Deutsche Welle English Service News 19 April 2004, 16:00 UTC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Round: Go East! The EU Quiz: Europe is expanding East. Embark on a journey through the 10 candidate countries set to enter the EU by playing the fourth and final round of DW-WORLD's Go East quiz. Lots of great prizes are waiting to be discovered. http://dw-world.de/go-east ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Spanish Pull-Out Puts Pressure on U.S. Allies in Iraq Spain's new prime minister has ordered Spanish troops to withdraw from Iraq. Washington has reacted coolly to the move, but the pull-out is expected to step up pressure on other U.S. allies in Iraq to follow suit. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,7489_A_1173995_1_A,00.html: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pre-poll violence in India Pre-poll violence is on the rise in India ahead of Tuesday's parliamentary elections. A member of India's ruling alliance was wounded in the southern state of Andhra Pra-desh on Sunday night when his car hit a landmine believed to have been planted by leftist guerrillas of the People's War Group. In Indian-administered Kashmir, suspected rebels fired a rocket at a polling station some 70 kilometres north of Srinagar. No casualties were reported. Meanwhile, Indian military sources said troops had shot dead three Pakistani militants who were allegedly planning to disrupt the elections. Voting begins on Tuesday in the first of five phases of a mammoth exercise involving more than 670 million voters. Bush tells Zapatero he regrets pullout decision US President George W. Bush has told Spain's new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero that he regrets his decision to abruptly withdraw troops from Iraq. The White House said the two leaders discussed the Iraq situation in a telephone conversation. A spokesman said Bush pushed for the withdrawal of Spanish troops to take place in a coordinated manner to ensure that it does not put at risk other coalition forces in Iraq. A US military spokesman had earlier said that the withdrawal would not create a security vaccuum in the country. On Sunday, Zapatero said he had ordered the withdrawal of the 1,400 Spanish troops in Iraq as soon as possible because he was convinced that coalition troops would not be under UN control in time for the scheduled handover of sovereignty, back to Iraqis, on June the 30th. US, Iraqis announce measures for Fallujah Following a fresh round of talks between coalition officials and Iraqi mediators over the besieged city of Fallujah, both sides have agreed on measures to try and end the standoff between Iraqi insurgents and US-led forces. Dan Senor, the coalition's spokesman, said one measure was aimed at disarmament. Other measures include shortening the curfew and allowing unrestricted humanitarian access to the people of Fallujah. Meanwhile the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has said that there are not enough Iraqi security forces to provide sufficient protection against insurgents after the US hands back sovereignty to the Iraqis planned for June 30th. Pakistan to let Bhutto's husband attend court case Pakistani authorities say they're prepared to allow the jailed husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to go to Switzerland to appeal his corruption conviction. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters that the government would ask Asif Ali Zardari whether he wants to attend the hearing at a Swiss court scheduled for this Thursday. Both he and Bhutto were sentenced in 2002 to six-month jail terms by the Swiss court for their roles in a money-laundering case. Zardari was accused of abusing his position and accepting huge commissions and kickbacks on local and international contracts. UN court reduces Srebenica massacre conviction The Appeals Chamber of the UN war crimes tribunal has reduced the sentence of the former Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic for his role in the Srebrenica massacre from 46 to 35 years in prison. The court said that he had aided and abetted but had not been a direct participant in the massacre. However, the court confirmed that the massacre in Srebrenica was genocide. More than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed by Bosnian Serb troops in 1995. Kristic's defence had tried to argue that the number of victims didn't constitute a genocide. The landmark ruling is expected to have implications for others on trial for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia at The Hague tribunal, including former Serb president Slobodan Milosevic. Dutroux victim testifies For the first time at the Dutroux trial in Belgium - now into its seventh week - a surviver has testified. Sabine Dardenne, who was 12 when kidnapped, today confronted the child rapist Marc Dutroux and asked him why he did not kill her while confined in a cellar. Dutroux replied that he had abused her but said he never planned to kill her. Four other girl captives died in 1996. Dardenne, now aged 20, was rescued along with Laetitia Delhez. She is due to testify on Tuesday. He denies murder. Still unanswered at the trial is whether Dutroux acted alone or was part of a paedophile ring. Blair may allow referendum on EU charter It appears that the British government is to make a U-turn on a referendum for a EU constitution. Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to explicitly confirm plans to let Britons vote on the charter if EU leaders vote it through. However a policy paper due to be released by the foreign office later today is expected to outline plans for a referendum. The government has in the past repeatedly dismissed calls for a referendum arguing that the charter would not fundamentally change Britain's relationship with the EU. However Blair has been under pressure from the opposition Conservatives who say that an EU constitution would curtail Britain's powers in the areas of taxation, foreign policy and criminal justice affairs. German growth falters in first quarter There's more bad news for the German economy after figures out today show that growth has not picked up as much as expected in the first quarter of this year. The Bundesbank said that gross domestic product only increased by 0.25 percent, the same rate of growth as in the last two quarters. The influential industry association BDI has revised its growth forecast from 2 percent to 1.5 for 2004. The government is officially forecasting 1.7 percent for 2004. Explosive-laden vehicles seized in Saudi Arabia Saudi authorities have seized two vehicles laden with explosives in the third straight day of such seizures. The two Sport Utility Vehicles were parked near a gas station on a highway outside the capital Riyadh. The latest discovery brings to five the number of car-bombs seized in Saudi Arabia within the past week. Last year, 51 people were killed in two major car bomb attacks on compounds housing foreign nationals in Riyadh. Three astronauts blast off for the ISS A Soyuz rocket carrying a crew of three astronauts from different countries has blasted off for the International Space Station. The rocket successfully entered orbit nine minutes after taking off from the Russian launch pad in Kazakhstan. The three astronauts, from the US, the Netherlands and Russia are due to dock at the station on Wednesday, to replace two astronauts who have been there since last October. Ever since the Columbia shuttle disaster last year, Russia's Soyuz rockets are the only way astronauts and equipment get to and from the ISS, a 16-nation project that includes Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States. McDonald's CEO dies of heart attack The chief executive and chairman of the McDonald's fast-food chain has died of an apparent heart attack. The company said 60-year old Jim Cantalupo was taken ill in Orlando at a meeting of franchise owners. The news sent McDonald's stock plunging by more than 3 percent. Cantalupo had been credited with turning the fast-food giant's fortunes around after poor performances in recent years. Revenues recovered last year after the introduction of new items such as salads and chicken. In February sales growth at US restaurants open more than a year rose to their highest level in 30 years. Maradona in intensive care - lung infection Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona is in intensive care in a hospital in Buenos Aires. His family doctor said Maradona's condition had stabilised. A lung infection was being treated with antibiotics and he was breathing with the help of a respirator. The doctor denied any link to an overdose. Previously, Maradona had been in therapy to battle a drug addiction. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD.DE on Your Desktop. Keep up with events with our RSS-Feeds: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,5069_A_1137115,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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