Deutsche Welle English Service News 22. 04. 2005, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Terror Trial Opens in Spain The suspected leader of al Qaeda in Spain and 23 other men accused of helping in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States go on trial in Madrid on Friday in Europe's biggest court case against Islamic militants. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1560623,00.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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan wants "improved ties with China" Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has told UN chief Kofi Annan that he wants to improve Sino-Japanese relations. Earlier Koizumi reiterated his country's "deep remorse" over its colonial aggression in Asia. The speech at the Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia comes amid tensions over the approval by Tokyo of school textbooks which China says gloss over Japan's record. Koizumi later said he hoped to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday - although Beijing has yet to agree. Separately, China did protest over Friday's visit by Japanese lawmakers to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo. The shrine honours the Japanese who died during World War II, including a number of war criminals. Major terrorist trial opens in Spain Three people have appeared in a specially built court in Madrid, Spain charged with helping to plan the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. They include the alleged head of an al-Qaeda cell in Spain. The defendants in the Spanish trial are part of a group of 24 suspects due to be tried over the following months. It is the first court action to be held at a high-security building remodelled for trials with multiple defendants where the suspects will sit in a bullet-proof glass cubicle. Among those charged along with the defendants was al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but Spain cannot legally try suspects in their absence. Berlusconi to unveil new government The Italian ANSA news agency reports that President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has summoned Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to unveil a new cabinet early this evening. Capping a weeklong government crisis, Berlusconi held marathon talks Friday to stitch his center-right coalition back together in the hope of averting early elections. Berlusconi resigned two days ago following defections from his coalition, which had suffered heavy losses in regional elections.- Former Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, leader of the coalition's second-biggest party, the National Alliance Party, has pledged to support a new Berlusconi cabinet after threatening to withdraw his ministers at the height of the government crisis this week. Car bomb in Baghdad kills 8 Iraqi police say eight people have been killed by a car bomb outside a Shi'ite mosque in the capital Baghdad. Officials said 20 people were wounded in the blast which happened during Friday prayers at the the Al-Subeih mosque in the eastern district of New Baghdad. The blast is the latest in a series of violent incidents in Iraq, ending a relative lull since January elections. Islamic Army says it downed helicopter The so-called Islamic Army in Iraq has claimed to be responsible for the shooting down of a Bulgarian helicopter on Thursday. 11 people died when the aircraft that was travelling between Baghdad and Tikrit was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. The Islamic militant group released a video on the internet showing what it said was wreckage of the stricken craft and the corpses of victims. It also claimed to have captured and executed one of those who survived the crash. The company that owned the helicopter said the dead comprised three Bulgarian crew, six American passengers and two Philippine guards. Vatican challenges gay marriage bill Pope Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage between homosexuals. The bill, passed by parliament's Socialist- dominated lower house, also allows gay couples to adopt. A senior Vatican official described the bill- which is likely to become law within a few months- as iniquitous. The bill would make Spain the first European country to allow homosexual people to marry and adopt children. Belgium and the Netherlands only allow same-sex marriages. Top Lebanon security chiefs step aside Two top Lebanese security officials have resigned after being heavily criticized for their handling of the investigation into the February 14 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikatim, who formed an interim goverment on Tuesday, called for the resignation of Lebanon's senior security officials Major General Jamil Sayyed and Major General Ali Hajj. Opposition politicians and many Lebanese believe Syria was behind the assassination and suspect that the Lebanese security services, which have come under Syria's sway,were somehow involved. Serb general surrenders to UN tribunal Former Yugoslav Army chief-of-staff Nebojsa Pavkovic has surrendered to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague to face charges of war crimes in Kosovo. He is one of four generals indicted in October 2003 for planning and ordering murders of Kosovo Albanian civilians in 1999 while battling ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas. The Serbian government said he will travel to to The Hague on Monday. Faced with mounting Western pressure, Serbia persuaded his co-indictee army general Vladimir Lazarevic to surrender in February, followed by police general Sreten Lukic in April. Police general Vlastimir Djordjevic fled to Russia in 2001. Germany to send peacekeepers to Sudan The German parliament has agreed to send 75 soldiers to Sudan as part of a UN mission to secure a January peace accord with southern rebels. The deployment, initially set for six months, will be limited to southern and eastern Sudan. The troops, mainly military observers, will join a group of 750 UN observers who form part of the contingent of 10,000 UN peacekeepers. Meanwhile the United Nations Human Rights Commission has agreed to appoint a special investigator to monitor human rights in Sudan's western Darfur region. The investigator is to report back to both the commission and the UN General Assembly. More than 180,000 people are believed to have been killed and nearly two million others displaced since the fighting in Darfur broke out two years ago. Togo's elections to go ahead on Sunday Togo's interim ruler President Abass Bonfoh has asserted that presidential elections planned for Sunday will take place, despite an earlier call by the West African country's interior minister for a postponement. Francois Boko had told a news conference that it would be "suicidal" to hold a vote with passions running so high in the West African country. The caretaker president has since sacked Boko for these remarks. Fears of bloodshed have been growing ahead of the poll to choose a new leader to replace Gnassingbe Eyadema, who died in February after 38 years in office. His son, Faure Gnassingbe, is the ruling party's candidate and is seen as the favourite to win. Court orders German cannibal retried The German man jailed for killing and eating a person he met over the internet is to face a retrial. A federal court ordered that Armin Meiwes should stand trial again after prosecutors appealed against his eight-and-a-half year sentence. The prosecutors say he should have been given a life sentence for murder. Meiwes was jailed for manslaughter in January 2004. His lawyers want his sentence reduced on the grounds that his victim was a volunteer. Meiwes, a 43-year-old computer technician, killed and ate Bernd Juergen Brandes after posting an advert on the internet in 2001 asking for a willing victim. Brazil grants asylum to Gutierrez Brazil has granted a request from ousted Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez for asylum. But so far, authorities in Ecuador haven't allowed him to leave the country. Gutierrez is still reported to be in the Brazilian embassy in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito. That's where he went on Wednesday after the congress voted to fire him. Brazil has sent an air force jet to pick up Gutierrez who has been replaced as president by his former vice president, Alfredo Palacio. The new foreign minister, Mauricio Gandara, said Palacio will serve out the rest of Gutierrez's four-year term, keeping him in office until early 2007. African leaders to save Burundi peace African regional leaders are holding an emergency meeting in Uganda to discuss Burundi's faltering peace process. Friday marks the end of President Domitien Ndayizeye's interim term, which, under a peace deal, should have coincided with elections. The heads of state are expected to extend the president's mandate. They are also expected to draw up a new timetable for elections, which a senior diplomat says will be "rigid". On Thursday, former rebels who joined a power-sharing government, urged the leaders not to let Ndayizeye stay, calling him "an obstacle to peace". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tell us what you think! DW-WORLD wants to hear your opinion of our Web site. Please take a few minutes to fill in our online survey and let us know what subjects you want to see more of and where you think we can still improve: http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/26036/DW-WORLD-ENG.htm?renderlang=eng ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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