Deutsche Welle English Service News 09. 12. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Play DW-WORLD's Christmas Click & Win with a chance to get fabulous prizes from Playmobil! To participate, please visit our home page at http://www.dw-world.de/english ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Leipzig Leads the Way for Former East Come the World Cup final draw on Friday, all eyes will be fixed on an ambitious city in Germanys former east. On a fast-track ascent from the ashes of its past, Leipzig is keen to present its new face to the world. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1808257,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hamas will not renew ceasefire The Palestinian militant organisation Hamas has announced it will not renew its ceasefire with Israel. The current ceasefire lasts until the end of the year. Hamas chief-in-exile Khaled Mishaal told a rally in Damascus that the Mideast has stagnated politically. In the last few days, Israel has launched air strikes on Palestinian targets. It was a response to a suicide attack earlier this week at a shopping mall in the town of Netanya that killed five Israelis. Germany summons Iran envoy The German Foreign Ministry says it has summoned Iran's ambassador to protest against suggestions by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust might not have happened and that Israel should be moved to Europe. Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said the decision to deliver a formal protest to Iran's envoy in Berlin was meant to show that the German government was taking the president's comments very seriously. Ahmadinejad's remarks, made at a news conference in the Saudia Arabian city of Mecca, follow his call in October for Israel to be "wiped off the map", which sparked widespread international condemnation. Report: Germany aided CIA arrest Germany's "Berliner Zeitung" newspaper has reported that German intelligence agents may have given the United States information that led to the kidnapping and detention of a German citizen by the CIA. Lebanese-born German Khaled el-Masri was seized in Macedonia in 2003 and flown to a prison in Afghanistan for interrogation. He was released five months later. Masri this week filed a landmark lawsuit against the CIA in a US federal court, alleging that he was wrongfully abducted and abused by interrogators, who had mistaken him for an al Qaeda suspect. His case has also caused controversy in Germany because of reports that the government was asked by Washington to keep quiet about it. 8 Islamists arrested in southern Spain Spanish police have arrested eight Algerians suspected of financially supporting Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda. State radio reports that police detained seven men and one woman in several towns on Spain's southern Costa del Sol Thursday night, charging them with funding the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an outlawed Algerian Islamist militant organisation. Last month, 10 members of the same group were arrested in raids carried out throughout southern Spain. Bulgaria speeds Iraq troop withdrawal Bulgaria has said it will speed up its troop withdrawal from Iraq. Defence Minister Veselin Bliznakov said a batallion of almost 350 soldiers will come home before the end of the year. That is nearly all the Bulgarian soldiers in Iraq. But he also said a non-combat unit of over 100 troops will probably go to Iraq on a guarding mission. That deployment would begin early next year and last at least four months. Bulgaria lost 13 soldiers and six civilians in violence in Iraq, and over 2/3 of Bulgarians oppose the war. Defence Minister Bliznakov just returned from a trip to Washington. Russia builds gas pipeline to Germany Russian gas giant Gazprom has officially started work on a new Baltic Sea pipeline to supply Siberian gas directly to Germany. The new pipeline will reduce dependence on transit through Russia's former Soviet neighbours, such as Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic republics. Lithuania and Poland have already expressed concern over the project. They say it will endanger the ecology of the Baltic Sea and threaten their own gas supplies. Gazprom's Chief Executive Alexei Miller said former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder would head the board of directors of the pipeline. During his time in office, Schroeder built up a close personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Serb fugitives urged to surrender Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic has called on the two top fugitives sought by the UN war crimes tribunal, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, to surrender. Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, and Mladic, his military chief, are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. On Wednesday, the UN court's third top war crimes suspect, Croatian ex-general Ante Gotovina, was arrested in Spain. Gotovina was arraigned by a Spanish court on Wednesday and is due to be transferred to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague on Saturday. Kenya's cabinet sworn in amid discord Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has sworn in a new cabinet even though nearly a third of his nominees are refusing to take up their posts. Opponents say the president is failing to consult coalition partners and ignoring the people's wishes. Kibaki dismissed his entire team two weeks ago after he lost a referendum on a new constitution - a vote seen as a protest against him. Kibaki's new cabinet is said to be primarily made up of his friends and allies. He rejected politicians who opposed him and supported the successful "no" campaign in the referendum. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bundesliga is in full swing again! 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