DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter English Service News 24. 08. 2006 16:00 Uhr UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
German Officials: Terror Organization Behind Bomb Suspects The second fugitive suspect in failed bomb attacks on two German trains last month has been arrested in Lebanon after he turned himself in. Officials believe there may be a terror organization behind him. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=1hlrf1Ifcha79I0&req=l%3D1hlrf0Ifcha79I0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The wait is over! The Bundesliga is in full swing again! Follow all the German soccer action with DW-WORLD.DE in our special section: http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=1hlrf1Ifcha79I1&req=l%3D1hlrf0Ifcha79I1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Second suspect in terror plot arrested A second Lebanese man suspected of planting bombs on passenger trains in Germany last month has been taken into custody. The Federal Prosecutor's office said the 20-year-old suspect had turned himself in to authorities in the Lebanese city of Tripoli. German prosecutors are now seeking to get the man extradited from Lebanon to Germany. Rainer Griesbach of the Federal Prosecutor's office: Police in the northern German city of Kiel had arrested the other suspect, a 21-year-old Lebanese man, on Saturday. He has remained in custody on charges of attempted murder and belonging to a terrorist organisation. Both men are accused of planting bombs that were found on commuter trains on July 31 in Dortmund and Koblenz. Both bombs failed to detonate. EU wrangle over UN Lebanon force Diplomats of European Union nations consulting in Brussels are under growing pressure to overcome indecision on troop contribitions for an enlarged United Nation's peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. With Italy offering to lead it, diplomats say France and Spain have offered hundreds more troops. But that would be far fewer than the 15,000 troops envisaged in the UN's Resolution 1701 which underpins the recent ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. UN chief Kofi Annan is due in Brussels on Friday for special talks with EU foreign ministers. Syria, meanwhile, has threatened to close its border with Lebanon if UN peacekeepers are deployed there. An enlarged UN force would aim to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah. US Congress: We know little about Iran German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Iran's response to a package of incentives offered by world powers is unsatisfactory. Iran has been set a deadline on August 31 by the United Nations to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, or face possible sanctions. Iran has said it is willing to talk. Meanwhile, a US congressional report said that the US intelligence community is ill-prepared to assess Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities. The report questioned whether the US could effectively engage in talks with Tehran on ways to diffuse tensions. Suspicions fade over US flight Dutch authorities have concluded that the US airliner which turned back to Amsterdam on Wednesday did not face a terrorism threat. Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said inquiries had not substantiated initial suspicions about 12 arrested passengers. He declined to say why they remain in custody. Northwest Airlines Flight 42 bound for India turned back in German airspace. Security has been tightened at airports worldwide in the past two weeks after British police said they foiled a plot to blow up US-bound planes. - The Northwest DC10 completed its flight to Mumbai this Thursday. Speculation on Kurnaz release Germany says a German-born Turk held by the United States at Guantanamo for four years is about to be released. Murat Kurnaz is due to land shortly at a US airbase at Ramstein in Germany, according to the newspaper "Bild" and a radio station in Kurnaz's home city of Bremen. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said earlier on Thursday that Germany had persuaded Washington to release Kurnaz, but did not say when or where this would take place. Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen with permanent resident status in Germany, was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 on suspicion of terrorist activities, shortly after the September 11 attacks in the US. He denied links to al-Qaeda. Last year a US federal court decided that the internment of Kurnaz and some other detainees was illegal. Pluto loses planet status Pluto has lost its status as a planet. That decision, made at a conference of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, leaves eight recognised planets, including Earth, in our solar system. Pluto, previously classified as the outermost, was discovered in 1930. After hefty debate, 2,500 astronomers meeting in Prague have downgraded it to what they call a "dwarf-planet". Lost girl in Austria found after eight years A young woman missing in Vienna for eight years has turned up. Police say her alleged kidnapper has committed suicide after her reappearance. Natascha Kampusch says she was a 10-year schoolgirl when she was kidnapped and kept in a small cellar for years. On Wednesday she apparently managed to escape her captor and then sought the help of a neighbour. An Austrian federal police spokesman said that the woman has been identified by a scar on one arm. A DNA test, however, will also be performed and may bring closure to one of the biggest police mysteries in recent Austrian history. German deficit stands at 2.5 percent Germany's public deficit in the first half of this year has dropped dramatically. Figures released by the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden put the deficit at 2.5 percent for the first six months of this year. That's down from 3.7 percent during the same period last year. That means that the German deficit was back under the ceiling of three percent of GDP set out by the European Union's Growth and Stability Pact. The statistics office said, however, that the first-half numbers were not necessarily a reliable indicator of what the year-end figures would be. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Need a good laugh? Then check out DW-WORLD.DE'S From the Fringe Special, which regularly brings you quirky stories from and about Germany. To find out more, go to http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=1hlrf1Ifcha79I2&req=l%3D1hlrf0Ifcha79I2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information please turn to our internet website at http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=1hlrf1Ifcha79I3&req=l%3D1hlrf0Ifcha79I3 Here you'll find out what's happening in Germany, Europe and the rest of the world. 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