Deutsche Welle English Service News February 4th 2004, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Top Bosnian Serb Leader Goes on Trial for Genocide The trial of former Bosnian Serb leader, Momcilo Krajisnik, has begun in The Hague. Krajisnik is charged with genocide and masterminding a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian conflict from 1992 to 1995. 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_1104502_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Shouting protesters halt Blair speech in parliament A debate about Iraq in Britain's House of Commons was briefly suspended after a group of anti-Iraq war protesters shouted at Prime Minister Tony Blair. Despite the protests and growing political pressure, Blair again defended his decision to invade Iraq. Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Independent has published an article by retired weapons scientist Brian Jones in which he said senior government officials had ignored warnings from their own experts that intelligence did not prove Iraq had chemical or biological weapons. On Tuesday, Blair announced that Robert Butler, a former head of the civil service, would lead an inquiry into whether there were failures of intelligence. Annan to send UN team back to Baghdad United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that he will send a UN team back to Baghdad within days to assist in the transfer of power to Iraq. He acknowledged that there were local disagreements about the formation of a provisional government and hoped that the UN would be able to mediate. He agreed with President Bush that the proposed deadline of June 30th for the handover to a provisional government would stand. Annan made the announcement in Washington after meeting with President Bush at the White House. The UN withdrew its presence in Baghdad after it was the target of repeated terrorist attacks. FBI investigates ricin incident in US Senate In Washington, the FBI has launched a criminal investigation after the deadly poison ricin was found in the mailroom of the Senate majority leader's office. The discovery earlier this week forced the closure of three government buildings. Sixteen people who were near the mailroom went through decontamination procedures but none were believed to have been harmed by the powder. The White House, meanwhile, reportedly received a letter containing ricin back in November. American media said the letter was found in the White House mailroom, but no one was injured. Kerry wins five out of seven Democratic primaries In the race for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination, Senator John Kerry has consolidated his lead by securing wins in five of seven state primaries. Rival contendors Senator John Edwards and former NATO commander Wesley Clark secured one win each, while Senator Joe Lieberman announced that he is retiring from the contest. Whoever is selected as Democratic candidate at the Boston convention in July will face U.S. President George W. Bush in November's election. Anti-terrorism conference opens on Bali A two day conference to discuss anti-terrorism has opened on the tourist island of Bali. Combating the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah topped the agenda at the conference attended by ministers and senior officials from 33 countries. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was also in attendance. Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer said that he feared additional terrorist attacks were inevitable in the Asia-Pacific region. As a combat measure he announced the opening of a trans-national crime centre in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to be run jointly by Indonesia and Australia. Bali was the site of the twin night-club bombings on Oct. 12th, 2002 that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian tourists. Pakistan's top nuclear scientist asks forgiveness for spreading nuclear secrets The founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has apologised on national television for spreading nuclear weapons secrets, saying he took "full responsibility" for the leaks and denying any government involvement. Earlier, Khan met President Pervez Musharraf and reportedly requested clemency for his actions. Officials say Khan confessed to sending nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea in the 80's and 90's. Pakistani investigators launched a probe in November after Iranian revelations to the United Nations nuclear watchdog. Experts to recommend bird flu vaccination as alternative to massive bird culls A 16-year-old girl in Vietnam and a six year old boy in Thailand are the latest victims of the bird flu virus - bringing the total number of people killed by the infection to 15. International agriculture, animal and health experts are in Rome to discuss ways to curb the spread of the disease, saying they will push animal vaccination as an alternative to slaughtering millions more birds. At least 25 million poultry have already been culled in Thailand alone. Ten Asian countries are currently affected by the outbreak. Juppe says he will stay in office in spite of conviction Former French prime minister Alain Juppe has stated that he will stay on in politics in spite of being given a suspended prison term and barred from holding public office. In a surprise announcement on national TV he asserted that he will continue to work as mayor of Bordeaux until his appeal against a conviction for illegal party funding is heard. This could take over one year. He was convicted for his role in the financial scandal while he served as economic director at the Paris City Hall in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Current French President Jacques Chirac was Paris mayor at the time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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