Deutsche Welle English Service News September 18th 2005, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Merkel's CDU Suffer Shocker Early results show that the conservatives, widely tipped to sweep into the chancellery with the pro-business Free Democrats, don't have enough of a majority. But neither do Schröder's social democrats. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1713767,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Germans head to the polls to elect a new parliament on today. 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- German exit polls give Merkel lead As voting ends in Germany, exit polls indicate that Angela Merkel's conservatives are the leading party, but her centre-right alliance lacks a parliamentary majority. Exit polls put Merkel's conservatives,- the Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union,- the biggest share of the vote at 35.5 percent and their preferred partners, the liberal Free Democrats, at 10.5 percent,- not enough to form a governing coalition. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's SPD stood at 34 percent, its partners the Greens at 8.5 percent and the new Left Party at 7.5 percent. Voter turnout across the country was at 41.9 percent, down form the 42.8 percent reported during the 2002 election. Voting ends in Afghanistan Afghanistan's election commission has declared an official end to voting in the country's first legislative elections for more than three decades. The polls took place amidst tight security, with more than 30.000 international and 100.000 Afghan forces deployed to protect polling stations. Over 12 million Afghans have been registered for the vote and turnout is expected to be high, despite the threat of violence and a call from the ousted Taliban to boycott the election. The poll completes the transitional process agreed with Afghan tribal leaders at the Bonn conference in 2001. The long process of counting the votes is expected to begin on Tuesday. Preliminary results are not due until the beginning of October. EU says Iran nuclear stance unhelpful The European Union has reacted with concern to a speech by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the UN General Assembly, in which he insisted that Tehran had the right to produce nuclear fuel. An EU spokeswoman said the speech meant there was now no alternative but to seek punitive action from the UN Security Council. The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is due to meet to discuss the matter on Monday. In an uncompromising speech, Ahmadinejad criticised what he termed the "nuclear apartheid" that allowed some countries to enrich fuel, but not others. He offered to allow foreign countries to be involved in Iran's nuclear programme, but insisted Tehran would operate its own facilities. Insurgents kill Iraqi MP Iraq's parliament has approved a final draft of a new constitution and submitted it to the United Nations, which will print and distribute it around the country. The constitution will be put to a referendum on Oct 15. On the eve of the parliament meeting, rebels killed a Kurdish member of parliament and wounded another north of Baghdad, while another 11 Iraqis lost their lives in attacks on Sunday. Meanwhile Iraqi Shi'ite leaders have urged Sunnis to take a tough stand against radical militants in the face of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's declaration of a war against Shi'ites. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr led the calls for resistance to Zarqawi's militant Sunni networks, which have carried out the most suicide bombings in Iraq since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Indonesia begins Aceh withdrawal The first batch of some 30,000 Indonesian troops have started to withdraw from Aceh under a landmark peace deal to end decades of fighting. Around 800 Indonesian troops departed for the Sumatran city of Medan. It's a key concession in the peace accord between the Jakarta government and the Free Aceh Movement signed last month in Finland. In return Aceh rebels are to hand over their weapons. Nearly 15,000 people have been killed in the 30 year-old conflict. Official warns against N. Orleans return The head of the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort has said New Orleans residents should consider delaying their return, thereby contradicting the city's mayor. Vice Admiral Thad Allen said the mayor's plans to get people back to their homes were "extremely problematic." Mayor Ray Nagin wants to let 200,000 people back in the next 10 days. But Vice Admiral Allen said services such as water, sewage, electricity and health care were not yet capable of supporting a large influx of people. Hundreds of people died in floods after the hurricane hit the city. Mayor Nagin defended his plans saying the people of New Orleans should be offered every chance for a sense of closure after Hurricane Katrina and the opportunity for a new beginning. Narrow win for Labour in New Zealand New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has won that country's general election by the narrowest of margins. Prime Minister Clark's centre-left Labour Party took 50 of the 122 seats in parliament. That's one more than the opposition National Party led by Don Brash. After the votes were counted, Clark said she would seek to build a coalition with one of the smaller parties in order to form a government. Bayern Munich still top of Bundesliga In sports: Defending champions Bayern Munich remain top of the table in the Bundesliga following their 1-0 win over visiting Hanover. Elsewhere, Cologne beat Moenchengladbach 2-1, Bremen edged Dortmund 3-2, Frankfurt earned a 1-1 draw in Hamburg, Stuttgart beat Mainz 2-1, Bielefeld and Kaiserslautern played to a scoreless draw, and Wolfsburg and Nuremberg drew 1-1. At the European Basketball Championship in Serbia and Montenegro, Germany has kept its hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals alive with an 84-58 win over Ukraine. Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks was Germany's top scorer with 27 points. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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/
