DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News
08. 03. 2006 16:00 Uhr UTC
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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Europe Searching for a Better Energy Strategy
Facing rapidly dwindling energy supplies and a precarious dependence
on energy from abroad, the European Union urged countries to rethink
their energy policies in a report released on Wednesday.
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internet address below:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1927971,00.html
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Security Council to deal with Iran
US and British officials have said that a report by the UN's nuclear
watchdog agency on Iran's nuclear ambitions is to be sent to the
Security Council in New York where the matter will be taken up next
week. This comes after the International Atomic Energy Agency in
Vienna finished its assessment of the report by its chief Mohamed
ElBaradei. Javad Vaidi, Iran's IAEA representative, told reporters
that his country would continue to work with the UN agency.
Washington had earlier dismissed warnings by Tehran that the US
would suffer "harm and pain" if Iran was referred to the UN Security
Council over its nuclear activities. A White House spokesman said
the latest provocative statements only served to isolate Iran still
further within the international community.
50 security staff abducted in Iraq
In eastern Baghdad dozens of employees of a private security firm
have been seized by gunmen wearing police uniforms. Police said
around 50 staff had been abducted by the gunmen who had arrived in
at least ten vehicles in what appeared to be a well-planned
operation. Earlier a US military patrol found 18 bodies in an
abandoned minibus in western Baghdad. Iraqi police said the victims
had been handcuffed, blindfolded and hanged or shot. There were also
signs that they had been tortured. The find follows a surge of
sectarian violence unleashed by the bombing last month of a Shiite
shrine in the central city of Samarra and reprisal attacks against
Sunni mosques and clerics.
Police on high alert in India
Police and security forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir are on high
alert after bomb explosions in the region killed at least 20 people
on Tuesday. Police have erected roadblocks and checkpoints in many
areas in the region and other major cities, including Delhi, as the
government attempts to hinder a flare-up of communal violence. The
bombings occurred at a Hindu temple and the main railway station in
the city of Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh. No one has yet
claimed responsibility for the attacks. Later in a separate
incident, police killed a suspected Islamic guerrilla in Lucknow,
the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
Polish president in Berlin for talks
At the start of his first-ever visit to Germany, Polish President
Lech Kaczynski has said it's time the two countries overcame some of
the differences still dividing them. Ahead of his first meeting with
Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Kaczynski said good bilateral
relations would benefit not only Poland and Germany but Europe as a
whole. Merkel said their talks would focus on the future of the EU
and other international issues. Kaczynski is also due to meet
President Horst Koehler and other leading German politicians during
the two-day visit. Poland, which joined the European Union in 2004,
generally enjoys good relations with Germany, although Warsaw
objects to a German-Russian plan to build a gas pipeline under the
Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland.
Seehofer warns of bird flu threat
Germany's Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer says he's concerned by
the latest confirmation of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in two dead
cats on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen. It's the same area where
another dead cat was found last week, thought to be the first mammal
in Europe to be infected with the virus. Seehofer said the latest
cases indicated that the risk of the virus being passed to humans
had grown. However Germany's national veterinary laboratory
dismissed those claims and said the danger had not increased as a
result.
Thousands protest against UN in Sudan
Thousands of Sudanese have taken to the streets of the capital
Khartoum to protest against UN plans to deploy international
peacekeepers in the troubled Darfur region. The protesters chanted
"Down with the USA" and carried banners telling UN troops to bring
their coffins with them. African Union ministers are to decide on
Friday whether to ask the United Nations to take over the AU's
peacekeeping mission in Darfur which comprises around 7,000 troops.
The AU mission is fast running out of money and the UN is seeking EU
and NATO support.
Court rules on Schreiber extradition
German prosecutors say an appeals court in Canada's province of
Ontario has rejected a bid by the arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber
to avoid extradition to Germany. Schreiber, who has German and
Canadian citizenship, is wanted by justice authorities in Augsburg
in the German state of Bavaria over charges of bribery and tax
evasion. Schreiber, who fled to Canada in 1999, is regarded as a key
figure in a political campaign funding scandal that engulfed
Germany's conservative Christian Democratic party in the 1990s.
Augsburg prosecutors allege he made money from deals involving
tanks, helicopters and aircraft. In Toronto, Schreiber's lawyer said
his client would challenge extradition in Canada's highest court.
Annan unveils UN reform plans
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has delivered a long
awaited report outlining a major overhaul of UN management and
bureaucracy. The reforms were demanded by world leaders in response
to the Iraq oil-for-food corruption scandal and fraud in awarding
contracts. Among the changes, Annan has proposed re-organising
management, upgrading information technology, and improving
transparency and financial controls. But some developing countries
have expressed concerns that the reforms will place too much power in
the hands of the Secretary-General. The estimated cost of the reforms
is $500 million. Some of the cost could be offset by plans to outsource
services such as translation and administration, but these have drawn
protests from staff at UN headquarters in New York.
Netherlands shift to the left in elections
Dutch voters have strongly supported the left in local elections
widely seen as a measure of how major parties will fare in national
elections next May. In final results the opposition Labor party
emerged as the biggest winner from Tuesday's vote for city and town
councils, eclipsing the ruling Christian Democrats as the largest
party at the local level. All members of the ruling three-party
conservative coalition lost grou
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