilisations, and respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. Al-Jazeera airs new al Qaeda tape The Al-Jazeera television network has aired a new videotape of what appears to be Osama bin Laden and one of his al Qaeda deputies, Ayman al-Zawahri. Al Jazeera said the tape was probably shot in March or April of this year. The Arabic TV station also played an audio tape. One voice, purportedly that of bin Laden, praised the September 11th attacks in the United States two years ago. A second voice, purportedly that of al-Zawahri warned of future terrorist attacks, saying the real battle had not yet begun. Israeli cabinet wants to oust Arafat Israel's security cabinet has met for an emergency session to consider the expulsion of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Officials were also considering further military action against Palestinian militants in the wake of two suicide bombings in Israel which killed 15 people. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that Israel should ignore U.S. objections and banish Arafat from the Palestinian territories. Several Western countries oppose ousting Arafat, saying that he is the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people. EU blacklists Hamas EU diplomats say that the European Union today agreed to put the political wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas on its blacklist of outlawed terrorist organisations. They said details of the decision would be announced on Friday. The move means that member states are required to freeze Hamas's assets and opens the way for prosecution of its members on terrorism charges. The decision by the EU's council of ambassadors comes in a week when Palestinian suicide bombers have killed 15 people in Israel, and the Israelis have tried unsuccessfully to kill top Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip in air strikes. German authorities lay terror charges against three Jordanians In Germany, three Jordanians have been charged on suspicion of belonging to a Palestinian extremist group which was plotting attacks on Jewish and Israeli interests. Prosecutors in Karlsruhe said a fourth man had been charged with providing support to the "Al Tawhid" group. The four men will face court in the city of Duesseldorf, where the trial of another Al Tawhid member is underway. Together all five men have been accused of planning an attack near a Jewish institution in Berlin. UN secretary general says farm handouts stifle, stunt and starve U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned rich countries on Wednesday that they risk a political backlash unless they scrap farm handouts that are keeping the developing world in poverty. At the start of World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, Mexico, Annan said the victims of unfair trade could be counted in their billions. He said that trade barriers were literally starving people in developing countries. The opening of the talks featured a protest by anti-globalisation demonstrators that turned violent. At the height of the demonstration, a South Korean protester stabbed himself in the chest and later died of his injuries in hospital. Dossier "not sexed-up" An influential British parliamentary committee has published a report criticising the way intelligence was used by the British government in the run-up to the war in Iraq to gain public support. The report by the Intelligence and Security Committee said the assertion made by the government that Iraq could deploy banned weapons at just 45 minutes' notice lacked context and was "unhelpful". The report also said, however, that British Prime Minister Tony Blair's outgoing communications chief Alastair Campbell did not "sex up" the dossier used to justify waging war. But the committee did criticise Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, saying the Ministry of Defence was "unhelpful and potentially misleading" about some of its staff's concerns over the government's dossier on Iraq's banned weapons. AfDB grants 8.3 million dollars to central Africa for AIDS The African Development Bank (AfDB)today announced a 7.4 million euros grant to help four central African countries fight the AIDS pandemic. The grant will be used to support joint efforts by the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo in fighting the disease. The funding will go to help migrant groups who live along the banks of the Congo, Oubangui and Chari rivers and are often ignored by national anti-AIDS projects. In a statement, the bank said sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 70 percent of HIV/AIDS cases worldwide, with over 29 million people infected. The central African project will also be funded by the UN programme on AIDS, and the governments in the four countries. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. You can even listen to all programmes as audio-on-demand. 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