Deutsche Welle English Service News October 10th 2005, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Merkel: Union Will Occupy the Chancellery Angela Merkel appeared before the world's media on Monday in her first press conference as chancellor-designate and spoke of the coming grand coalition government as a "coalition of new possibilities." To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1736167,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Week in Germany: The best from German culture, business and politics in a convenient weekly wrap-up. Read and subscribe at www.germany.info/twig ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Merkel to become German chancellor Germany's conservative leader Angela Merkel has announced that she will be the country's next chancellor at the head of a coalition government. This marks the first time a woman has held the post. Merkel said she had reached a power-sharing deal with outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. As the part of the agreement, most of the seats in Merkel's new cabinet will go to Schroeder's Social Democratic party, including top jobs such as the foreign minister's post. The deal ends weeks of deadlock and paves the way for formal coalition talks between Merkel's conservative CDU and Schroeder's SPD parties. Pakistani quake death toll tops 20,000 More than two days after a massive earthquake devastated South Asia, the death toll in Pakistan alone has climbed to over 20,000. Pakistani officials said thousands more could be lying dead in the rubble of collapsed buildings and landslides. Another 2,000 people may have died in neighbouring India, and Indian officials said the fate of about 10,000 people living in remote villages on the border with Pakistan was not known. Survivors in many remote areas are desperately short of food, medicine and water. Despite aid pledges from around the world, so far there has been little or no medical attention for many of the more than 40,000 injured in Pakistan. Aid agencies say more than 120,000 people urgently need shelter and up to four million could be left homeless. Bomb blast in Afghanistan kills four At least three people have been killed and eight others injured in two suicide bombings in the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar. Police said the first bombing took place outside the home of a former militia commander who was allied to the US-backed Northern Alliance, which swept the Taliban regime from power four years ago. The blast killed the former commander, Agha Shah, and two passers by. Eight people were wounded. The second bombing occurred two hours later on a road leading to the airport. A suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body on sighting security personnel heading for him. There have now been four suicide attacks in less than a week in Kandahar, the Taliban's former stronghold. Arab League convoy attacked in Baghdad Gunmen have attacked a convoy carrying delegates from the Arab League in western Baghdad, killing three police escorts but leaving officials unscathed. Delegates from the Arab League, which groups 22 governments from across the Arab world, are in the Iraqi capital to help oversee Saturday's referendum on a new constitution and to prepare for a visit by the League's Secretary General Amr Mussa. The convoy came under attack as delegates travelled to the headquarters of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, the main Sunni Arab religious organisation in Iraq, for a Ramadan meal after sundown. Polish presidential run-off vote set Poland's presidential election is to be decided in a run-off vote between two right-of-centre candidates, Donald Tusk and Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, in two weeks' time. They were the two top candidates in Sunday's election, but neither got the 50 percent of the votes needed to avoid a run-off. With most of the counting done, election officials said Tusk had 35.8 percent, while Kaczynski was close behind with 33.3 percent. Poland's constitution bars current President Aleksander Kwasniewski from running for a third term. Turkey, Romania battle bird flu outbreak Turkey and Romania have been slaughtering thousands of domestic fowl as a precaution against the spread of bird flu, after both countries said they found the disease in local birds. However, expert laboratories have not yet confirmed that the poultry deaths were caused by bird flu. They are also checking whether the virus was the H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed 60 people and millions of birds in Asia since 2003. The European Union and other countries, meanwhile, have banned the import of poultry from Turkey and Romania. Israelis, Palestinians delay summit A meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed until the end of the month. The summit was originally meant to take place more than a week ago, but it was put off due to an upsurge in violence. This latest postponement comes just hours after Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said they had been spotted crawling towards a border crossing carrying a bag. 'Game theory' pair win economics Nobel The 2005 Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded to Thomas Schelling and Robert Aumann for their work on the "game theory" analysis of strategic options. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 10 million Swedish crown prize which is worth 1.08 million euros for the pair's research into "security and disarmament policies, price formation on markets, as well as economic and political negotiations". "Game theory" is the science of strategy, which attempts to determine what actions different "players", be they trading partners, employers and unions or even crime syndicates, should take to secure the best outcome for themselves. Darfur rebels release AU hostages Dissident rebels in the troubled region of Darfur in western Sudan have now released all 38 hostages who were kidnapped at the weekend, according to a Darfur rebel leader speaking from Nigeria. The hostages, comprising 37 members of an African Union team, and an American monitor, were taken a day after two African Union troops were killed by another rebel group, the first fatalities suffered by the pan-African body since it deployed peacekeepers to Darfur in April 2004. AU officials in Khartoum said that they could not yet confirm the release of the hostages and said they were making checks. Hurricane Stan death toll still climbs In Central America, hundreds of people have died in mudslides and floods triggered by last week's Hurricane Stan. Worst hit has been Guatemala, where up to 1,400 victims died when a massive landslide hit the village of Panabaj. The storm also devastated Mexico and El Salvador, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. Rescue efforts are underway to reach isolated areas with food, water and medicine. EU opens talks with Serbia-Montenegro The European Union has opened negotiations towards a stabilisation and association accord with Serbia and Montenegro. European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn declared the talks open during a ceremony in Belgrade. An association accord would be a key step towards eventual EU membership. EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Luxembourg earlier this month that Serbia-Montenegro was ready to enter negotiations. But they said it would have to extradite all indicted war crimes suspects before negotiations on actual membership could begin. US military's gateway to Europe closes After six decades the American Rhine-Main military airbase, which used to be the US's military gateway to Europe, officially closed today. A ceremony at the base situated near to Frankfurt International Airport symbolically marked the closure of an important piece of German-American post-war history. The hand-over will take until the end of the year when the land will be used for the enlargement of Frankfurt Airport. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last chance to play! DW-WORLD's "Click Back" monthly review quiz for September is waiting for you and will test your knowledge of stories we've written. If you answer all questions correctly, you can also win a great prize. 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