DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News 28. 03. 2006 16:00 Uhr UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: German Business Confidence Soars to 15-Year High Business confidence in Germany has reached a 15-year high. The unexpected surge in the Ifo business climate index on Tuesday points to a solid recovery in Europe's biggest economy, analysts said. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1947327,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kadima on course to win Israeli poll Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired a rocket into southern Israel killing two people. This comes as Israelis are going to the polls to vote in general elections. Opinion polls indicate the centrist Kadima party led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will win the elections. But analysts say that Olmert's party may not get enough seats to establish a stable coalition and push through his policy of creating permanent borders for Israel. He plans to do this by dismantling some isolated Jewish settlements but also annexing parts of Palestinian territory. Hamas cabinet approved by parliament The Palestinian parliament has voted to approve the new Cabinet proposed by militant group Hamas, two months after the group's landslide election victory. The parliamentarians voted 71-36 in favour of the cabinet. Before the vote, incoming Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh repeated an earlier call for talks with international mediators about solving the Middle-East conflict. The US has rejected this, because Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel's right to exist. Ukrainian parties jostle for power Ukraine's official election results put the pro-Russian party led by Viktor Yanukovych at the top with nearly 30 percent of Sunday's vote. Yulia Tymoshenko's party won over 22 percent and she's trying to form a liberal coalition. Tymoshenko's likely partner would be President Viktor Yushchenko's party which came in third. But she's demanding back her job as prime minister as the price for joining a coalition with Yushchenko who sacked her last year. Yushchenko's party was swept to power during the orange revolution in 2004 but suffered a major defeat in Sunday's election. Protests across France over jobs law In France hundreds of thousands of protestors have turned out to demand that the government withdraw its new youth job law. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has reiterated his refusal to abandon the law, which makes it easier to fire young workers. Opponents led by unions, students and left-wing parties, are staging a central rally in Paris, and protesters have also turned out in large numbers in Marseille, Nantes, Tours and Rouen. One-day strikes, mainly by teachers and public transport workers, have disrupted trains and buses. At airports 30 percent of all flights have been cancelled. Surveys show that two-thirds of French people oppose the law. Villepin is a potential candidate in next year's presidential poll. Afghan Christian convert freed Afghanistan's justice minister has said that a man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has been released from prison. This comes as the United Nations is working on an asylum request by Abdul Rahman. An Afghan court referred Rahman's case back to prosecutors on Sunday because of concerns over his mental health. Analysts have said that dropping the case on grounds that Rahman is mentally unstable is an escape route for the Afghan government, whose handling of the trial has been severely criticised by the country's Western allies. Mullahs clash in Pakistan, 25 killed At least 25 people have been killed in clashes between rival Muslim clerics in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The fighting between a Pakistani and Afghani religious leaders was sparked by a row over the demolition of a house. Officials say the situation is tense in the area and the local administration is trying to end fighting through a jirga, or tribal assembly. Both clerics are supporters of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. Many of the regime's members fled across the border to Pakistan after the fundamentalist movement was ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001. Moussaoui admits he lied over Sept. 11 Al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui has made a stunning testimony to a US court that he was supposed to hijack a fifth aeroplane in the September 11 2001 attacks, and fly it into the White House. Moussaoui said he knew about the planned attacks on New York and Washington. He admitted that he lied to investigators when arrested just weeks before September 11 because he wanted the attacks to happen. Moussaoui's surprise testimony backs the prosecutor's case, and appears to boost his chances of getting the death penalty. The Frenchman had previously denied any knowledge of the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Bush's chief of staff Card replaced US President George W. Bush has announced the resignation of his chief of staff Andrew Card. He's to be replaced by the White House budget director Joshua Bolten. Bush's own Republican party had in recent weeks exerted pressure on the president to shake up his staff because of a sharp slump in Bush's public approval ratings. Industrial unrest across Germany In Germany the metal workers' union IG Metall has begun warning strikes, with a one-hour stoppage at BMW's car plant in Leipzig. The union says stoppages could be extended to other parts of Germany on Wednesday to back demands for a five percent pay rise and improved conditions. Employers have offered 1.4 percent. At university training clinics across Germany doctors are into the 13th day of stoppages. They want reductions in excessive overtime and better pay. Their association, the Marburger Bund, has threatened strikes at 700 communal hospitals as well. Inconclusive talks took place in Frankfurt on Monday. Employers point to shrinking budgets. In the Bundestag, parliamentarians are at odds over future allowances. Some opposed suggested cuts in their pension entitlements. Communal workers on strike in Britain In Britain more than a million at public schools, city council offices and other local services are staging a one-day strike over pensions. The unions are protesting plans by Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to scrap a rule allowing council staff to retire at 60 if they have 25 years of service. The strike has closed down the Tower of London, 600 schools in Scotland, and disrupted bus and rail travel. Local government employers say some regions however have not been affected by stoppages. German business confidence rises Business confidence in Germany has reached a 15-year high. The IFO institute, which surveys 7,000 firms on their future prospects, says its index soared in March to its highest level since 1991. Analysts say it's another sign that Germany's economy is recovering strongly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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