Deutsche Welle English Service News 30. 08. 2005, 17:00 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Putin and Chirac Back Germany's UN Bid Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac have voiced support for Germany's faltering bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1695180,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Deadly Katrina foretaste, say experts Climate experts assessing Hurricane Katrina say 2005 could be the world's worst-ever year for storms as the southern United States counts the cost. Up to 80 deaths are reported alone in Mississippi. Insurers put damage in excess of 16 billion euros. Rescuers with helicopters and boats are scouring for survivors in Alabama and Louisiana states, including in New Orleans. The city's east side has been flooded by surge waters. Falling trees and debris flung during the storm claimed dozens of lives, say local newspapers. A million residents are without electricity. Katrina, which struck on Monday with winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour, has dwindled but it's still dumping heavy rain as it travels inland. Officials have urged people who fled ahead of the storm not to return home yet. Oil prices just below record World oil prices remain near Monday's record of 70 dollars a barrel amid fears that Hurricane Katrina may have wrecked US Gulf coast facilities. But, the cartel OPEC says market "fundamentals" do not justify the high price. In New York, light sweet crude for delivery in October is trading at 68 dollars. Acting OPEC Secretary-General Anan Shihab-Eldin said prices should soon drop to between 40 and 55 dollars a barrel. Germany's BDI industry federation has warned that if oil prices rise further this could inhibit economic growth. US launches air strikes in Iraq Dozens of people are reported to have been killed in a series of US air strikes in western Iraq. The US military said it had carried out three separate air strikes near Iraq's border with Syria. A US army spokesperson said an al Qaeda militant named Abu Islam was killed in the attacks, among several other suspected terrorists. A hospital official in the city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, said at least 47 people died in the US-led strikes. Israel's Netanyahu to challenge Sharon Former Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he will challenge Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the leadership of the main governing Likud party. The much-anticipated decision comes less than a month after Netanyahu quit his post as finance minister in protest at Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. While Sharon's withdrawal plan has enjoyed wide support among the public, he has been unable to win over most Likud members who rejected the plan in a vote last year. Likud's central committee is due to meet in September, when it is expected to set a November 22 date for a leadership primary vote. Lebanese arrests in Hariri case Lebanese police probing the killing of ex-prime minister Rafik al-Hariri have detained three former pro-Syrian Lebanese security chiefs. Lebanon's new prime minister Fuad Saniora said the trio were to appear before a visiting United Nations investigatory commission. Saniora said the head of the Presidential Guard was also a suspect. Lebanon's justice minister said the arrests were made by Lebanese police at the request of the UN commission. A Lebanese pro-Syrian parliamentarian currently in Syria was also summoned. Ex premier Hariri was killed by a bomb in February in Beirut. His killing led to the withdraw of Syrian troops from Lebanon and elections that saw anti-Syrian parliamentarians dominate parliament for the first time. Zimbabwe overhauls consitution In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe's ruling party has endorsed a constitutional overhaul that sharply restricts property rights and allows the government to deny passports to its critics. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party used its parliamentary majority to approve the changes to allow the government to nationalise seized white-owned farms and impose travel bans on people it considers "traitors". The constitutional changes also set up a second legislative chamber known as the Senate, which critics say will be packed with Mugabe allies. The legislation now goes to President Robert Mugabe to sign into law. Seven immigrants die in Paris blaze French President Jacques Chirac has ordered action on fire safety after seven people died in a blaze in a rundown building in Paris where African immigrants were living. Among the dead were four children. Thirteen others were injured, two of them seriously. Monday night's fire came just three days after 17 African immigrants died in a blaze in another district of the French capital. Chirac said Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin would shortly announce strong new fire safety measures. The prime minister's office said an official inquiry into the fire was under way. Election campaign kicks off in Japan Japan has kicked off a two-week parliamentary election campaign. The campaign opened with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party enjoying 40 percent of the public's support, according to a newspaper opinion poll. The LDP remains ahead of the opposition Democratic party despite internal disputes over Koizumi's platform. Koizumi called the September 11 vote after rebels in his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) helped the opposition block bills to privatise the postal system. Germany's Koehler on Poland visit German President Horst Koehler, who's begun a visit to Poland, has tried to dispel Polish criticism of plans for a memorial in Berlin wanted by ethnic Germans expelled from Poland after World War Two. Koehler said Germany was aware that it bore responsibility for the war and refugee displacements that began with Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Koehler also acknowledged Polish irritations over plans to lay a Baltic Sea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that would bypass Poland and other Baltic states. They should have been consulted, he said. In Warsaw, Koehler, and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, laid the foundation stone of a new Germany embassy. On Wednesday, Koehler and other European leaders will be in Danzig for the 25th anniversary of Solidarity, the Polish movement that in 1980 contributed to the fall of communism in Europe. Von Pierer may advise Merkel German opposition conservative leader Angela Merkel has nominated the former head of the electronics giant Siemens as her top economics advisor if she wins next month's election. Merkel said Heinrich von Pierer had agreed to chair a 10 member council for "growth and innovation," should she unseat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's centre-left coalition in the September 18 poll. Von Pierer, who has previously served Chancellor Schroeder's government in a similar advisory role, said Germany had great economic potential. Von Pierer chairs Siemens' supervisory board. He resigned as the company's chief executive officer earlier this year. Time running out for Sofia's EU reforms European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says time is running out for Bulgaria to launch the reforms that the European Union is demanding, if it is to join the bloc on schedule in 2007. If it fails to do so, Bulgaria would have to wait for at least another year. Following talks with new Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev in Brussels, Barroso said it was imperative that the economic and political reforms passed by parliament actually be implemented. Stanishev's Socialist-led coalition government took office earlier this month after weeks of political wrangling that followed the June election. EU trade chief: lift Chinese textiles ban The European Union's trade chief, Peter Mandelson, is urging European governments to back his call to release blocked Chinese textile shipments. Mandelson warned that failure to do so could rupture the textiles deal with Beijing and cause more economic hardship in Europe. He said the June textiles agreement reached with China in Shanghai was at risk unless the shipments piling up at European ports were allowed to go to retailers. Mandelson said European shoppers were likely to face higher prices during the fall if the blocked clothing did not reach stores. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The waiting is over for fans of German soccer as the Bundesliga starts again. Get it all on DW-WORLD.DE: We offer you results, tables and live tickers of the matches. Check out picture galleries of the best players and interactive features such as quizes and betting games where Chinese Bayern Munich fans get a chance to compete against Texan Schalke supporters. You'll find it all at www.dw-world.de/soccer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
