Deutsche Welle English Service News 14. 06. 2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Social Democrats Suffer Double Defeat German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats took a drubbing in elections for the European Parliament, as well as regional elections in the eastern state of Thuringia, raising doubts about the party's future. 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_1234563_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Attention: Due to e-mail manipulation, many e-mails are being sent from e-mail accounts that resemble Deutsche Welle mail accounts. Many of these mails contain viruses. We would like to inform you that Deutsche Welle (DW-WORLD) is not responsible for sending such mails. We are are doing our best to put an end to external e-mail manipulation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Another suicide car bombing in Baghdad At least twelve people have been killed in another suicide car bombing in Baghdad, the second within 24 hours. Monday's blast destroyed eight vehicles and several shops. The US military said several foreign contractors were among the dead. More than 60 people, including 10 foreign contractors, had been injured. Iraq's new interim prime minister said the attack had targeted foreign civilians working to restore electricity. Also in Iraq, the US military has freed scores of Iraqis from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The military had said 585 prisoners would be freed on Monday under a programme to reduce numbers at the prison by June 30. Bruised EU digests election Governments in many old and new EU nations are digesting voter disapproval and low turnout after the European Parliament elections. Just six weeks after the European Union's enlargement to 25 nations, overall turnout in the four-day poll was just 45 percent. In the ten new mostly eastern European nations, turnout was a mere 26 percent. Outgoing European Parliament chairman Pat Cox said the decline was a "wake-up call" for EU leaders. In the new Strasbourg assembly of 732 seats, Europe's centre-right conservatives will remain the largest group, followed by centre-left Socialists, then Europe's liberals and Greens. So-called euro-sceptics will have 17 seats, led by a British fringe party, the UKIP, which wants Britain out of the EU. In Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers are rushing to finalise the proposed EU constitution ahead of EU summit talks on Thursday. Schroeder rejects cabinet reshuffle German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has rejected speculation of a cabinet reshuffle after his party's election debacles of Sunday. A spokesman for Schroeder said he would stick to his economic and welfare reforms, despite voter discontent. His Social Democrats got just 21 percent in the European Parliament election. And, in a regional assembly poll in the eastern German state of Thuringia, the local Social Democrats slumped to 14 percent. Germany's opposition conservatives were the clear winners. In the Thuringia poll, CDU conservatives led by state premier Dieter Althaus held on to a majority. In the European poll, the conservatives scored 44 percent across Germany. The Greens got almost 12 percent. Their leading candidate Daniel Cohn-Bendit said his party, which is in Schroeder's coalition, was the only governing party in Europe to make gains. Muslim OIC nations meet in Turkey The world's largest gathering of Islamic nations has opened in Istanbul, with Turkey calling for reforms. Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Conference, or OIC, that their countries were not immune from "the winds of change". Human rights and religious tolerance must be reinforced, Sezer said, but it was up to each country to determine the pace. Modernisations would, however, be in vain, he said, unless a solution was found for the Israel-Palestinian crisis. United Nations envoy for Iraq Lahkdar Brahimi urged OIC ministers to support Iraq's new transitional government. OIC Secretary-General Abdelouahed Belkeziz called on Muslim countries to quell extremism, which he said was damaging the image of Islam in the world. Suspected US drug smuggler held in Turkey Turkish police were holding an American woman on suspicion of smuggling 25 kg (55 pounds) of cocaine into Turkey. A second woman of unidentified nationality was also detained. A state-run news agency said authorities had detained the American woman early on Monday and said they had found 23 packets of cocaine in her baggage when she arrived at Istanbul's international airport from Frankfurt. Police alleged she had carried the cocaine, with an estimated street value of $5 million, from Brazil to Germany before travelling to Istanbul. Slain workers flown back to China The bodies of 11 Chinese road construction workers who were shot dead in Afghanistan last week are being flown back to China. An Air China plane has departed Kabul carrying the victims' bodies to Nanchang in their home Chinese province of Jiangxi. They were murdered at a tent camp in Afghanistan's Kunduz region, which previously had a reputation for being safe. It was the deadliest attack on foreign civilians since Taliban ouster in 2001 and put in doubt security for landmark Afghan elections due in September. Kunduz authorities say they have arrested ten people, but it remains unclear whether Taliban-led insurgents staged Thursday's attack. Intervene in Darfur, says Canada Canada has said the UN Security Council must take firmer measures to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Sudan's western region of Darfur, where more than a million people are at risk. Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham said that Canada's ambassador to the United Nations would call on the council on Monday to take stronger action. Fighting in the remote area has affected two million people and driven 158,000 people across the border into Chad, creating what the UN has said is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. African Union condemns Congo coup attempt The African Union has condemned last week's coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo and warned that such incidents could destabilize the vast African country. AU Commission Chairman Alpha Omar Konare, however, commended the transitional government for ending the coup attempt peacefully and restoring calm in Kinshasa. Friday's coup attempt against President Joseph Kabila dealt another blow to the shaky peace process in the DRC. The country is emerging from a war that erupted in 1998 and officially ended in 2003, and which left some 2.5 million people dead. The pan-Africa body urged all Congolese people to work together and "utilize the options of dialogue, tolerance and peaceful coexistence to resolve outstanding differences." US warns citizens in Saudi Arabia The US embassy in Riyadh has warned Americans in Saudi Arabia to take precautions to protect themselves from possible terrorist attacks. In a statement, the embassy said the most recent attacks on Westerners in the country appeared to follow the extensive surveillance of the victims. The warning comes a day after a US citizen was shot dead as he returned to his home in Riyadh. Also, the al Qaeda terror network claimed to be behind the kidnapping of another American in Riyadh. The claim was made on an Islamist Internet site. On Sunday, a body was found in Riyadh, and there have been reports that it was that of a German citizen. The foreign office in Berlin said this had not been confirmed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy our "World News" newsletter? Why not also subscribe to "Daily Bulletin", DW-WORLD's latest daily digest of the day's top German and European stories, delivered to you around 18:30 UTC. To find out more and sign up, please go to http://www.dw-world.de/english/newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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