DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter English Service News 11. 03. 2006 17:00 Uhr 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: Former Yugoslav President Milosevic Dies Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, known as the "Butcher of the Balkans," was found dead in his cell room bed Saturday, the UN tribunal judging him for war crimes and genocide said. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1931302,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Milosevic dies in his prison cell Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has died. He was found dead in his prison cell near The Hague, where he had been standing trial for war crimes. A spokesman for the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal said Milosevic had apparently died of natural causes. He said the Dutch police and a Dutch coroner had been called in and that a full autopsy and toxicological examination had been ordered. The 64-year-old Milosevic suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure. Just last month, the tribunal rejected a request by Milosevic that he be allowed to travel to Russia for medical treatment. Milosevic's health problems had repeatedly interrupted his trial on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the civil conflicts that erupted as the former Yugoslavia broke up during the 1990s. Riot police end Sorbonne sit-in French riot police have broken up a three-day sit-in at Paris's Sorbonne university. Police raided the building in the early hours of Saturday morning forcing out around 200 students who had been staging the protest. Tear gas and batons were used in the action recalling the student riots based at the University in May 1968. The students were protesting against an unpopular new labour law allowing employers to hire under 26-year-olds on a two-year basis with the right to terminate the contract without any reason. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy cut short a trip to the French West Indies because of the demonstration. Protesters complained police used excessive force. Public sector strike talks suspended Negotiations aimed at ending Germany's five-week old public sector strike have been suspended for the second time in as many days. A spokesman for the employers' side said the negotiations that were being held in Berlin had broken off after a short session on Saturday morning. No new talks have been scheduled. The two sides had also met for 12 hours on Friday but failed to resolve the labour dispute. More than 40,000 public employees have walked off the job to protest against plans by state and municipal employers to increase their working week from 38.5 to 40 hours, without extra pay. US hostage found dead in Iraq A US citizen who was among four Christian peace activists kidnapped in Iraq last November has been killed. US State Department spokesman Noel Clay said the body of 54-year-old Tom Fox was found by US troops in Baghdad on Friday. He said he had no information on two Canadians and a Briton who were abducted along with Fox. Meanwhile, the fate of two German men kidnapped in Iraq remains unclear. Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich were seized near an oil refinery in the northern town of Baiji two months ago. Their kidnappers threatened to kill them unless the German government cut all ties with Iraq. AU decides to extend Darfur mission The African Union has decided to extend its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's western Darfur region until the end of September before handing over control to the United Nations. The AU's Peace and Security Council made the decision at a meeting in Addis Ababa. Speaking to reporters at UN headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the move. The United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed and two million others have been forced to flee their homes in Darfur, since fighting there broke out three years ago. Khartoum has denied backing Arab "Janjaweed" militias, who have been accused of committing some of the worst atrocities against civilians. Protest against fascist rally in Milan Italian police have clashed with anti-globalisation protesters in Milan ahead of a planned fascist rally. Some 300 people torched cars and a building when police tried to break up the demonstration. Police said that a nail bomb injured four police and at least 40 demonstrators were arrested. Police fired tear gas to break up the riot, that forced the closure of nearby metro stations and roads. Italy will hold general elections in April. Opinion polls indicate Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition may lose to the centre-left. Jordan hangs two for death of US diplomat Jordan has executed two Islamist militants convicted of killing a US diplomat in Amman in 2002. Officials said prison authorities in Swaqa had carried out a court decision to hang Libyan Salem bin Suweid and Jordanian Yasser Freihat. Both had been serving a death sentence passed in 2004 for murdering US diplomat Laurence Foley. Spain remembers train bombing victims Spain is paying tribute this Saturday to the victims of the terrorist attacks on Madrid's transportation system two years ago. On this day in 2004, 10 bombs on four different trains killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500 others. Islamic extremists claimed responsibility, saying the attacks were meant as revenge for Spain's participation in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. EU foreign ministers discuss Balkans European Union foreign ministers are continuing their meetings in the Austrian city of Salzburg. They're being joined this Saturday by their counterparts from Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Macedonia, Albania and Croatia. The talks are aimed at assessing the progress of each of those countries in preparing for eventual entry into the EU. The EU ministers are expected to issue a joint statement at the end of the meeting, saying that each of the Balkan countries had made significant progress over the past year. On Friday, the EU foreign ministers discussed the Middle East. They said they were prepared to deal with the militant group Hamas, which won the recent Palestinian election, but only if it renounces violence and recognises Israel's right to exist. Afghan govt. officials found beheaded Taliban insurgents have beheaded two former Afghan government officials in the southern province of Helmand. Local officials said the bodies were dumped on Saturday morning beside a road in Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand. The interior ministry in Kabul said the beheadings were carried out by "Afghanistan's enemies", a term used by Afghan officials to describe Taliban and al Qaeda allies. Helmand is the centre of Afghanistan's illegal opium producing industry. Earlier, a bomb planted by suspected Taliban rebels killed a policeman and wounded five others in the province. A major campaign began last week targeting the drug producers who account for 90% of the world's opium. NASA probe enters orbit around Mars The US space agency NASA says its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has survived a critical phase of its flight, successfully entering orbit around the planet. The spacecraft is the most sophisticated ever to travel to Mars. Over the next six months, the probe is to gradually approach what scientists have calculated as an optimal orbit to gather information about the planet. It is expected to churn out detailed information about the climate and landscape of Mars. NASA says the probe will return 10 times more data than all of the previous Mars missions put together. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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