DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter English Service News 26. 03. 2006 16:00 Uhr UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Super Sunday of German Polls Tests Merkel's Strength Elections opened Sunday in three German states that will put Chancellor Angela Merkel's left-right government to the test for the first time since she ousted Gerhard Schröder in November last year. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1942411,00.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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Force against Belarus protests criticised Germany's foreign minister has criticized the use of force against crowds protesting the re-election of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and condemned the detention of an opposition leader. Frank Walter Steinmeier called for the release of Alexander Kozulin and other activists taken into custody, saying the basic right to freedom of opinion and assembly had to be valid in Belarus. Kozulin and other activists were arrested on Saturday when thousands of demonstrators clashed with riot police as they tried to march on a jail, where other disidents are being held. The European Union and the US have condemned the election as unfair and announced that they will impose sanctions on Lukashenko. Ukraine holds parliamentary elections Ukrainians have gone to the polls, just over a year after huge crowds turned out in the "Orange Revolution" that brought Viktor Yushchenko to power. But the popularity of Yushchenko has fallen and opinion polls suggest his party may be beaten into second place. Reform has been slow, the economy has slumped and the orange team has been split by a power struggle. Yushchenko has predicted the elections will be one of the most democratic ever held in the former Soviet republic. Forty-five parties have taken part and almost 2,000 international observers are monitoring the election. German states vote as reform pressure builds The polls have just closed in elections in three of Germany's 16 states, the first elections since Angela Merkel took office in November as head of a delicate power-sharing government of CDU-CSU conservatives and SPD, Social Democrats. More than 17 million voters were illegible to cast their votes in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Sayony-Anhalt. Recent polls indicate that the incumbent governments have a good chance of staying in power. Tunnel fire victims receive compensation Families of the 39 people killed in the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire have signed an agreement granting them 27 million euros in compensation. The sum will be shared between 238 claimants. The March 1999 inferno was sparked by a truck that caught fire. The blaze burned for two days while firefighters tried to reach victims and vehicles trapped in the tunnel under Western Europe's highest peak. The agreement on compensation comes after a four-and-half-year investigation and an ensuing trial. Ten people were convicted, and three companies were fined. Two French officials have appealed. Abbas urges next Israeli govt to cooperate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has called on the next Israeli government to work with the Palestinians, who are set to be led by a Hamas-run cabinet. Following talks on Sunday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Abbas said "any Israeli government must cooperate with us and must not ignore the Palestinian side." Israel has refused to have any dealings with a government led by Hamas, unless it renounces violence, honours past agreements and recognizes the Jewish state. Hamas is branded a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States. Abbas said he would not block the new Palestinian government despite his objections to its political platform. The Palestinian Legislative council convenes on Monday for a confidence vote on the 24-member Hamas cabinet, one day before Israel's general election. Afghan convert to have mental check A prosecutor preparing the case against an Afghan man who could face the death penalty for converting to Christianity has said the man would undergo an examination to determine his mental state. Forty- year-old Abdur Rahman, who was jailed this month for abandoning Islam, is scheduled to be examined on Monday. The issue threatens to create a rift between Afghanistan and the USA and other Western backers who have been calling for the man's release. On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealing for clemency. Scotland bans smoking A sweeping ban on smoking has come into force in Scotland, making it the first part of Britain where pubs, restaurants and workplaces are smoke-free. With a population in Scotland of five million, experts hope the ban on lighting up will lead to a big drop in the number of deaths caused by passive smoking, estimated at about 1,000 a year. No smoking signs have gone up to promote the measure, part of a broader drive to change a lifestyle of heavy drinking, smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise which has earned Scotland the nickname "sick man of Europe". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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. Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
