Deutsche Welle English Service News September 17th 2005, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Thousands of Turks Barred From Voting More than 20,000 Turks who have become German citizens will not be able to vote in Sunday's general election because they still have a Turkish passport, officials said, even as parties scrambled to woo the community. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1712898,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Germans will head to the polls to elect a new parliament on tomorrow. 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/election05 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Annan urges implementation of reforms The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged member states to fully implement wide-ranging reforms endorsed by world leaders this week. He opened the 191-member General Assembly session on Saturday with a call to hold each other accountable for any shortcomings. His comments came a day after world leaders ended a three-day summit by endorsing a watered-down document on UN reform. It falls short of Annan's ambitious blueprint to make the UN more representative and better equipped to tackle poverty. German foreign minister Joschka Fischer said the document was too vague and lacked clear mandates to tackle world problems. The summit brought together more than 150 heads of state and government. Concern over nuclear brinkmanship UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned against ''diplomatic brinkmanship'' on the issue of nuclear proliferation. He highlighed the growing threat of the spread of nuclear weapons and terrorism. Annan was addressing the UN General Assembly session hours before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was to unveil new proposals intended to allay international suspicions about Tehran's secretive nuclear programme. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that Iran should be taken before the UN Security Council for its suspected nuclear arms programme once ''diplomacy has been exhausted". She said Iran should return to the negotiations with the EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- and abandon forever its plans for a nuclear weapons capability. Close contest in Sunday's German poll German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative Christian Democrat rival Angela Merkel have broken with tradition by holding rallies in the final hours of campaigning ahead of Sunday's elections. Merkel called on voters in Bonn in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia to give her a strong mandate for change by dismissing Schroeder's Social Democrats from government. She told a rally that only a coalition between her party and the pro-business Free Democrats would steer the country toward economic recovery. Merkel and Schroeder are running neck-and-neck in the final opinion polls. Schroeder also campaigned in North Rhine Westphalia on Saturday, before moving on to the city of Frankfurt in the south. At a rally of his Social Democrats in Berlin on Friday, Schroeder attacked Merkel's reform plan, saying it would split German society into haves and have-nots. Narrow win for Labour in New Zealand New Zealand's ruling Labour Party has won a slender majority over the National opposition in Saturday's election. Prime Minister Helen Clark's centre-left Labour Party has 50 of the 122 seats in parliament and the opposition National Party led by Don Brash has 49. Clark said after vote counting closed that her party was in a position to begin talks to form a new coalition government. Analysts say the two parties will now try to form coalitions with smaller parties, including the nationalist New Zealand First Party, the Green Party and the Maori Party. Clark is seeking a third term after five years of economic growth. Brash, a former central bank governor, had offered tax cuts. Fresh violence ahead of Afghan poll At least seven people have been killed in fresh violence ahead of Afghanistan's first parliamentary polls for three decades on Sunday. The interior ministry said that suspected Taliban fighters gunned down the police chief of a district in Kabul and two other policemen in an ambush late on Friday. Four more Taliban militants were killed elsewhere around the country. Afghan and US forces arrested 20 suspected rebels who were planting bombs at a hydroelectric dam in the south. The Taliban has warned Afghanistan's 12.5 million voters they could face attacks if they participate in the poll. The United Nations, which is organising the election, has urged Afghans to defy rebel threats and to vote. Bombing in Beirut wrecks frontage In Beirut a bomb has killed one person and injured 22 others. It is Lebanon's 12th bomb attack since February and the murder of ex-prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The latest blast destroyed the facade of a four-storey apartment building and several cars. It came a day after Lebanon's central bank lifted secrecy on eight Lebanese and Syrian figures at the request of a UN probe into Hariri's assassination. The list includes two senior Syrian officials. In April Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon after protests over Hariri's death. Palestinian forces at border The Palestinian Authority says it has deployed 1,500 police and troops to seal off Gaza's border with Egypt. Since its recent pullout from Gaza Israel had been demanding an end to unchecked border crossings by thousands of Palestinians. The Palestinian authority said its forces had begun to plug border gaps made by Palestinian militants and had fired warning shots to keep back crowds. The "New York Times" says Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has threatened to hinder voting in the occupied West Bank next January if the militant Hamas movement takes part. Abbas, who belongs to the Fatah movement, is due to meet Sharon on 2 October. Top mafia boss arrested in Naples Italian police have arrested a suspected Mafia leader in Naples. Paolo Di Lauro is believed to be the head of the Naples Mafia, the Camorra. He had been on the run from police for the past three years. Police said Di Lauro was wanted for Mafia association and international drug trafficking. A Camorra turf war in Naples has claimed at least 130 lives since it broke out last November. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. For more information, please visit http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,8733,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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