Deutsche Welle English Service News 30.01.2004, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Cannibal Convicted of Mansl One of the most sensational trials in German legal history ended on Friday when judges convicted self-confessed cannibal, Armin Meiwes, to eight years and six months in prison. 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_1100270_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Israeli troops raid Bethlehem after bus bombing Israeli forces have entered Bethlehem in the West Bank. That's the home town of a Palestinian policeman who killed 10 people and wounded nearly 50 in a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus. Israeli security sources said the government had decided on a measured response to Thursday's bus attack. In the West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli soldiers shot dead a wanted Hamas militant who reportedly opened fire at the soldiers as they entered his home to arrest him. Troops in the Gaza Strip killed two Palestinian teenagers armed with explosives and a rocket-propelled grenade. Palestinian sources said the two were part of a squad dispatched to attack the Jewish settlement of Dugit. Fighting in Kashmir Indian soldiers in Kashmir have stormed a hideout of Islamist rebels and reportedly shot ten separatists. An Indian army officer said five leaders of the rebellion were among those shot. The army also said that two suspected separatists and one civilian were killed in other fighting in Kashmir. India and Pakistan plan to take up peace talks in February about the disputed Himalayan region. Struck to visit troops in Afghanistan Defence Minister Peter Struck is on his way to Afghanistan for a short visit with German peacekeepers there. Struck is to gather information on the mission of a team of 200 Bundeswehr soldiers deployed to the northern-Afghanistan city of Kunduz. The German troops are there to help provide security and assist in reconstruction efforts. Before departing from Berlin, Struck stressed that Bundeswehr troops would not get involved in combatting the illicit drug trade in Kunduz, saying they were not adequately trained for that job. Reformers prepare to boycott Iranian election In Iran, a hard-line watchdog body had announced that it has reversed its disqualification of more than 1,100 liberal candidates from running in next month's parliamentary elections. That's about a third of the candidates it had originally barred. But it's not clear whether it will be enough to defuse the country's political crisis. Earlier, the leader of Iran's largest reformist party, Mohammad Reza Khatami, threatened a mass boycott of the elections unless the disqualified candidates were allowed to run. Among those barred were more than 80 members of parliament, including Reza Khatami. The Guradian Council is a non-elected body that's responsible for safeguarding Islamic principles. Iranian witness implicates defendant at September 11 trial A witness at a trial in Germany over the September 11th attacks in the United States has said that the Moroccan defendant was involved in the plot. The witness claims to be a former Iranian spy with high-ranking sources in the Iranian intelligence services. He told the Hamburg court that Abdelghani Mzoudi was a liaison for the reception of encrypted communications from the al Qaeda terror network ahead of the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. The presiding judge in the case has also expressed skepticism about the claims. Mzoudi is charged with being an accessory to more than 3,000 counts of murder and membership in a terrorist organisation. Juppe gets suspended sentence in party funding scam Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe has been given an 18-month suspended sentence for his part in an illegal party-funding scam. The court in Nanterre, near Paris also barred him from elected office for up to 10 years. It found him guilty of wrongdoing in a scam in which Paris City Hall funds were used to pay political party allies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the time, current French President Jacques Chirac was the mayor of Paris, and Juppe was his deputy. Juppe had been expected to run for president, if Chirac decides not to seek a third term in 2007. A lawyer for Juppe said he would appeal the verdict. During the appeal process, Juppe will be allowed to remain in office as the mayor of Bordeaux. Confessed German cannibal sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison A court in the German city of Kassel has sentenced a man to eight and a half years in prison for manslaughter. Armin Meiwes had confessed to killing, dismembering and eating another man. The verdict falls short of the murder conviction sought by prosecutors. They argued that Meiwes had killed a Berlin-based computer engineer for sexual pleasure. The court rejected the defence lawyer's argument that Meiwes should be convicted of "killing on request." That carries a far shorter sentence of six months to five years. Meiwes told the court his victim responded to an ad he had placed on the Internet in search someone willing to be killed and eaten. Several experts had testified that Meiwes was fit to stand trial and was not mentally ill. Georgia to get millions in help from Germany The German government has promised Georgia support of 26 million euros for economic development and democratisation. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who was inaugurated on Sunday, has been in Berlin for a two-day visit. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder promised to send German experts to Georgia to help improve the tariff system, and also help train diplomats. Schroeder called Georgia a key state in the politically challenging Caucasus region. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
