Deutsche Welle English Service News 12. 01. 2006, 17:00 UTC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Europeans Agree to Refer Iran to UN Security Council The EU-3 negotiations team dealing with the Iranian nuclear crisis agreed Thursday that an emergency meeting of the UN IAEA watchdog should be convened with a view to bringing Iran before the UN Security Council. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1854089,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Germans are funnier than most people think. Here's 12 months of quirkiness to prove it: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1838347,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Talks with Iran reach dead end: FM Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said that talks with Iran on its nuclear programme have reached a dead end. He was speaking to reporters in Berlin following a meeting with his French and British counterparts on the standoff. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the Iranian decision to resume nuclear activities was a step in the wrong direction. The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, stressed that all diplomatic channels with Iran would remain open. Earlier former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani said that confrontation with the West over the country's nuclear programme had reached a climax. Iran sparked international outrage on Tuesday, when it resumed nuclear activities. More than 300 killed during Haj At least 345 people have been killed in a stampede in Mecca on the last day of a symbolic stoning ritual at the Hajj. The interior ministry said many others were injured in the stampede, which broke out as tens of thousands of pilgrims filed past al-Jamarat. That's a series of three pillars representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin. The ritual has seen deadly stampedes in the past, including one in 1990 that killed more than 1,400 people. BND says it didn't help US forces in Iraq German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says the government knew that members of the BND intelligence service were in Iraq at the time of the US-led invasion of that country in 2003. Steinmeier oversaw intelligence in the government of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He said they were there to gather basic information on the situation in the country. The BND has also confirmed that it had agents in Iraq at the time. But it said they did not help US troops by identifying targets. This follows German media reports suggesting that BND agents had identified two buildings that were bombed by US forces in April 2003, killing 12 people. Germany jails Iraqi terrorist suspect A German court has sentenced an Iraqi man who admitted recruiting militants to fight in Iraq to seven years in jail. Lokman Amin Mohammed was also convicted of smuggling six wounded insurgents back into Europe and of belonging to the extremist group Ansar al-Islam. The case was the first test of new law allowing the authorities to prosecute members of foreign terrorist groups. It was passed in 2002 after it emerged that three of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington had lived in Hamburg. Lokman came to Germany in 2000 and was arrested in Munich two years ago. Former pope assailant Agca freed Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish man who shot and wounded the late Pope John Paul II in 1981, has been released from jail in Istanbul. He was taken away, however, in handcuffs so Turkish authorities could assess whether he had dodged Turkey's military draft. Agca spent almost 25 years behind bars, first in Italy and then Turkey. The motive behind the shooting in Rome's St Peter's Square remains a mystery. Merkel flies to Washington to meet Bush German Chancellor Angela Merkel has left Berlin on a flight bound for Washington. This will be her first state visit to the United States since being sworn in as chancellor two months ago. She's to meet with US President George W. Bush at the White House on Friday. Their agenda is expected to include European efforts to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions. She also plans to offer the United States more assistance in Iraq, particularly in the fields of education and humanitarian aid. Like the previous centre left government, however, her grand coalition government, though has ruled out sending German soldiers to Iraq. Mongolian gov't on brink of collapse The Mongolian parliament has adjourned a debate on whether or not to dismiss the government. The debate is to continue on Friday, when a verdict on the government is expected. This comes after one of the two parties in the government, the MPRP, pulled its 10 ministers, who made up more than half of the cabinet, out of the government. The prime minister is from the rival Democrats. Also on Thursday, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, Ulan Bator, in support of the government. Some stormed the headquarters of the MPRP, which was the ruling communist party prior to the country's first democratic election in 1990. Eight Sri Lankan sailors killed in attack At least eight people have been killed in an attack on a Sri Lankan navy convoy in the north of the country. A navy spokesman said officials believed Tamil Tiger rebels had triggered a powerful anti-personnel mine on a major supply route, about 200 kilometres north of the capital, Colombo. The Tamil Tigers have not yet commented on the attack. This raises fears of a return to all-out war. A 2002 cease-fire halted nearly two decades of civil war that has claimed 65,000 lives and displaced 1.6 million people. Hwang apologises for faked research South Korea's discredited cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk has apologised for faked research on stem cells but claimed he was misled by several former team members. Hwang said, however, he accepted responsibility for two papers, published in a US journal, which had raised hopes for new treatments for diseases such as Alzheimers. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say they have raided Hwang's home and other locations in Seoul in search of computer data. On Tuesday, a Seoul university panel said two papers had been faked. Cannibalism retrial begins in Frankfurt In Frankfurt the retrial has begun of a self-confessed cannibal at which prosecutors are seeking a murder sentence. The 44-year-old Armin Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter in January last year and jailed for eight and a half years. Germany's Supreme Court subsequently ruled that that verdict was too lenient and ordered the retrial. Thursday's proceedings began with jury selection. Meiwes lawyers argued the victim had been killed at his own request, a crime that carries a maximum five years. A verdict is due in March. A murder conviction could result in a life prison sentence. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Would you like to receive news from DW-WORLD.DE automatically on your desktop? Subscribe to our RSS-Feeds. Click here to read how it works: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1137115,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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