Deutsche Welle
English Service News
30. 01. 2006, 17:00 UTC
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Kicking News" -- DW-WORLD's Soccer Newsletter:
Get all the news about the World Cup and Germany's Bundesliga on
DW-WORLD.DE at the end of every month. To subscribe, go to:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1170241,00.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Merkel Warns Palestinians Over Hamas
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday warned that Berlin
would cut funding to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority unless
the radical Islamist group renounced violence.
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
internet address below:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1876718,00.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chancellor Merkel meets Abbas
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become the first foreign leader
to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas since the radical Islamist
group Hamas won last week's election. At a press conference, she
said that the post-election Palestinian Authority must recognise
Israel's right to exist and renounce violence. She said that Abbas
carries a great responsibility. Hamas has sworn in the past to
destroy Israel. Abbas for his part urged the international community
to continue to provide aid to Palestine. Earlier in the day Merkel
laid a wreath at Israel's Holocaust memorial for the six million
Jews killed by Nazi Germany. Talking at the Yad Vashem memorial,
Merkel promised that Germany would stand at Israel's side especially
during difficult times.
West unites for Hamas to disarm
Western nations are united in insisting that Hamas must renounce
violence. EU Foreign Ministers who met in Brussels this afternoon
said the European Union is strongly considering cutting off aid to
the Palestinian Authority if Hamas does not commit itself to making
peace with Israel. US President George W. Bush said Hamas must get
rid of its arms and disavow terrorism. Hamas has appealed to the
international community not to cut financial aid. Ismail Haniyeh, a
Hamas leader in Gaza, said the money would be spent on salaries,
infrastructure and general aid. Western nations are concerned that
Hamas could use the aid to fund violence. The European Union is the
largest aid donor to the Palestinians.
EU-Iran talks go nowhere
A meeting between German, French and British officials with an
Iranian delegation over that country's nuclear programme ended on
Monday without any progress. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said in Brussels that there were no new proposals made,
so the situation hadn't changed. US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said it was time to refer Tehran to the UN. She made the
comments ahead of Monday evening's meeting in London of the five
permanent UN Security Council members who hope to establish a
unified position on Iran.
M. East Bird flu death, also Cyprus
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has claimed its first victim in
the Middle East. The Iraqi health minister confirmed that a teenage
Kurdish girl who died two weeks ago had the virus. The girl came
from a village close to Iraq's border with Turkey, where four people
have died from the disease. The deadly strain of bird flu has also
been discovered for the first time in Cyprus. Health officials
confirmed that two chickens in the Turkish-occupied north have the
virus.
Emergeny exists locked in roof collapse
The Polish government has ordered the closure of some large
buildings including supermarkets. Engineers are investigating
suspicions that warm-climate designs may be unsuitable for colder
climates leading to their collapse. Meanwhile, investigators say
several emergency exits were locked when an exhibition hall
collapsed this weekend in Chorzow, killing 67 people and injuring
150 others. Medical authorities say the final death toll is expected
to rise given the severity of the injuries among the survivors.
Several people are believed to missing in the wreckage but rescue
workers say there is no hope of finding anyone alive.
Attack on Iraqi police training centre
In Iraq, a suicide bomber in a car has blown himself up outside a
police training centre in the southern city of Nasiriyah, killing at
least one policeman and up to 39 other people, including soldiers
and civilians. Monday morning's attack is the latest in a fresh wave
of violence by mainly Sunni Arab insurgents across the country which
has seen dozens killed and scores of others wounded in the past two
days. In a separate attack, an Italian soldier was wounded when a
roadside bomb exploded near his patrol outside Nasiriyah, the site
of the Italian military base in Iraq.
All Canadian miners rescued
Officials have rescued all 72 miners trapped underground by a fire
in a central Canadian potash mine. The fire broke out on early
Sunday morning local time, forcing the miners to seek safety for 24
hours in emergency refuge rooms. Firefighters extinguished the blaze
on Monday and then cleared smoke from the underground mine allowing
the trapped workers to leave the large underground facility.
Blast injures 3 at US-Turkish association
An explosion at a US-Turkish association in the southern Turkish
city of Adana has injured three people. Two of the injured were
women the Anatolian news agency reported but there was no further
information on the blast. The city of Adana is also home to the
Incirlik airbase which the US military uses to supply its forces in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oil worker hostages in Nigeria freed
Four foreign oil workers who were abducted 19 days ago from an
offshore oilfield by Nigerian militants have been freed. A Nigerian
government spokesman said the hostages - an American, a Briton, a
Bulgarian and a Honduran - were alive and well. The men work for the
company Royal Dutch Shell. Their kidnappers had called for financial
compensation for environmental damage caused by the oil industry.
Enron trial starts
The trial has begun for former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey
Skilling for their roles in the collapse of the energy giant in
2001. Jury selection started in Houston, Texas more than four years
after billions of dollars were wiped out when Enron declared
bankruptcy. Lay and Skilling are being charged with fraud and
conspiracy in lying to stockholders about the financial state of the
company. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Week in Germany: The best from German culture, business and
olitics 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. 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.
