DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News 27. 03. 2006 16:00 Uhr UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Clinton Calls for More Aid for Tsunami Victims Former US president Bill Clinton on Monday pressed donors at a UN conference in Germany for more money to rebuild communities shattered by the South Asian tsunami and create warning systems against future sea swells. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1945919,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD offers you a special service for the Bundesliga. Get all the action on your mobile device and you'll never miss out on important news. For more information, please visit http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,8733,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 dead in US-Iraqi army base explosion An explosion has killed least 40 people at a US-Iraqi army base near the northern city of Mosul. At least 30 were also injured by the suicide car bomb which targeted Iraqi army recruits. No American soldiers were killed. Meanwhile, Baghdad's provincial governor has said he would suspend all cooperation with US forces until there is an independent investigation of Sunday's killing of at least 16 Shiites near Baghdad's Sadr City. This is a stronghold of radical cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose aides have accused US troops of massacring dozens of unarmed worshippers at the Mustafa mosque complex. The US military has denied raiding any mosque, saying Iraqi special forces backed by US advisers raided a building and killed 16 insurgents. No clear winner in Ukraine As counting gets underway after Ukraine's general election Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Russian party has shown an early lead. The bloc led by Yulia Tymoshenko is currently in second place while the pro-presidential Our Ukraine Party was trailing in third. Tymoshenko, the former prime minister and ally of President Viktor Yushchenko, said she was ready to form a coalition with other liberal parties and added that she was prepared to return to the post of prime minister. Official results are not expected until Tuesday. Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have declared the parliamentary elections free and fair. Six killed in Georgian prison riot A riot at a prison in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi has resulted in the deaths of at least six inmates. Officials said that riot police used firearms to put down a rebellion by inmates trying to escape from the jail on the outskirts of Tbilisi. More than a dozen further inmates and several riot police were taken to hospital for treatment after the riot was quashed in the early hours of Monday morning. A government official said that the riot appeared to have been well organised. Most of the prisoners involved are serving long terms for violent crimes. CDU wins in two state elections Here in Germany, Conservatives and Social Democrats held on to power in three state polls on Sunday. The conservative Christian Democrats won clear victories in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The Social Democrats maintained their dominance in Rhineland-Palatinate. On the federal level, both parties are joined in a grand coalition government under Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two main parties were happy with Sunday's results which will maintain their delicate balance of power under Merkel. Hamas wants talks with Quartet nations The Palestinian militant group Hamas has called for dialogue with international peace mediators in a bid to ensure Palestinian aid continues. Hamas prime minister designate Ismail Haniyeh was referring to the so-called Middle East Quartet, comprising of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. But the Quartet has said Hamas must first renounce violence and recognise Israel in order to receive continued financial aid. The militant group however, has so far refused to meet those two demands. Haniyeh made his comments as he presented a cabinet list to the Palestinian parliament on Monday for a vote of confidence. Hamas, which swept Palestinian elections in January, formed a government alone after failing to persuade other parties to join a coalition. Kadima Party loses support say polls A day before general elections are to be held in Israel, the centrist Kadima Party, headed by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has once again lost support according to opinion polls published today. Latest figures predict front-runner Kadima will get just 34 of 120 parliamentary seats which would make it difficult for Olmert to establish a ruling coalition. Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that the future Israeli government would have to co-operate with a Hamas-led government. Israel has said that it will not deal with Hamas, which it regards as a terrorist organisation. US and British hostages freed in Nigeria Three foreign oil workers held hostage by militants in Nigeria for five weeks have been released. The three, two Americans and a Briton, are employees of the American oil services company Willbros. They were seized from a barge in the southern Niger Delta on Feb. 18. The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta had demanded a greater share of the delta's oil wealth, the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation for oil pollution as conditions for freeing the hostages. EU agrees on a common drivers license The European Union has agreed to create an EU-wide driving licence, to replace dozens of national versions. It will be a credit-card style document valid across the 25-nation bloc. EU transport ministers agreed on the new licence after resolving differences over validity lengths. National licences will be phased out over the next 26 years. The new ones will have to be replaced every 10 or 15 years. The EU licence is aimed at preventing fraud and making security checks easier. The law must still be passed by the European Parliament later this year. Bertelsmann may sell music assets Europe's largest media company Bertelsmann is making preparations to sell its music industry holdings. According to the London Financial Times, this would include the German company's 50 percent stake in Sony BMG and its wholly owned BMG Music Publishing. The Financial Times has cited unnamed people close to the deal as saying the plans are at an early stage. They could be worth up to 2 billion euros, and may be used to help Bertelsmann buy back some or all of the 25 percent stake held its only outside investor, Brussels based GBL. Bertelsmann, which owns European broadcaster RTL and book publisher Random House among other businesses, is privately owned by the Mohn family. Thai opposition reject PM's peace offer Thailand's main opposition party has rejected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatre's offer to include them in a national unity government if he wins next week's elections. Thaksin's peace offering comes as public demonstrations calling for him to step down continue. Opposition parties are boycotting the April 2 elections and accuse the Prime Minister of corruption and nepotism. In the lead up to Sunday's poll, tensions in the Thai capital are high and a small bomb was found at the main opposition party's headquarters. Explosives experts safely managed to defuse the time-bomb. Bomb kills nine in Philippines A large explosion inside a co-operative on the island of Jolo in the Philippines has killed at least nine people and wounded up to 20. The explosion took place in a grocery store in downtown Jolo city, about 950 kilometres south-east of Manila. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack but local police suspect the al-Qaida-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Week in Germany: The best from German culture, business and politics in a convenient weekly wrap-up. 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