Deutsche Welle English Service News March 4th 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
GM to Build Mid-Size Cars in Germany General Motors, the world's biggest car maker, said Friday it had chosen its German unit Opel over Swedish subsidiary Saab to make its mid-size cars in future. Other German Opel plants were meanwhile saved from closure. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1508385,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you interested in German soccer? Then DW-WORLD has just the thing for you: On Saturday, we offer you a live ticker of a Bundesliga match. The game starts at 15:30 CET, so be sure not to miss it. Follow all the action by clicking on the LIVE SOCCER banner at DW-WORLD's new Bundesliga Web site: http://www.dw-world.de/soccer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ukraine minister commits suicide Ukraine's former interior minister has been found dead on the day he was due to give evidence about the murder of an investigative journalist. Police say Yuri Kravchenko apparently committed suicide at his home. He was due to be questioned over the killing of reporter Georgy Gongadze in 2000. President Viktor Yushchenko has accused the former Ukraine government of covering up the murder. Former President Leonid Kuchma is accused of involvement in the murder after his former bodyguard released tapes that seemed to implicate the former president. Gongadze had been frequently critical of corruption of the Kuchma regime. Authorities say they have arrested two men in relation to the Gongadze murder. Syria pressured to withdraw troops Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has decided at short notice to address that country's parliament on Saturday. This comes amid growing international pressure on Damascus to pull its 14,000 troops out of Lebanon, following last month's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut. Lebanese opposition leaders have accused Syria of being behind the murder. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has become the latest country to ramp up the pressure on Damascus. Crown Prince Abdullah told President Assad during a meeting in Riyadh, that Syria could face further international isolation, unless it withdraws its soldiers from Lebanon immediately. Karachi bomber arrested after shootout Pakistani police are investigating an Islamic militant linked to the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002. Mohammad Sohail was captured in the southern city of Karachi after a police shootout. Five other militants were said to have escaped. Sohail was previously sentenced to death in absentia for the attack outside Karachi's Sheraton Hotel which killed 11 French engineers and three Pakistani bystanders. Police said they are probing whether Sohail was involved in the Pearl case. The journalist was kidnapped in early 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militants. He was later killed and his murder videotaped. In court, Sohail was accused only of possessing weapons and exchanging gun fire with police. US and EU to cooperate on Iran US President George W. Bush has pledged to support European Union efforts to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment programme. Bush said he told European allies that they were negotiating "on behalf of rest of the world," and blamed Tehran for lack of cooperation. Germany, France and Britain favour offering Iran economic incentives to fully disclose its nuclear programme, which Tehran maintains is for peaceful purposes only. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna says Iran is laying the foundation for a heavy-water nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, which the UN nuclear watchdog had asked Tehran not to build. Court rules in favour of Jewish heirs A German court has ruled that the descendants of a Jewish department store dynasty are entitled to about 20 million euros in compensation from retail giant KarstadtQuelle. The ruling is the latest development in a long-running dispute over real estate seized by the Nazis in the 1930s. The Berlin administrative court upheld a decision by the German government in 2001 to award the proceeds to the Frankfurt-based Jewish Claims Conference on behalf of the heirs of the Wertheim family. KarstadtQuelle gained control of the Wertheim brand in the early 1950s. This Friday's ruling still has to be confirmed by a higher court. China's Jiang Zemin resigns last post Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin has resigned from his last official post. The state Xinhua News Agency announced that Jiang handed his letter of resignation as chairman of the state Central Military Commission to leaders of China's parliament. Jiang has held the position for 15 years. Parliament, which opens its annual session on Saturday, is expected to name President Hu Jintao to succeed Jiang as leader of the government military commission. Jiang's resignation brings a symbolic end to a carefully-planned hand-over of power to a younger generation of Chinese leaders that began in 2002. Togo sets election date The electoral commission in Togo has announced a presidential vote to be held on April 24. Faure Gnassingbe, the son of Togo's late president Gnassingbe Eyadema, stepped down last week under international pressure. Gnassingbe had been installed by the military following his father's death on February 5. The West African economic bloc ECOWAS, which had rejected Gnassingbe's presidency, says it will observe the election. Schroeder arrives in Abu Dhabi Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. That's the last stop on the German chancellor's week-long trip to the Gulf region. Schroeder is to meet with UAE leaders and attend the signing ceremonies for several business contracts. Among them is an agreement for Germany to deliver 32 Fuchs armoured vehicles to the UAE's military. Canadian officers killed in drug raid Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers have been killed during a drug raid in Alberta, in a small village northwest of Edmonton. The officers came under fire by a man with a rifle as they entered a farm building housing a marijuana-growing operation. The suspect in the shootout died of a gunshot wound. It is not clear whether he turned the rifle on himself. The deaths marked one of the bloodiest days in the history of the national police force. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD values your opinion: We look forward to hearing from you about stories we write and regularly post your letters in our reader response section. Check them out at: http://www.dw-world.de/english or write us an e-mail yourself: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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