DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News 19.03.2006, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Opposition Accuses Lukashenko of Manipulating Belarus Vote Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko looked set for landslide re-election Sunday amid opposition claims of vote-rigging and fear of violence after authorities vowed to crush protests. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1938305,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- signandsight.com signandsight.com is the English version of the prize-winning online cultural magazine perlentaucher.de. Providing free access daily reviews of Germany's cultural press, it translates keynote articles and reviews the season's best publications. www.signandsight.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Belarus votes in tense presidential poll Voters in the former Soviet republic of Belarus are going to the polls in a presidential election which opposition groups say is rigged. Deutsche Welle correspondent Ilya Kouznecsoff in Minsk says government exit polls confirm expectations that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko will win a third straight term in office. The main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, has said he will not recognise the results, and is urging supporters to hold a peaceful protest in the capital Minsk as soon as polling stations close. President Lukashenko has vowed to crush any demonstration. Hamas to submit cabinet list The radical Islamist group Hamas is due to submit its cabinet list to Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas. Abbas is expected to approve the list, which includes a number of noted hardliners. Abbas' own faction Fatah and other moderate Palestinian parties have refused to join a coalition led by Hamas, which says it will not respect past international peace agreements brokered with Israel. Hamas is regarded by the European Union, United States and Israel as a terrorist organisation for continuing to advocate violence despite its decision to take part in elections. Attack on Shiite holy city in Iraq A mortar shell has exploded in the centre of Iraq's holy city of Karbala as hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims gather for a major religious commemoration. Police said there were no casualties in the attack, which is being blamed on Sunni extremists. So far a dozen pilgrims have been killed or wounded by roadside bombs and drive-by shootings on their way to the holy city. Meanwhile eight people, including a child, have been killed in clashes between US troops and gunmen in Duluiyah, north of Baghdad. The US military says seven of the victims were terrorists, but Iraqi police say several of them were civilians. New US Iraq abuse allegations emerge The New York Times newspaper has published new allegations of prisoner abuse by US soldiers in Iraq. The report claims that members of a US military task force beat prisoners with rifle butts and used detainees for target practice in games of paintball. The alleged abuse took place at a secret detention site at Baghdad International Airport. The Times claims the abuse began as the Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004 and continued after photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib were made public in April 2004. The report was based on interviews with more than a dozen civilian and military Department of Defense personnel who worked with the task force. Mass protests over French job law Trade union and student leaders in France have threatened a general strike unless the government scraps a controversial new labour law by Monday. This comes after hundreds of thousands of people protested around France on Saturday against the law, which makes it easier to hire and fire young people. In the capital Paris, a peaceful march was followed by overnight clashes between police and hundreds of young demonstrators. Over 150 people were arrested after vehicles were set on fire and overturned, and nearby windows smashed. There were also clashes in other French cities, with police responding with tear gas and water cannons. Bomb blast in northwestern Pakistan At least seven people have been killed and four wounded in a bomb blast near a police van in northwestern Pakistan. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion, but local officials blamed Islamic militants from a neighbouring tribal region. The incident took place in Dera Ismail Khan, which borders the restive tribal region of North Waziristan where Pakistani forces are hunting suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels. Egypt claims second human bird flu case Authorities in Egypt say a man is recovering in hospital from a suspected bird flu infection. Initial tests carried out in Egypt show the man was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, which authorities say was also responsible for the death of an Egyptian woman earlier this week. Further tests are being carried out, but so far neither case has been independently confirmed as H5N1 bird flu. Both cases came from the same region of Egypt, but local authorities say the two people had no contact with each other. The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed over 90 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003. Solana discusses EU force in DR Congo European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo for talks with President Joseph Kabila and other officials. Solana's two-day trip is aimed at firming up plans for the deployment of an EU force to boost security during landmark elections scheduled for later this year. The first round of a presidential poll is due mid-June, the first free election since the end of the DRC's five-year civil war in 2003. Benin votes in run-off presidential vote The West African country of Benin is voting in a second-round presidential election to replace long-serving President Mathieu Kerekou. Almost four million voters are expected to go to the polls, to choose between the former head of the West African Development Bank, Yayi Boni, and former parliamentary speaker Adrien Houngbedji. In the first round of voting on March 5 Boni came out ahead of a field of 26 candidates with 35.6 percent of the vote. Houngbedji was second with 24 percent. Renault one-two in Malaysian Grand Prix Italian Giancarlo Fisichella has won the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix. Renault team-mate and world champion Fernando Alonso came second, giving Renault their first one-two finish in 24 years. Britain's Jenson Button came third for Honda. Michael Schumacher came sixth, in the second race of the Formula One season. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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