Deutsche Welle English Service News 17. 10. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
EU Leaders to Hold Bird Flu Crisis Talks The growing threat of lethal bird flu spreading across Europe will top the agendas of EU leaders this week, after the deadly Asian strain of the virus landed on the continent for the first time. ยป To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1743070,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD.DE's Redesigned Web site: More information at a glance! Deutsche Welle's online news service has a new outfit that's more compact, fresher and faster. It's the site's first re-design since 2001. To check it out, please visit http://dw-world.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Germany increases aid to Pakistan Germany has increased its aid for the earthquake-devastated regions of Pakistan to five million euros. The German technical relief service the THW has sent 28 staff to the affected areas to help with the recovery efforts. Aid operations have resumed again after they were suspended due to heavy rain and snow which turned roads into mud. Medical teams say that thousands of injured quake victims could die if help doesn't reach them quickly. Pakistani authorities say they fear the death toll from the massive earthquake 10 days ago could exceed 54,000 with 40,000 alone in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Merkel announces cabinet ministers Germany's chancellor-designate Angela Merkel has completed the line- up of her new cabinet after naming six conservative ministers who will join Social Democrat colleagues in a future grand coalition government. One of the conservative nominees, Wolfgang Schaeuble, is to become interior minister, a position he's held before. In total, the Christian Democrats will have four ministers, while their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, will have two senior members in cabinet. One of them is CSU party leader Edmund Stoiber who will be economics minister. The Social Democrats decided last week on their team of eight ministers. Absent from the future line-up is current Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The two sides began formal coalition talks late Monday. These could last several weeks. Romania says bird flu contained Romania says two outbreaks of bird flu have been contained by slaughtering poultry but experts warn that as migratory birds arrive in the Danube Delta for winter Europe is still at risk. The viral disease, which also appeared last week in Turkey, originates from Asia, where in the past two years it's killed 60 people. Experts fear the virus H5N1 could mutate into a strain passed easily between humans. The European Medicines Agency says it expects to receive manufacturers' applications for a vaccine by the end of this year. German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt said she was confident that a prototype was close. Her ministry is providing 20 million euros for its development. The WHO warns that bird flu concerns in Europe should not divert attention from Asia where the main risk remains. Greece confirms first case of bird flu Authorities in Greece have confirmed the country's first case of bird flu. It was discovered on a turkey farm on the island of Chios, near the Turkish coast. Tests are underway to determine whether the virus is the potentially deadly H5N1 strain. Meanwhile officials in Thailand said they had discovered the same deadly bird flu strain in sparrows in samples taken from a small village around 90 kilometers west of Bangkok. Earlier the southern German state of Bavaria had announced a ban on all poultry markets and bird shows and said it would also issue a decree requiring all poultry stock to be kept inside. 37 killed in tribal violence in Assam Authorities in India's northeastern state of Assam say militants killed at least 37 members of a rival tribe. In one attack two buses were waylaid and 22 members of the Karbi tribe were hacked to death. In a second attack, militants from the Disama tribe allegedly attacked a Karbi village and killed 15 people. Sixty mostly bamboo and straw houses were set alight. Police said some survivers were missing after being abducted into nearby jungle. Assam state's government said extra troops had been rushed to the remote area. The region has been racked by insurgencies for more than 50 years. US forces kill 70 Iraqi insurgents The US military in Iraq says its forces have killed around 70 suspected insurgents near the city of Ramadi, which is known to be a hub for extremists. Warplanes and helicopters bombed two villages near the city on Sunday, a day after Iraqis voted in a referendum on a new constitution. Local witnesses said some of those killed were civilians, however that was denied by the US military. Chechen warlord claims Nalchik attack The Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev says he and his rebels were behind last week's attacks on government buildings in the southern Russian city of Nalchik. Basayev made the claim on a Chechen rebel web site on Monday. At least 120 people were killed in the fighting between rebels and government forces. Travel restrictions in West Bank Israel has imposed tough travel restrictions on the West Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded five others in a drive-by shooting. The attack on Sunday near the Gush Etzion settlements was the deadliest since July. Israeli officials said exits from West Bank towns would be blocked and arrests and raids would be stepped up. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that in addition talks with the Palestinian Authority on bilateral issues such as prisoner releases had been suspended. GM to cut jobs, health costs General Motors, the world's biggest automaker, says it plans to cut 25,000 jobs by 2008 in a large reorganisation to offset losses. GM said it's also reached a tentative deal with the US trade union the United Auto Workers to trim billions of dollars in health care for employees and retirees. The moves coincide with GM's disclosure from Detroit that it had losses of 1.6 billion dollars in this year's third quarter. GM management said it's overall aim was to trim costs of five billion dollars a year by the end of next year. GM offered few details on possibly closures of assembly and component plants. Simonis to head UNICEF Germany One of Germany's long-serving Social Democrat politicians Heide Simonis has been elected to head the German branch of UNICEF, the United Nations' childrens agency. Simonis was previously the only woman premier among Germany's 16 regional states until she lost an election early this year in the northern region of Schlieswig Holstein. As UNICEF Germany's new chairperson she will replace Reinhard Schlagintweit, a former diplomat, from next January. The 62-year-old Simonis, a trained economist, once taught German in Zambia and has focused recently on the plight of children in Angola. Mugabe attacks Bush, Blair Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has launched a stinging attack against US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, describing them as unholy men and international terrorists. Mugabe, speaking at the 60th anniversary ceremony of the UN Food Agency in Rome, likened the two leaders to Hitler and Mussolini, saying they had formed an unholy alliance to attack Iraq, an innocent country. Mugabe also accused the US and Britain of meddling in internal affairs of his country. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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