Deutsche Welle English Service News 24. 10. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Coalition Partners Face Barriers to Progress Official talks on forming a grand coalition between the Germany's bloc of conservatives and outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schröders Social Democrats will be going into a second round on Monday. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1750230,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD is looking for the best Weblog. Our International Weblog Awards are in full swing and now it's time for you to cast your vote. Choose your favorite from more than 100 finalists and win an iPod Shuffle with a bit of luck. DW's "The BOBs -- The Best of The Blogs" is sponsored by Maritim Hotel Bonn. Fore more, go to http://www.thebobs.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Baghdad hotel attacked At least 10 people have been killed and more than a dozen others injured in an attack on a hotel in central Baghdad occupied by foreign journalists. Three massive explosions, believed to be from car bombs, caused substantial damage to the Palestine Hotel. Automatic weapons fire was heard just after the blasts, which sent a massive cloud of fire and smoke into the sky. Hurricane Wilma pounds Florida Hurricane Wilma has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm but it is continuing to pound the US state of Florida with torrential rain and winds of up to 175 kilometres per hour. Wilma has caused widespread flooding and left more than 300,000 homes and businesses without power. Tens of thousands of people are in shelters, but many residents of the Florida island chain known as the Keys have ignored orders to evacuate. At least one death in Florida has been attributed to the havoc caused by Hurricane Wilma. Kaczynski elected Polish president Conservative Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski is set to become Poland's next president after beating pro-market candidate Donald Tusk in Sunday's run-off vote. Kaczynski took 54 percent of the votes, compared to 46 percent for Tusk. The clear election victory is seen as a boost to Kaczyniki's Law and Justice Party as it enters coalition talks with Tusk's Civic Platform party. The two centre-right parties won a combined majority in last month's parliamentary election. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Horst Koehler have both congratulated Kaczyinski on his election victory. CDU, SPD to hold coaliton talks Here in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party are set to hold a second round of negotiations aimed at forming what's known as a "grand coalition" government. This round of talks is to discuss how to come to grips with Germany's high public debt. The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, are expected to push for deep spending cuts and the elimination of some subsidies in an effort to reign in the deficit. Prior to the talks, CSU leader Edmund Stoiber said the budgetary situation was much worse than had been previously thought. New bird flu cases confirmed in Russia There has been another outbreak of bird flu in Russia. Officials have confirmed that 12 hens that died on a farm south of Moscow last week had the H5N1 strain of bird flu. That's the strain that has killed 60 people in Asia over the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation says Europe is well prepared to deal with a possible outbreak of bird flu, but must not become complacent in fighting the disease. United Nations and European Union health experts have been holding talks in Copenhagen to review their readiness for a possible pandemic. Nigeria declareds three days of mourning Nigeria has declared three days of national mourning for the 117 people killed in Saturday's plane crash there. The Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 was on its way to the Nigerian capital, Abuja, when it crashed on the outskirts of Lagos. The cause of the crash is still being investigated. Initial reports suggested that there had been some survivors, but officials at the scene said no one could have survived the plane's impact. Some media reports say that several high-ranking Nigerian officials and senior members of the Economic Community of West African States were among the passengers. Israel kills top West Bank militant A top commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad has been shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. Luay Saadi was the most senior Palestinian militant killed since the start of an eight-month-old ceasefire. Israel said he had helped carry out recent bomb attacks on the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Netanya, which left 10 people dead. The Israeli army said it targeted Saadi and another militant because they had been planning further attacks. Syrians protest UN report on Hariri Tens of thousands of Syrians have been demonstrating against a United Nations report on the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri. The UN inquiry led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis implicated a number of top Syrian officials in the car bombing which killed Hariri and 20 others in Beirut last February. The crowd held up large posters of President Bashar al-Assad and shouted slogans against the United States. To ensure a big turnout, the government granted students a holiday and encouraged civil servants to attend the rally in Damascus. Uzbek opposition leader arrested Authorities in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan say they have arrested an opposition leader on embezzlement charges. Sanjar Umarov, chairman of the Sunshine Uzbekistan Coalition and a wealthy businessman, was detained on Saturday. He had been calling for the easing of autocratic rule in the country. Last week, Umarov had urged the Uzbek government to start a political dialogue. The Sunshine Coalition said Umarov's arrest came after he wrote a letter appealing for help to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who visited Tashkent last week. Opposition parties are banned from running in elections in Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan to reopen rail link India has said it will probably reopen a second railroad link with Pakistan by January. Six decades ago, the service between Kokhrapar, India and Munabao, Pakistan was shut down during World War II. Because of poor relations between the two countries, it was not re-opened. Over the past year, railroad officials from both sides had held meetings to restore the service. The first rail link, between Lahore and Amritsar, India, was re-opened last January. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. You can even listen to all programmes as audio-on-demand. Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
