DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter English Service News October 21st 2006, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Minister Defends Elite Military Unit Accused of Abuse German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has told a newspaper that a "false picture" has been painted of a special forces unit in Afghanistan. A former prisoner has said he suffered abuse by members of the force. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=1hm311Ifcha79I0&req=l%3D1hm30oIfcha79I0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting on Oct. 23, you can vote for your favorite weblog as part of Deutsche Welle's annual Best of the Blogs weblog awards. While the jury is narrowing down the selection this week, you can check out and comment on the entries by visiting www.thebobs.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bush to meet commanders on Iraq US President George W. Bush is due to meet his top commanders within hours to assess violence in Iraq where Sunni-Arab insurgency has been compounded by infighting among Shiites. The White House insists that the loss of 75 US troops in Iraq alone in October will not prompt a change of strategy. On radio and in an address to fellow Republicans ahead of US congressional elections on November 7, Bush rejected the idea of a withdrawal but spoke of "adjusting" US tactics in Iraq. South of Baghdad, Shiite gunmen have clashed with police in Suwayra, a town in Iraq's Shiite region. Police said eight gunmen died before the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for calm. Further south in Amarah, an uneasy calm prevails after al-Sadr's mililia confronted local police. Some 25 people were killed. Rice meets Politkovskaya's editors On a visit to Moscow US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has met the editors and son of the slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The Krelim critic was murdered last week near her apartment. Rice is expected to raise the case in talks shortly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He's been accused by rights groups and Western nations undermining press freedoms. Rice arrived from Beijing where she'd wound up an Asian tour to counter North Korea's recent nuclear test by shoring up support for UN sanctions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for dialogue and rejected hard sanctions to dissuade North Korea and Iran nuclear to drop their nuclear activities. Rice cast doubt on South Korea reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had ruled out further tests. Seven oil workers freed in Nigeria In southern Nigeria's oil region militants have freed seven foreign oil workers. The company ExxonMobil said it had been told by Nigerian authorities that all seven employees of a subcontractor were in good health. They had been released in Eket, the town where they were seized two weeks ago during a raid on an ExxonMobil residential compound. The hostages comprised four Scottish oil workers, a Romanian, one Indonesian and a Malaysian. They've been flown to Lagos en route to their home countries. Recents attacks by militant groups have cut Nigeria's oil output by nearly a quarter. 40 die in Sri Lankan sea battles In the latest violence in Sri Lanka, navy boats destroyed seven Tamil Tiger vessels in a sea battle on Friday killing at least 35 rebels. 6 more rebels were killed in further fighting on Saturday. Sri Lanka has seen a surge in violence in the past few months, casting further doubts about the possible success of peace talks between the government and the rebel Tamil group planned to take place in Geneva on Oct. 28-29. The latest clashes took place off the coast of the troubled Jaffna peninsula in the island nation's Tamil-dominated north. Somali govt. troops battle with militia Heavy fighting has reportedly broken out between Somali government troops and a local pro-Islamist militia in the town of Bur Hakaba in the centre of the country. Bur Hakaba lies between Mogadishu and Baidoa, the current seat of Somalia's weak interim government. Ethiopia backs the Somali transitional government that is increasingly threatened by Islamists who seized the capital Mogadishu in June after months of fighting and now control most of southern and central Somalia. The Islamists are imposing the strict Sharia way of life in the parts of the country they now control and have vowed holy war against Ethiopia. Eight killed in Bangladesh stampede At least eight people were killed and nearly 50 injured in stampedes in Bangladesh on Saturday when hundreds attempted to grab clothes being distributed ahead of a religious festival. It is traditional at the time of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of Ramadan, for wealthier Muslims to give out clothes and money to the poor. Eid will be celebrated in Bangladesh, a country of 140 million mostly Muslim people, next week. New Thai PM visits Indonesia Thailand's military-backed Prime Minister, Surayud Chulanont, has arrived in Indonesia on the latest stop in a series of diplomatic visits to Southeast Asian capitals. The former army general visited Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, following visits to Laos and Cambodia last weekend. Meanwhile, the government-run Thai News Agency is reporting that Thailand's post-coup government may stay in power longer than the one year promised by coup leaders shortly after the military took over on September 19. The Prime Minister's office said that the term of the interim government would be dependent on how quickly the new constitution could be drafted. Unions protest German reform course Trade unions have been staging rallies across Germany to demand that Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government rethink its reforms of the labour market and health system. A quarter of million people turned out. In Stuttgart DGB trade union federation leader Michael Sommer urged the government not to ignore "warnings" of discontent. Low income and deprived people could no longer be ignored. He also demanded that legislators set a minimum wage. At another rally, in Berlin, Frank Bsirske, who heads the public services trade Ver.di, said Germany was the only industrialised nation in which wages had effectively sunk in the past ten years. Chancellor Merkel told young conservatives in Wiesbaden that planned health reform would ensure transparent competition between health service providers. d'Estaing award Westphalia prize A peace prize named after Europe's ancient Treaty of Westphalia has been awarded to former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing in the German city of Munster. The award committee described D'Estaing as an "architect of Europe". During his 50-year career he helped initiate the euro and steered the drafting of the EU's planned but troubled charter. D'Estaing shares the 50,000 euro prize with youth volunteers at Bethel, a home for disabled. The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 ended Europe's 30-year War that devastated the continent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting on Oct. 23, you can vote for your favorite weblog as part of Deutsche Welle's annual Best of the Blogs weblog awards. While the jury is narrowing down the selection this week, you can check out and comment on the entries by visiting www.thebobs.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information please turn to our internet website at http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=1hm311Ifcha79I1&req=l%3D1hm30oIfcha79I1 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/
