Deutsche Welle English Service News 15. 12. 2005, 17:00 UTC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: European Parliament to Launch CIA Prisons Investigation Leaders of the European Parliament have agreed to launch an investigation into the possible existence of US intelligence agency prisons in Europe, officials said. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1818910,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big turnout in Iraq election Iraqis have voted in large numbers for their first full-term government since the US-led invasion in 2003. Voting was extended by an hour in some areas because of the high turnout. Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the last election in January, appear to have participated in large numbers, even in insurgent strongholds. However, al-Qaeda in Iraq denounced the election as the work of Satan and threatened attacks. Despite tight security, several incidents of violence were reported, but voting was not seriously disrupted. Some 15 million Iraqis were eligible to vote in the poll. Official results are not expected until later in the month. Bush says Iran 'real threat' US President George W. Bush has called Iran a "real threat" and sharply criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his calls for the destruction of Israel, and over Tehran's nuclear programme. Ahmadinejad triggered more controversy on Wednesday when he again described the Holocaust as a myth and suggested Israel be moved out of the Middle East to Europe or North America. His latest outburst follows comments made in October, when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Germany's Central Jewish Council said Iran should be banned from the UN and suggested imposing economic sanctions. EU adopts 2006 budget EU leaders are holding summit talks in Brussels to discuss ways of breaking the deadlock over the EU's 2007-2013 budget. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has signalled no willingness to surrender more of Britain's European Union rebate. Britain, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is under huge pressure to give up more of its annual refund to contribute to the cost of the bloc's enlargement into former communist eastern Europe. Failure to agree on the long-term budget would undermine the EU further after a year of setbacks marked by the rejection of the bloc's first constitution by French and Dutch voters. Little progress at WTO summit On the third day of World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong developing countries have urged the US and European Union to offer fresh concessions on agriculture to break a logjam in the trade talks. The G20 grouping of middle-sized economies said the EU must set a date for ending its farm export subsidies. Poorer countries have attacked new EU tariffs on bananas while criticising the US stance on cotton subsidies. Squabbling between the US and EU over support for farmers has dominated the talks in Hong Kong so far. The talks are being held against a backdrop of violent clashes between police and anti-globalisation protesters. Turkey in EU spotlight over trial A senior European Union official has warned that the trial of acclaimed Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk will cast a shadow over the country's entry talks to the EU. Olli Rehn, who oversees Turkey's moves to join the EU, described the trial as a litmus test as to whether Turkey was committed to freedom of expression. The writer has been charged with denigrating Turkish national identity. He faces trial for remarks about Turkey's killing of Armenians during World War I and Kurds in the 1980s. Turkey categorically denies accusations that up to 1.5 million Armenians died in a genocide orchestrated by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917. New bird flu cases in Romania Romania has confirmed 5 more cases of the deadly bird flu strain H5N1. Since October, Romania has found 9 cases of H5N1,- which has been linked to more than 70 human deaths in Asia. The Romanian government says there is little danger of the virus reaching major urban areas. But the Agriculture Minister warned that migratory birds could carry it into Northern Bulgaria. Romania has already banned all sales of live poultry, and culled some 60 thousand domestic fowl. Meanwhile, Germany's ban on keeping poultry out of doors is due to expire on Friday. Officials say the ban will probably be re-imposed in March, when bird migration again increases. WPF discontinues food aid in North Korea The World Food Programme says it is shutting down its food aid program in North Korea as it moves from feeding people to offering development aid following Pyongyang's request. The WFP has been helping to feed the hungry in North Korea since famine in the mid-1990s killed an estimated two million people. North Korea announced in early August that as of January it no longer required food assistance, despite international concerns of widespread starvation in the country. WFP officials said they still believe food shortages in the North exist, but the government seems confident it can cope thanks to recent better harvests in the country, as well as food aid from China and South Korea. UN peacekeepers leave Eritrea, S.Leone UN peacekeepers have begun leaving Eritrea a day before a deadline set by the Eritrean government to pull out of the country. On Wednesday, the UN Security Council decided to evacuate US, Canadian and European staff serving in the mission. Some 180 personnel will be moved to neighbouring Ethiopia. Tensions along the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea have risen with reports of troop movements on both sides in recent months, raising fears of a new border war. Meanwhile some 300 Pakistani soldiers, the last contingent of what was once the world's largest peacekeeping operation helping one of the poorest countries recover from a decade of civil war, has left Sierra Leone. The UN Security Council says conditions have improved sufficiently to end a UN mission mandate there on December 31. Kazakhstan opens oil pipeline to China Kazakhstan and China have inaugurated a 1,000km-long oil pipeline to supply oil to western China. It is the first major export pipeline from the landlocked Central Asian republic which does not cross Russia. It will eventually export oil to feed China's booming economy from huge reserves around the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan wants to become one of the world's top oil exporters in the next decades. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, with the push of a button, put the 588-million-euro pipeline into service. Deliveries are expected to start only in mid-2006, with an initial annual capacity of 10 million tonnes. Police given riot powers Emergency measures to prevent civil unrest have been passed in the Australian state of New South Wales, following a wave of racial violence. Police will have new powers to enforce strict curfews, confiscate cars and ban alcohol sales. The large-scale violence in Sydney started on Sunday, when gangs of youths, many of them drunk, assaulted several people of Middle Eastern appearance and shouted racist chants. Lebanese and Muslim youths retaliated with two nights of violence in several different beachside suburbs. Much of the unrest is believed to have been coordinated by text messaging and e-mail. More than a thousand extra police officers will be on duty in the area this weekend. Fatah rebels file seperate ballot list The ruling Palestinian Fatah party has split following a dispute. A group of rebels within the party says it will submit its own list of candidates for a parliamentary election next month. The rebel list is headed by jailed activitst Marwan Barghouti. Israeli forces, meanwhile, have launched more air strikes on Gaza. One person is reported wounded. Israeli military aircraft attacked the home of a leading Palestinian militant and the office of an Islamic charity that works on community development in the Gaza Strip. Big arms find in French anti-terror swoop French police conducting an investigation into the funding of Islamic extremists have uncovered a major illegal weapons depot in a northern Paris suburb. The cache was hidden in a garage in Clichy-sur-Bois and included a kilogram of TNT explosive, 19 sticks of dynamite, detonators, assault rifles, hand-guns and ammunition. The discovery follows the detention this week of 27 people suspected of taking part in armed robberies and money laundering to support Islamic extremist groups. Investigators also found paramilitary style black overalls, ski-masks, bullet-proof vests and a gendarme's uniform. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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