Deutsche Welle English Service News 17. 01. 2006, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Germany Prepares for Potential Bird Flu Outbreak The alleged bird flu cases in Belgium and Cologne turned out to be false alarms. But what would happen if a suspected case of bird flu was confirmed in Central Europe? DW-WORLD has been finding out. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1858814,00.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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- No agreement on how to deal with Iran The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany failed to agree in talks held in London on Monday on how to deal with Iran's nuclear programme. German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler told public television that they had agreed to call for an emergency meeting of the UN's nuclear watchdog but not on what the goal of the IAEA meeting should be. Britain, Germany and France are drafting an IAEA resolution that would refer Iran to the Security Council. But it's not clear whether Russia and China would support the move. They say imposing sanctions, which would be one of the Security Council's options, isn't the best way to deal with the issue. Iran removed UN seals from its main uranium enrichment facility last week. This alarmed Western nations that suspect Tehran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. Beijing hosts bird flu conference Bird flu experts meeting at a two-day donors conference in Beijing say that the world urgently needs to amass a war chest to fight bird flu. So far, bird flu cannot be transmitted between human beings, but nearly 150 people are known to have been infected by the H5N1 strain of the virus in six countries, killing at least 79 people since 2003. The World Bank says about one billion euros will be needed to prepare for and respond to outbreaks to prevent a global catastrophe. Pakistan renews criticism of US attack Pakistan has renewed its criticism of a US airstrike on a Pakistani border village in which at least 18 people were killed. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters in the capital, Islamabad, that his country could not accept such actions. He said he would raise the issue during his visit to Washington later in the week. US officials say last Friday's attack targeted the al Qaeda terror network's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. A senior official in the region where the attack occurred now says four foreign militants were among those killed in the attack, but that al-Zawahri was not in the area at the time. UN offices closed in Pakistan The United Nations has closed its offices in south-western Pakistan for 48 hours. The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Pakistan, Jan Vandemoortele, said what he described as a "credible" threat was received on Monday by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in the restive province of Baluchistan. Numerous fugitives from Afghanistan's Taliban are thought to have taken shelter in Baluchistan after the regime was ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001. Baluchistan has also been racked by clashes between security forces and tribal rebels demanding a bigger share of the province's natural resources. Opposition calls for inquiry into BND Germany's three opposition parties appear set to formally request a parliamentary investigation into the activities of German intelligence officers in Iraq during the US-led invasion in 2003. The German intelligence agency BND has confirmed that two of its agents were in Baghdad as US bombing began. But it has denied allegations that it helped identify targets for US forces. The grand coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats has rejected calls for an inquiry. Iraq accuses Iran of coastal kidnapping Iraqi officials have accused Iranian forces of kidnapping a coastguard patrol after a clash on their tidal frontier. Iraq's foreign minister called in the Iranian envoy seeking the release of up to nine coastguard officers reportedly seized by the Iranian Navy. Iraqi officials say the sailors were attacked and detained after they boarded an Iranian ship believed to be smuggling oil along the Shatt al-Arab estuary. The governor of the southern Iraq city of Basra told reporters that one officer had been killed, but this has not been indenpendently confirmed. Germany bans long-term gas contracts The German Cartel Office has banned energy concern E.ON Ruhrgas from entering long-term gas contracts with city utilities. The regulating authority ruled that contracts often spanning up to 15 years breached German and European competition laws because they prevented new competitors from entering the market. It's given E.ON Ruhrgas until the end of September to cancel its long-term contracts. The company has already announced it plans to appeal the ban. EU expected to reject port bill The European Parliament is expected to reject a plan to open up EU port services to greater competition. European lawmakers have criticised the bill that would allow shipping firms to appoint independent contractors for cargo handling as dangerous. Port workers say the rules proposed by the European Commission would lead to job losses. Thousands of dockers protested against the bill in the seat of the European Parliament, the French city of Strasbourg, on Monday. Several police officers were injured after the demonstration turned violent. Iran sentences German to 18 months A German man arrested in Iran for illegally entering the country's territorial waters has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. A spokesman for the German foreign office said the government would not comment on the report until it had received a written copy of the verdict from Iran. But he did confirm that a sentence had been handed down and that the man's wife had been able to speak to her husband by telephone earlier on Tuesday. The man's wife said she would seek to appeal the ruling. Oil prices hit thee-month highs World oil prices climbed to their highest levels in over three months breaching the 65-dollars per barrel mark in New York and 64 dollars in London. That's the highest it has been since last October. Traders say the current crisis over Iran's nuclear programme is a leading factor in the jump. German inflation hits four-year high Here in Germany, inflation has reached its highest level in four years. Germany's federal statistics office says consumer prices rose by an average of two percent in 2005. That's much higher than the average inflation rate of 1.6 percent recorded in 2004. Officials attribute the higher rate to significant jumps in energy prices and increases in tobacco and vehicle taxes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Receive DW-WORLD headlines and news reports straight on your desktop as RSS feeds: 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. 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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