Deutsche Welle English Service News February 20th, 2004, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Frankfurt Deputy Police Chief Charged in Torture Case Prosecutors on Friday filed charges against Frankfurt's former deputy police chief for ordering threats of violence against the chief suspect in the kidnapping and murder of a prominent banker's 11-year-old son. 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_1119490_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The East is Calling! On May 1st the EU expands to include 10 new members. Join DW-WORLD on a cultural and political journey across thousands of kilometers by participating in our online quiz. You'll come out a winner -- whether it's picking up a prize or expanding your mind. http://dw-world.de/go-east ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Iran votes in disputed election Iranians have been voting in a disputed parliamentary election that seems likely to increase hardliners' grip on power. Conservatives seem certain to dominate the new assembly after the Guardian Council, an unelected panel of hardline clerics, disqualified 2,500 reformists in the run-up to the elections. Some reformist politicians and student groups called on Iranians to boycott the polls. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, called the boycotters "traitors to the country and Islam". Most analysts expect turnout to be well below the two-thirds who voted in 2000 elections, when reformist allies of President Mohammad Khatami won. A low turnout could undermine the authority of the result. Five Britons, one Dane at Guantanamo to be returned home Five of the nine British terrorist suspects held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will soon return home, but it was unclear whether they would face trial. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that discussions were continuing about the other four detained Britons, who are among about 650 prisoners being held at the U.S. naval base on suspicion of being al-Qaida or Taliban fighters. Michael Ratner from the US Centre for Constitutional Rights insisted the releases had been long overdue. Also, the Danish government said that one of its citizens would soon be released and return to Denmark a free man. Ukrainian president visits Germany Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has held talks today in Berlin with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The visit has been overshadowed by allegations made by a former Berlin-based agent of the Ukrainian Security Service. Valeri Kravchenko, former head of security at the Ukraine's embassy in Berlin, told Deutsche Welle he was instructed to spy on organisers of a political forum in Germany run by the "Our Ukraine" opposition bloc. The Ukrainian president dismissed the allegations. Following the meeting, Kuchma, who has been in office since 1994, reiterated that he had no intention of standing in presidential elections in October. Turk court keeps pro-Kurd ex-MPs in jail for retrial A Turkish court on Friday again refused to free from prison four former lawmakers jailed in 1994 for links to Kurdish separatists in a case that has drawn sharp criticism from the European Union and human rights groups. It was the 11th time the state security court ruled against releasing Leyla Zana, a former Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and the others during a retrial that began almost a year ago after the European Court of Human Rights ruled Turkey had denied them a fair trial. The EU has urged Ankara to free the four defendants during the retrial and said their case reflects poorly on Turkey's efforts to overhaul its chequered human rights record. Kostunica named Serbian PM-designate-Tanjug news agency Conservative leader Vojislav Kostunica was nominated Serbian prime minister-designate on Friday, almost eight weeks after December's inconclusive general election, the official Tanjug news agency said. Acting Serbian President Dragan Marsicanin asked Kostunica to form a government and he accepted, Tanjug said. Kostunica, a self-styled moderate nationalist, is expected to head a minority coalition backed by ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists. Meanwhile NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has renewed his call for Serbia to cooperate with the search for suspected war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. This remained the biggest hurdle for Serbia joining NATO's Partnership For Peace programme. Belgian parliament gives vote to immigrants The Belgian parliament has approved plans to give immigrants limited voting rights. The decision ends months of divisive debate that had threatened to bring down the federal government. Starting in 2006, foreigners from outside the European Union who have lived in Belgium for at least five years will be able to vote in municipal elections. They will not have the right to vote in national or European Parliament elections nor can they run as candidates in elections unless they are Belgian citizens. Second day of Cyprus talks ends with little progress The Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders have held UN-sponsored talks on reuniting their island for a second day. The Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, said the talks had focused on technical details such as a national flag and anthem for a reunified Cyprus. Neither side mentioned progress on major points of disagreement. If Cyprus does not succeed in reuniting, only the southern, Greek Cypriot part of the island will be allowed to enter the European Union on May 1. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. European Green parties unite Thirty-two Green parties from across Europe are to unite to form a new European Green Party to participate in Europe-wide elections in June. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will open the party's founding congress today in Rome. The European Green Party will be formally launched on Sunday after two days of round-table discussions. The decision to create a Europe-wide party was taken by a European federation of Green parties in Berlin in 2002. German prosecutors charge top police official Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against a top police official for ordering threats of violence against a suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of a prominent German banker's 11-year-old son. Human rights groups welcomed Frankfurt prosecutors' decision to charge the city's deputy police chief, 60-year-old Wolfgang Daschner, who was immediately transferred to an administrative job outside Frankfurt. Daschner last year admitted that he had ordered an officer questioning the suspect, Magnus Gaefgen, to threaten him with intense pain and put a martial arts trainer on call to use force after hours of questioning had produced no information on the whereabouts of the boy, Jakob von Metzler. UK police to interview mass killers in jail British police say they plan to interview convicted serial killers in an attempt to understand their motivations and speed up arrest times. A spokesman from the Metropolitan police in London said officers want to find out how the killers initially eluded captures so that they can speed up future detection and prevent murders from taking place. The research was sparked by the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington that left 10 people dead. Russia searches for tanker missing in Caspian Russia has launched an air search for a tanker carrying 900 tonnes of contaminated water which went missing in a storm in the Caspian Sea and is thought to have sunk. New agencies quoted the local emergencies ministry as saying that two of the 12 crew from the tanker, the Akusha, were picked up from a life raft on Thursday, while four more were found today. The ship had been pumping waste water out of oil tankers near Aktau in Kazakhstan and was taking it to the Russian port of Makhachkala for disposal when it was caught in a storm on February 16. Two Thai cats die of bird flu Two domestic cats in Thailand have died of the same bird flu that has killed 22 people in Asia. The latest discovery has increased fears that the virus can move between species as easily as it has between countries. Vietnam and Thailand have now agreed to set up closer surveillance systems and share information to fight the disease. They are the only countries among the eight Asian nations affected where the disease has jumped to humans. Meanwhile, China has confirmed two more suspected cases of the disease. China's Ministry of Agriculture said the latest outbreaks, in the provinces of Shaanxi and Yunnan, had been brought under control by a mass-culling of poultry. The MoMA comes to Berlin A major art exhibition has opened its doors to the public at Berlin's new National Gallery. Two-hundred masterpieces from New York's Museum of Modern Art will be on display in the German capital until next September. Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne and Hopper are among the featured artists. The exhibition is being seen as the art event of the year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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