Deutsche Welle English Service News 03.05.2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Turkish Police Foil Suspected NATO Summit Terror Attack Security forces in northwestern Turkey are claiming to have cracked a radical Islamist cell which they believe was planning a bomb attack against the NATO summit in Istanbul in June. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1188402_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- China's Wen arrives in Berlin for talks dominated by trade Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has arrived in Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Their meeting was expected to focus on trade issues. To coincide with Wen's four-day visit to Germany, the German-American auto giant DaimlerChrysler announced it had permission from the Chinese authorities to proceed with a planned joint venture with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company (BAIC). The two companies agreed last September on an alliance to set up a one-billion-euro manufacturing facility to build Mercedes cars. Meanwhile, German human rights groups have appealed to Chancellor Schroeder to call on Beijing to improve its treatment of the media and release political prisoners. Turkish police arrest bomb plot suspects Police in Turkey say they've foiled a bomb plot targeting a NATO summit in Istanbul at the end of June. Authorities said they had arrested 16 militants who allegedly belong to the Ansar al-Islam group, which is believed to have ties to al Qaeda. Nine other suspected militants detained in raids around Istanbul were questioned and later released. US President George W. Bush and other western leaders are scheduled to attend the NATO summit. Sharon says he will present modified plan for approval Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he would modify his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. This, after hard-liners in his Likud Party overwhelmingly rejected the so-called "disengagement plan," which includes an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, plus dismantling Jewish settlements in both Gaza and the West Bank. Some 60% of the Likud Party members voted against the plan. Sharon said he would come up with an alternative proposal which would get wider support. Opinion polls have shown that a majority of the Israeli general public supports the disengagement plan. Factory stampede in Dhaka - six killed A stampede at a garment factory in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, caused by a false fire alarm, has left at least six women dead. Police said one of the victims was an underage worker. Thirty other people were injured. Hundreds of textile workers had tried to escape via a single emergency staircase. Workers were panicked by rumours of a fire, which turned out to be an electrical short circuit in a cotton warehouse nearby. After a similar tragedy in 2000, the Bangladesh government introduced bylaws requiring adequate exits and practice evacuations. Dhaka's factories produce clothes for Western consumers. Car bomb kills 3 Chinese in Pakistan Three Chinese workers have been killed in a car bomb attack in the Pakistani port city of Gawadar. Eleven other people were reported injured. A police spokesman said a car parked near the port exploded as the bus carrying the workers arrived there. Police have described it as a terrorist act although they gave no further details. Former Burundi rebels walk out of government The main former rebel group in Burundi has said it is pulling out of the government saying that rival groups have failed to stick to peace accords. In a statement, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy's secretary general said his party would no longer take part in cabinet meetings until a ceasefire for the African country was fully implemented. Rebels from the Hutu majority have been fighting the Tutsi-dominated army since 1993. At least 300,000 people have been killed in the fighting. Nigerian police disperse protestors In the Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja police have fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protestors as they gathered in defiance of a government ban on assembly. The planned marches had been called by opposition and civil rights groups. They accuse President Olusegun Obasango of straying from ideals that brought him to power five years ago. An aide to Muhammadu Buhari, the main challenger in last year's disputed election, said last night police had arrested scores of Buhari's supporters in Abuja and vandalised his office. Today, witnesses said police prevented Buhari from leaving his hotel. Nigerian police have said the "time is not right" for protests. U.S. troops in Najaf come under mortar fire A US base in the Iraqi city of Najaf has come under intense mortar fire, but there were no reports of casualties. The shelling began overnight, when some 20 mortars hit in and around the former Spanish base which U.S. troops now occupy. Meanwhile, in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, US Marines have brought in a former Iraqi general to lead a force in charge of putting down insurgency in the city. Mohammed Latif will take overall command of the Falluja Brigade, replacing General Mohamed Jasim Saleh. Saleh is stepping down after just four days on the job. His appointment was criticised for being a former general in the Republican Guard under Saddam Hussein. Alleged Djindjic assassin surrenders The alleged mastermind of the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic has surrendered to Serbian police. Serbia's national security chief told state television that Milorad Lukovic had given himself up in a house in a Belgrade suburb. Djindijc, a pro-Western reformist who helped topple former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, was killed by a sniper in central Belgrade in March of last year. The gunman, Zvezdan Jovanovic, allegedly confessed to the assassination but during his trial, defence lawyers have said he spoke under duress. German draft law on immigration near collapse Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition partners, the Greens, have refused to continue parliamentary talks with opposition parties, saying draft immigration legislation has been watered down too far. At marathon talks in Berlin, the conservatives had sought so-called precautionary detentions of up to two years for foreigners classed as security risks. Today, Greens' co-leader Reinhard Butikofer said his party's executive was unanimous in refusing to continue talks within a Bundestag mediation committee. The secretary-general of the conservative CDU, Laurenz Mayer, said Schroeder's coalition was split. The idea of precautionary detention came from Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily. Schroeder's coalition had originally sought a major modernisation of immigration in Germany's law books. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
