Deutsche Welle English Service News October 25th, 2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
German Parliament Approves Expanded Afghanistan Mission As the German Bundestag on Friday voted to expand the scope of Germany's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, Defense Minister Peter Struck said German troops wouldn't get mixed up in the country's war on drugs. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1012822_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Three Israelis die in Gaza attack, Palestinian boy killed A Palestinian gunman has reportedly killed three Israelis and wounded two in an attack on a Jewish settlement in the central Gaza Strip. Israeli security sources said the militant infiltrated the heavily guarded Netzarim settlement and opened fire before being chased and killed by Israeli soldiers. And in separate violence, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy has been killed by Israeli fire in Central Gaza. Palestinian militant groups including Hamas, in the meantime, have vowed revenge against the Israelis for a series of raids and killings in the past week. Iraq violence continues The US military has reported that two American soldiers have been killed near the Iraqi town of Samarra, north of Baghdad. A spokeswoman said the soldiers were killed in a mortar attack. Also in Iraq, US military sources say a soldier has been killed by small arms fire in Mosul. There were also explosions in the town of Doura, but details of casualties remained unclear. International community pledges support for Iraq's reconstruction The international community has pledged more than expected at an Iraq donor's conference in Madrid, with promises of around $18 billion in total. Among the many donors, Japan came forth with a promise of 5 billion dollars in aid while European Union member countries have pledged close to a billion dollars. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates together have offered a hefty sum of over one billion dollars. The total amount pledged by the international community still falls well short of the desired 56 billion for Iraqi reconstruction. German parliament approves widening military presence in Afghanistan The German parliament has voted to widen the mandate of Bundeswehr troops in Afghanistan and allow the deployment of international peacekeepers outside the capital Kabul for the first time. The decision will see as many as 450 soldiers deployed to the region around the northern city of Kunduz. An advance contingent of about 20 soldiers was expected to leave the western German city of Cologne to head to Kunduz immediately following the vote. The troops will provide security for civilian reconstruction teams. Sept 11 attacks planned in Afghanistan, not Germany German federal police have said that the September 11 attacks on the United States were planned in Afghanistan and not in the northern German city of Hamburg. The head of Germany's constitutional police has said that Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian believed to have led the hijackers and who had lived in Hamburg, had chosen his co-conspirators at an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in December 1999. The statement came at the trial of a suspected terrorist charged with conspiracy in the 9/11 attacks. Italians strike over pensions Millions of Italians have gone on strike to protest against government plans to reform the heavily-indebted pension system. Morning trains were cancelled, Alitalia axed more than 150 afternoon flights, and hospitals said they could only guarantee staff for emergency services. Italy's top three unions have urged their 11 million members to join numerous demonstrations across the country. The planned reforms would prevent Italians from retiring before they pay 40 years of contributions or reach a minimum retirement age of 65 for men and 60 for women. Powell welcomes Iran's nuclear declararation U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has welcomed Iran's declaration on its nuclear activities to the United Nations, but cautioned that Iran had to prove to the international community that it deserved trust. Earlier Iran delivered its declaration to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, eight days ahead of a deadline by the agency for the country to prove it has no secret atomic weapons as Washington alleges. Iran admitted being what it called "discreet" about its nuclear program in the past. The IAEA is eager to learn details about the origin of uranium enrichment equipment which Iran says it bought on the black market. Tehran blames these contraband parts for contamination at two sites where the UN agency found traces of weapons-grade uranium. 2003 summer ozone pollution in Europe hits a record Ground-level ozone pollution in Europe, stoked by a stifling heatwave, reached the highest levels this summer, according to the European Environment Agency. It said that out of 31 EU and other European countries, 23 suffered ozone concentrations that breached a key health threshold between April and August. Under EU laws, governments must inform the public when ozone concentrations exceed certain levels. Concorde takes off for its final flight Concorde, the world's only supersonic airliner, has taken off on its last trans-Atlantic passenger flight. The British Airways plane left New York on its way to London's Heathrow airport where the company's last three jets will land in sequence. Concorde is being retired after 27 years because BA insists it is increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. But the catalyst to the decision was in the summer of 2000 when an Air France Concorde plane crashed after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
