Deutsche Welle English Service News 19. 01. 2006, 17:00 UTC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: German Calls for BND Inquiry Despite Denials A senior German spy and two Federal Intelligence Service agents denied involvement in identifying targets for the US in the Iraq war Wednesday. But politicians maintained a parliamentary inquiry will still go ahead. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1860936,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- German FM rules out Iran military strike The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has ruled out any military strike against Iran. Steinmeier said Europe favours a diplomatic solution to the crisis, which escalated when Iran resumed nuclear research activities earlier this month. The German foreign minister is in Egypt to discuss the crisis with Arab leaders including Egyptian President Hosnu Mubarak. Iran faces a possible referral to the United Nations Security Council and economic sanctions over its nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency meets on February 2 to decide whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council. Chirac: nuclear warning against terror French President Jacques Chirac has defended France's nuclear weapons programme, saying that France reserves the right to a nuclear response against any state that launches a terrorist attack against it. Chirac made no mention of any specific threat against France. He said however some states are trying to breach international treaties by building atomic weapons. Al-Jazeera airs new bin Laden tape Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has warned that new attacks on the United States are being prepared, according to an audiotape attributed to him and broadcast on Al-Jazeera television. In the tape, the American people are also being offered a long term conditional truce. The US intelligence is assessing the tape to determine if it is authentic. Tel Aviv blast tries to derail Jan 25 poll A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded pedestrian mall near Tel Aviv's bus station wounding up to 30 people. Doctors say there were amazingly no other deaths. It's the sixth suicide bombing in Israel since a truce took effect last February. The Islamic Jihad militant group said it carried out today's blast. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the attack was aimed at sabotaging the January 25 parliamentary election. Double bombing kills 22 in Baghdad At least 22 people were killed and 25 wounded in a double bomb attack in central Baghdad. An interior ministry official said a suicide bomber blew himself up in a cafe, while a car bomb targeted a nearby Iraqi police patrol. The explosions occurred almost simultaneously. Iraq women prisoners in "normal process" The Reuters news agency reports that the US military is not planning to release Iraqi female prisoners in the near future. The announcement contradicts previous reports by the Iraqi Justice Ministry that the US was preparing to release six female detainees. A Pentagon spokeman said US forces are holding eight Iraqi women who are going through the normal review process to see if, and when, they will be released. Officials say the reviews are not linked to threats by militants to kill kidnapped US journalist Jill Carroll unless the US releases all Iraqi women in Iraq. Protestors paralyse Abidjan for 4th day Anti-UN protests are continuing in Ivory Coast despite a plea for calm by President Laurent Gbagbo. Some 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside the main UN headquarters in Abidjan. UN peacekeepers fired tear gas grenades to keep the crowd under control. Supporters of the president have been protesting around the country since Monday after international mediators recommended dissolving parliament which is dominated by Gbagbo loyalists. Despite the president's call for the people of Abidjan to return to work, many have been unable to. Russian cold spell of - 40 C continues Weather forecasters say freezing cold weather in Russia with temperatures plummeting below 40 degrees Celcius is set to continue. At least 24 people have died in the extreme cold and many schools and businesses are closed. Russian natural gas giant Gazprom has reduced supplies to several western countries by around 20 percent because of the extreme cold at home. Hungary, Italy, Austria and Slovakia all said they were affected and had received less gas than usual. Third bid for Pluto probe launch The US space agency NASA will make a third attempt to launch its first-ever unmanned probe to the outermost planet Pluto this Thursday. High winds at Cape Canaveral forced NASA to abort the first attempt on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a storm cut power to the mission's flight control centre in Maryland. Once launched, it'll take the probe 10 years to reach Pluto. Pluto is the only known planet in our solar system that has not been explored by a space probe. EU rules against Germany labour law The European Union's highest court has ruled that the restrictive German system to allow non-EU foreigners to work in Germany was illegal. The European Court of Justice said the requirement of at least a year's employment at the foreign company which is sending the worker to Germany is "disproportionate" to ensure social welfare protection or prevent social dumping. The court concluded that Germany infringed the provisions on the freedom to provide services. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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/
