Deutsche Welle English Service News 20. 08. 2005, 16:00 UTC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Germans will likely head to the polls to elect a new parliament on Sept. 18. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is fighting an uphill battle to remain in office while his conservative challenger, Angela Merkel, has her eyes set on the chancellery. Get all the information about Germany's 2005 election at DW-WORLD. To find out more, go to http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,6591,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pope meets German political leaders Pope Benedict XVI has met with German political leaders on day three of his trip to the German city of Cologne for Catholic World Youth Day celebrations. Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder travelled to Cologne to meet with the pontiff, as did conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel. The Pope is due to meet leaders of Germany's mainly Turkish Muslim community later in the day. On Friday, Benedict paid a visit to Cologne's synagogue, becoming only the second pope to visit a Jewish house of worship. The World Youth Day festival is set to conclude on Sunday with an open-air mass likely to be attended by nearly one million people. Gaza pullout suspended for Sabbath Israeli army and police forces have suspended their removal of settlers from the Gaza Strip for the Jewish Sabbath. Israeli officials say the pullout is well ahead of schedule with more than 80 percent of Gaza's settlers already evacuated. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas says it will fight to drive Israel out of the West Bank and Jerusalem after the Jewish state completes the Gaza withdrawal this year. Hamas had agreed to a temporary ceasefire at the behest of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But militants see the Gaza pullout as a victory for their armed uprising. Israel has said there can be no resumption of peace talks before the dismantling of groups like Hamas, the biggest faction behind violent attacks on Israeli targets. Palestinian polls set for January 25 Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has said that parliamentary elections will be held on January 25 of next year. He was addressing people in Gaza City on Saturday. Abbas said Israel must stop all its settlement activity in the West Bank if it was serious about peace. Promising to rebuild Gaza, he said some 3,000 new homes would be built in the former Israeli settlement of Morag, a few kilometres from the Palestinian town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Abbas said the settlement of Netzarim, due to be evacuated by Israel early next week, would be used as part of a new port complex in Gaza. Funeral held for 17 Spanish soldiers Spain has held a state funeral for 17 of its soldiers killed on Tuesday in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero joined about 1,000 people, including relatives of the dead, for the religious service at army headquarters in the centre of Madrid. The 17 soldiers were members of an 850-strong Spanish contingent attached to the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF). Their helicopter crashed while on manoeuvres with a second helicopter near the western Afghan city of Herat. London shoot to kill policy modified London's Metropolitan Police have modified slightly their shoot to kill policy against suspected terrorists following the mistaken killing of an innocent man. Scotland Yard confirmed a review of the strategy, but said only minor changes were made. The review followed the July 22 shooting death of a Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, who was wrongly suspected of being a suicide bomber. Police, meanwhile, denied they had offered one million US dollars in compensation to the family of de Menezes. Hunt underway for Aqaba attackers A massive search is underway in the Jordanian port of Aqaba for suspected Arab militants who fired rockets at two US warships and nearby Israel on Friday. Hundreds of police and troops are conducting searches for Iraqi, Syrian and Egyptian suspects. One of the rockets hit a warehouse, killing a Jordanian soldier, while the others fell near a hospital and Eilat airport in Israel. The United States condemned the attacks on the US warships moored in Aqaba. American officials said no US sailors were hurt and that the ships were not damaged. An al-Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in an Internet posting. German far right stages marches Hundreds of supporters of Germany's far right have staged marches in Berlin and Nuremberg, three days after the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. In the German capital, over 500 right-wingers marched from the central Alexanderplatz to an eastern suburb. In Nuremberg, about 350 supporters of the far-right National Democratic Party staged a demonstration despite efforts by the city to stop the gathering. Neo-Nazis have met in previous years in the southern town of Wunsiedel, where Hess is buried, but new laws to limit demonstrations allowed a court to block the gathering there. But a separate court allowed the Nuremberg rally to proceed. China, Russia hold historic military drills China and Russia are holding the second stage of their historic joint military drills. Some 10,000 troops, including about 1,800 Russians, are taking part in the first-ever military exercises between the two countries. The Chinese government said the exercises, dubbed "Peace Mission 2005", had shifted to China's northeast coast after two days of exercises near the Russian port of Vladivostok. It did not release any details of what the troops were doing near Qingdao, a major Chinese naval base on the Shandong peninsula. But officials said earlier that the exercise would include a unit staging a landing to practice stabilising a fictional country. Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency said the exercise would include 14 ships and about 50 Russian and Chinese warplanes. Pakistani soldier hanged A Pakistani soldier accused of involvement in a failed plot to kill President Pervez Musharraf two years ago, has been hanged at a jail in the central city of Multan. Islam Sidiqqui, a low ranking soldier, was arrested after militants tried to blow up Musharraf's motorcade in December 2003. The plot used bombs on a bridge near the capital Islamabad. General Musharraf survived another attempt on his life in the same month. The President had rejected a mercy plea by Siddiqui. Prison officials said his body was handed over to family members. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD offers you a special service for the Bundesliga. Get all the action on your mobile device and you'll never miss out on important news. 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