Deutsche Welle English Service News 29. 09. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
EU Turkey Talks Threatened EU foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss membership talks with Turkey after their ambassadors failed to reach an agreement on a negotiating mandate Thursday. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1724983,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- There are only two days left so you'll have to hurry if you still want to suggest your favorite blogs and podcasts to the Deutsche Welle's Best of the Blogs Awards, sponsored by Bonn's Hotel Maritim. http://www.thebobs.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Roberts confirmed as US chief justice The United States Senate has confirmed conservative federal Judge John Roberts as the country's chief justice in a vote of 78 to 22. Roberts was President George W. Bush's first nominee to the Supreme Court and he's expected to be sworn in, later in the day. The 50-year-old judge will be replacing the long-serving Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died earlier this month. Refugees die trying to break into Ceuta Spain has ordered troops to help police maintain border security in its two enclaves in northern Morocco after at least four people died trying to cross the border. Authorities said two Africans died on the Spanish side when hundreds of would-be illegal immigrants stormed the fence surrounding the enclave of Ceuta. The other two were reportedly shot dead on the Moroccan side, but it's still unclear who fired the shots. In the past few weeks, thousands of Africans hoping to make it onto European soil have repeatedly tried to break into the two Spanish enclaves on the North African coast. EU fails to agree on Turkey European Union diplomats have failed again to agree on a negotiating framework to open accession talks with Turkey next week. The foreign ministers of the 25-member states will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday in Luxembourg. Diplomats said that Austria had refused to budge from its position that Turkey should be offered a privileged partnership rather than full membership. The official talks on Turkey's EU membership bid are due to begin on Monday. India hit by general strike A general strike in India has shut down air, rail and banking services across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people stayed at home to protest against the government's economic reforms. It's the first strike since the Congress Party came into power in 2004. Left-wing trade unions led the protests, backed by several communist parties who are key coalition partners in the Indian government. They oppose the privatisation policies pursued by the Congress Party. Algeria votes on peace charter Algerians are voting in a referendum meant to put an end to a civil war that has left more than 100,000 people dead. If passed, the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation will grant an amnesty to many of those involved in the killings. The amnesty excludes those found guilty of massacres, rapes and terror attacks. Opponents say the charter sweeps years of killings and human rights abuses under the carpet as well as giving the president far-reaching new powers. The civil war started in 1992 after the Algerian army cancelled an election, which an extremist Islamic party was expected to win. Hague tribunal sends case to Sarajevo For the first time, the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague has transferred a case to a new war crimes court in Bosnia. A UN court official said Bosnian Serb suspect Radovan Stankovic would be tried in the Sarajevo court, which opened last March under the supervision of the Hague tribunal. Stankovic is accused of torture, rape, enslaving and other crimes committed in the eastern Bosnian town of Foca during the country's 1992-1995 war. CDU says coalition with SPD most likely The leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democrats, Angela Merkel, has said that a grand coalition between her party and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling Social Democrats is more likely than any other arrangement. Merkel made her comments after a meeting with leading members of the liberal Free Democrats, the CDU's preferred coalition partner. The two parties had hoped to form a government but failed to win a majority in the general election two weeks ago. The Social Democrats and the CDU held talks on Wednesday but are still no closer to solving the issue of who would be chancellor in a grand coalition. Typhoon Damrey kills 57 in Vietnam Rescue authorities in Vietnam have recovered the bodies of at least 57 people killed in flash flooding following Typhoon Damrey. Dozens of people are still missing in the north-west mountainous province of Yen Bai. The typhoon is the most powerful to hit Vietnam in a decade. Thousands of people remain without electricity and communications. Damrey, which means elephant in Khmer, has left nearly 90 people dead in its week-long sweep through southeast Asia. Global warming speeding up: study German scientists have warned that the effects of global warming could become apparent more quickly than expected. A new study released by the Hamburg-based Max-Planck-Institute says that global temperatures could increase by 4 degrees Celsisus before the end of the century. The scientists say that one knock-on effect would be a rise in the levels of the world's oceans by 30 centimetres. The study coincides with a new US report that says the ice in the Arctic has melted by 20 percent compared to the area it covered in 1978. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bundesliga is in full swing 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. 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