Deutsche Welle English Service News 29. October 2003, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Germany and U.S. See Eye-to-Eye on Security Measures U.S. Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge is in Berlin Wednesday to meet with Interior Minister Otto Schily. On the agenda are controversial U.S. plans requiring Europeans to have biometric data on their passports. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1433_A_1015919_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Russian miners found alive after five days In southern Russia, 11 of 13 miners trapped in a coal mine have been rescued. A 12th miner was found dead. The men had been trapped in the Zapadnaya mine near the town of Novoshakhtinsk since last Thursday, when an underground lake burst into their mineshaft. Thirty-three other miners were rescued on Saturday. Meanwhile, an explosion in a mine in eastern Russia has reportedly killed five miners. Officials said the blast in Partizansk was probably caused by a gas leak. Putin's powerful chief of staff resigns Moscow newspapers are reporting that the Kremlin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, has resigned in protest over last weekend's arrest of Yukos Oil chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Russia's Kommersant business daily said a formal announcement about the resignation would not be made until a replacement had been found. Khodorkovsky was arrested at gunpoint by secret service men on Saturday at a Siberian airport. He's being held on fraud and tax evasion charges, but some observers have said the arrest was politically motivated. Red Cross to cut staff in Iraq The International Red Cross says it will cut its foreign staff presence in Iraq. The move comes in response to Monday's bomb attack on its headquarters in Baghdad in which about a dozen Red Cross workers were killed. A spokesperson said the organisation would retain most of its local workers. Meanwhile the latest US deaths in Iraq have taken the post-war toll beyond the wartime fatalities' figure. Two US servicemen died in a roadside bomb blast north of Baghdad. 116 US soldiers have now been killed since May 1 when major fighting was declared over compared to 115 killed during the war. US, EU seek common security guidelines The American Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge, on a visit to Berlin, has said the United States and the European Union plan to develop common guidelines for border security to combat terrorism. After meeting Ridge, German Interior Minister Otto Schily said the US and Europe would seek common biometric identification methods, such as fingerprints and digital photographs, that could be included in travel documents to combat passport forgeries. Interior ministers from the EU's largest countries met last week in France to discuss developing similar border security guidelines. UN says Afghanistan could become failed "narco-state" The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan, the world's leading producer of opium, risks becoming a failed state in the hands of drugs cartels and narco-terrorists. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says in its latest annual report that opium cultivation was nearly eradicated in 2001 by the Taliban regime, but has since mushroomed. UN anti-drugs chief Antonio Maria Costa said Afghanistan now accounts for about three-quarters of global opium production. Palestinian PM wants direct talks with militant groups Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has said he wants to hold direct talks with the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups on reaching a truce with Israel. Qorei told reporters he was prepared to meet militant leaders in their Gaza Strip strongholds however he gave no date for a possible meeting. Earlier Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian and wounded another near the Gaza Strip. Israeli military sources said the two Palestinians had entered an off-limits area used in the past by gunmen to launch attacks on Israeli troops. Three countries set to breach EU deficit limit France, Germany and Portugal are set to breach the EU public deficit ceiling next year. In its autumn economic report, the European Commission predicted that Germany would record a deficit of 3.9 percent of gross domestic product. Three percent is the deficit limit set out by the EU's Stability and Growth Pact. The projections come after German Finance Minister Hans Eichel unveiled a revised budget for this year, which predicts a deficit of more than 43 billion euros, or more than 4 percent of GDP. Britain's Tory leader in confidence vote In Britain, a confidence vote has got underway against Iain Duncan Smith that could see him ousted as leader of the opposition Conservative Party. He's been widely perceived within his party as a weak leader and has been criticised for his inability to mount a serious challenge to Prime Minister Tony Blair. Duncan Smith needs a simple majority from the 165 Conservative party members of parliament casting their vote in a secret ballot. If he loses there will be a leadership contest from which he is barred. WWF calls on EU to toughen proposed chemical rules The environmental group, WWF, has called on the European Union to tighten up draft legislation on chemical safety for household products. WWF claims the European Commission had bowed to pressure from chemical companies to water down the proposals. European companies oppose the law altogether, saying it would increase the cost of production. The bill aims to reduce the dangers to human health from chemicals used in manufactured goods. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
