Deutsche Welle English Service News 27.02.2004, 17:00 UTC ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
U.S.-German Ties on the Mend With Chancellor Schröder's warm reception at the White House the Bush administration is signaling its desire for renewed friendship. Both have their reasons -- political and practical -- to kiss and make-up. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1124825_1_A,00.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bush, Schroeder stress shared values, burying Iraq hatchet U.S. President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have begun talks at the White House aimed putting tensions over the Iraq war behind them. After arriving Thursday in Chicago at the start of his U.S. visit, the German chancellor praised the two countries' economic relationship and welcomed Washington's plans to present a new Middle East initiative. Bush, for his part, has praised Germany's military role in peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and its contribution to the fight against terrorism. Caribbean nations call for intervention in Haiti; rebels threaten capital Rebels in Haiti have seized Les Cayes, the nation's third largest city, as neighboring Caribbean countries called on the UN Security Council to send troops, saying intervention was urgent. A delegation from the Haitian government was in Paris on Friday for talks with French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin. France said President Jean-Bertrand Aristide bore a heavy responsibility for the current situation in Haiti and should step down. Meanwhile, looting and killings have been reported in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as loyalists manned barricades to beat back an expected rebel assault. Mastermind of deadly Tokyo nerve gas attack sentenced to hang The Japanese cult leader Shoko Asahara has been convicted and sentenced to hang for masterminding the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway that killed 27 people. Asahara, founder of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, also was convicted of ordering his followers to produce and stockpile arsenals of conventional and chemical weapons, including the sarin gas used in the subway attack. Forty-eight-year old Asahara is the 12th person sentenced to hang for the attacks. His lawyers have launched an appeal. Passenger ferry catches fire near Manila; one killed, scores missing A powerful explosion on a passenger ferry in the Philippines has killed at least one person and left more than 100 others missing. Most of the 744 passengers and the entire crew of 155 survived by jumping into the sea or boarding rescue boats. Officials said those still missing may have been picked up by fishing boats. There were conflicting reports about what caused the explosion and fire. A coast guard official said it may have originated in the engine room, while a passenger said an air conditioner had exploded. The smouldering ferry has since been towed to shallow waters. Iraq begins oil exports from Khor Al-Amaya terminal An oil tanker has started loading crude at Iraq's second Gulf oil export terminal, Khor al-Amaya, according to an official of the State Oil Marketing Organization. Earlier in the week, officials said the Khor Al-Amaya terminal would start loading at a rate of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day and gradually increase to 800,000 barrels a day. Iraq's second major export route - a pipeline from the northern oil fields near Kirkuk to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan - has yet to resume pumping on a regular basis because of sabotage and poor maintenance. Charge of securities fraud dropped against Martha Stewart The American guru of home-making and lifestyle, Martha Stewart, has been cleared of the most serious charge against her in a securities fraud case. The presiding judge said prosecutors had failed to present enough evidence to allow jurors to decide whether Stewart was guilty of securities fraud. Stewart's troubles are far from over, however, as she still faces charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators. She is accused of ordering her broker to sell her stock holdings in the biotech firm ImClone after she received an insider tip on the company's products. Porsche recalls thousands of SUVs German carmaker Porsche said on Friday it had recalled over 22,000 of its Cayenne sport-utility vehicles due to wiring problems. A spokesman for the company said that a spring in the brake could chafe on electrical cables. There are no known accidents due to the problem, which affects vehicles built prior to mid-July of 2003. Despite the news, Porsche shares were up almost two percent in Friday trading. Six-nation talks on North Korea to close with little progress High-level talks on North Korea's nuclear program will close on Saturday after encountering differences and difficulties and will be continued by the six nations involved through less formal work groups. One report said the next round of six-party talks by senior delegates would be held before the end of April. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, reporting from Beijing, said the first of the work groups would meet within two weeks. Those groups plan to discuss energy aid to the impoverished North in return for a nuclear freeze and comprehensive nuclear abandonment by Pyongyang. European space mission delayed by mishap A hole in a piece of insulation has again delayed the launch of the European Rosetta space mission. A project manager at the European Space Agency control center in Darmstadt, Germany, said a ten centimeter piece of foam insulation fell off the Ariane-5 booster rocket on Friday halting the launch countdown. On Thursday, lift-off was cancelled at the ESA launch site in French-Guyana because of high winds. After a ten-year flight through space, the unmanned Rosetta probe is scheduled to land on the comet, Churyumov- Gerassimenko, and examine its geoglogical and chemical composition. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. 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