DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News
March 9th 2006, 16:00 UTC
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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Dresden Sells GDR Legacy, Eliminates Debt
In a highly-controversial move, Dresden on Thursday will become
the first major German city to sell its entire residential real estate
holdings. The buyer? A US investor. Tenants are concerned.
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
internet address below:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1928702,00.html
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Iran remains firm on nuclear programme
Iranian leaders maintain that they won't be bullied into abandoning
Iran's nuclear programme. Both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and
supreme leader Ali Khamenei were defiant in the face of mounting
international pressure on Iran, and rejected its referral to the UN
Security Council as unjust. According to Iran's state television,
Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, told a group
of clerics that Iran would definitely not drop its nuclear
programme. He said that Washington was looking for an excuse to
continue what he called a psychological war against his country. The
UN Security Council will debate the crisis at the beginning of next
week.
China, US trade rights accusations
China and United States have accused each other of human rights
violations. Responding to a critical report by the US State
Department, China's state council or cabinet has denounced the
United States for what it called discrimination against minorities,
especially blacks, and the holding of prisoners in US-run detention
centres in Iraq and at Guantanamo. The US, in its annual human
rights report on Wednesday, criticised what it said was a growing
Chinese censorship of the media and Internet, and arrests of
dissidents.
Man takes 20 hostage in French school
An armed man described as an unemployed teacher has taken 18
pupils, and two other people hostage at a school in western
France. Police are currently at the scene but the man's demands are
not yet known. The 33-year-old man used to teach at the school in
the town of Sable-sur-Sarthe, west of Paris, two years ago.
Polish president heckled by gays
The first ever visit to Germany by Poland's new President Lech
Kaczynski has been disrupted by gay rights activists. Fifty of them
interrupted his speech on the European Union inside Berlin's
Humboldt University, accusing him of being hostile toward gays
during his previous term as mayor of Warsaw and of being
"anti-democratic". Kaczynski replied that he would not persecute
gays but did not regard them as equal with heterosexuals because
homosexuality, if encourage, would mean that "mankind would slowly
die out". Ending his two-day visit, Kaczynski said Polish-German
ties had improved. He also said Ukraine, Poland's neighbour, should
join NATO.
Roadside bomb kills 6 in Baghdad
In Iraq, a roadside bomb has killed six people and wounded eight in
Baghdad's western Amriya district. Police said the target of the
bomb had been an Iraqi army patrol. All the casualties were
civilians. On Wednesday dozens of employees of a private security
firm were seized by gunmen wearing police uniforms. Police said
around 50 staff had been abducted in eastern Baghdad by the gunmen
travelling in at least ten vehicles in what appeared to be a
well-planned operation. A US military patrol later found 18 bodies
in an abandoned minibus. The victims had been handcuffed,
blindfolded and hanged or shot. There were also signs that they had
been tortured.
36 people feared dead in Turkish bus crash
At least 16 people died after a bus carrying about 45 passengers
crashed in Turkey. Another 20 people are missed, feared dead. Divers
are still searching for bodies. Officials said the bus drove off a
road and plunged into a river. Survivors said the bus was speeding
when it failed to negotiate a bend in the road. Eleven people
survived the accident which happened just before dawn. The crash
occurred in the central Turkish province of Tokat, some 350
kilometers east of Ankara.
Suicide bomb kills three in east Turkey
A bomb detonated by suspected Kurdish guerrillas has killed three
people and injured 18 others in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated
south-east. Local security forces say that they suspect a suicide
bomber was behind the attack in the remote eastern city of Van. A
police officer, a civilian and an unidentified man, suspected of
being the bomber were killed in the blast. The explosion took place
next to a crowded supermarket near to government buildings.
Recently, attacks by militants belonging to the Kurdistan Workers
Party or PKK have increased in the region.
Portugal swears in new president
Former prime minister Anibal Cavaco Silva has been sworn as
Portugal's new president. 66-year-old Silva, who is regarded as a
right-of-centre politician, narrowly defeated five leftist
candidates in the first round of an election held on January 22,
capturing 50.5 percent of the vote. The president has no power to
legislate but can influence government policy by identifying
priorities or expressing opinions about proposed initiatives.
UNHCR observers on Lampedusa
The United Nations refugee agency the UNHCR says it has sent
observers to a camp for boat migrants on Lampedusa, Italy's small
island between Sicily and north Africa. Last year Italy denied UN
officials access, but the UNHCR says it now has a deal to inform
migrants on their rights to request asylum. Last year at least
15,000 would-be immigrants, mainly Africans, landed on the tiny
Mediterranean island after risking voyages in rickerty boats,
sometimes operated by suspected people smugglers. Rights groups have
often denounced overcrowded conditions on Lampedusa.
Bird flu jumps to weasel-like marten
For the first time worldwide, bird flu has been diagnosed in a
second type of mammal, in Germany, raising fears that the virus H5N1
can jump species. The infected stone marten, a weasel-like creature,
was found on Germany's Baltic Sea island of Ruegen. This is where the
virus killed three cats after first being found in wild swans.
Germany's Friedrich Loeffler research institute says the find in the
marten does not mean that humans are at any greater risk. The cats
are thought to have eaten birds and marten have similar prey.
Experts warn, however, that if the H5N1 virus mutates it could
become transmissible human-to-human. In Asia since 2003 at least 96
people have died, mostly from direct contact with live poultry.
German funeral procession hit by van
In southern Germany at least 25 people were seriously injured when a
delivery van collided with a funeral procession in the Bavarian town
of Jettingen-Scheppach. Unconfirmed reports says that three people
were killed in the accident. Police said that they suspect the
driver of the van had suffered a heart attack. A total of 35 people
were rushed to nearby hospitals, with 13 helicopters deployed in the
emergency.
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