Deutsche Welle English Service News August 7th 2005, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Schröder's Ambivalent European Legacy German Chancellor Schröder's relationship with the EU has never been a love affair. He acted pragmatically and not exactly squeamishly. What traces has he left in European politics?
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1667421,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD's "Click Back" monthly review quiz for August is waiting for you and will test your knowledge of stories we've written. If you answer all questions correctly, you can also win a great prize. To play, please go to: http://www.dw-world.de/english ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Robot frees Russian submariners The seven members of a Russian mini-submarine trapped at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean have been rescued. The mini-sub was freed by an unmanned British rescue craft. The submarine had been stranded off the coast of Russia's eastern Kamchatka Peninsula since Thursday when it became entangled in underwater cabling and fishing nets during a military exercise. The seven crew have been taken to a military hospital for examination. Russian Naval spokesman Victor Lutsenko says all seven appear to be in good health. Russia's foreign ministry has thanked Britain, Japan and the US for sending rescuers. Moscow's request for help contrasts with delays five years ago when 118 sailors died inside the Russian submarine Kursk. Search continues for plane crash missing Rescue teams are working to recover the bodies of as many as three people missing from a Tunisian plane crash that is feared to have killed 16 people. Thirteen bodies have been recovered so far but the exact number of missing remained unclear. Emergency crews have not yet found the flight data recorder. The aircraft, an ATR-72 operated by Tunisiair, went down Saturday 16 kilometers off Sicily's Cape Gallo on the island's north coast. The pilot had contacted Rome airport reporting engine trouble. Twenty three people survived the crash. Bombing in Tikrit kills five There's been more violence in Iraq. In the northern town of Tikrit a suicide car bomb killed at least five people and wounded another 15 outside a police headquarters. Men volunteering to join the force had been crowding the area. The US military said that two of its soldiers were killed from a roadside bomb blast in Samara on Saturday. At least 38 US military personnel have died in Iraq in the past 10 days. Elsewhere political leaders from Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities have come together in a bid to decide how much federalism to have in a new constitution. Kurds still insist on full automonmy in Iraq's north. Meanwhile, a survey conducted by Newsweek Magazine shows public support for George W. Bush's Iraq policy continues to slip. Only 34 percent of Americans approve it; 61 percent disapprove. Iran unconcerned about UN sanctions Iran has reiterated plans to resume uranium conversion this week and said it was unconcerned about referral of its nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. Britain, Germany and France, heading nuclear negotiations with Iran for the European Union, have called an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors on Tuesday to discuss Iran's case. The EU trio say they will recommend referring Iran to the Security Council if it goes ahead with plans to resume work at the Isfahan uranium conversion plant. On Saturday, Iran rejected an EU package of economic and political incentives designed to persuade it to halt nuclear fuel work for good. Tehran says it will restart the Isfahan plant as soon as IAEA surveillance equipment is in place. US, Afghan forces kill 8 Taliban fighters US and Afghan troops have killed eight Taliban insurgents in an operation in the volatile southern province of Zabul. An official said on Sunday that three more Taliban combatants were captured during Saturday's operation in the Shahr-i-Safa district of Zabul. A Taliban spokesman said insurgents had killed three Afghan troops and kidnapped 11 others in adjacent Uruzgan province the previous day. Hundreds of people have died in a Taliban-linked insurgency that has gripped mostly part of southern and eastern Afghanistan this year. The increase in violence comes ahead of next month's parliamentary polls, which the Taliban have vowed to derail. Discovery crew upbeat prior to return Discovery's astronauts are upbeat as they prepare for re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. Commander Eileen Collins and shuttle Pilot James Kelly both said on Sunday that they had no qualms about Monday's scheduled landing in Florida and said the Discovery was in great shape. NASA managers gave the green light for the landing after deciding that a tear on the cockpit's thermal blanket should not compromise the shuttle's safety as it re-enters the atmosphere. A similar problem doomed the Columbia space shuttle in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board. Two die fighting forest fires in Spain Forest fires in Spain have claimed the lives of two fire-fighters as several blazes have swept across tinder dry landscapes in southern Europe. Spain, Portugal and parts of France have been hit the hardest. The flames have already consumed thousands of hectares of forest and they continue to spread. Extreme summer heat and a prolonged drought that meteorologists are calling one of the worst on record have left much of southern Europe's woodlands dangerously parched. In Portugal, fire-fighters are battling six major blazes, some of which appear to have been set deliberately. More than 68-thousand hectares of forest have been charred so far this year, more than half in the month of July. Netanyahu resigns over withdrawal plan Israel's Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resigned in protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip. He stepped down just before Sharon's cabinet gave final approval to the removal of the first group of Jewish settlers. In his resignation message Netanyahu called the Gaza withdrawal "an irresponsible move that divided the Israeli people." Meanwhile, Israeli troops killed an unarmed Palestinian man on Sunday outside his home near Rafah in the occupied Palestinian territory. Witnesses said the 23-year-old man was preparing for his wedding on Monday when he was shot in the head and chest. Britain's Robin Cook dies, tributes There have been tributes worldwide for former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook who collapsed and died while mountain hiking in Scotland on Saturday. He was 59. UN chief Kofi Annan said Cook had been a politician of "exceptional intellect, vision and eloquence". French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Cook was "deeply European" in outlook and had fostered Anglo-French contacts. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer hailed Cook's effort to get UN-backed intervention in East Timor in 1999. In the same year Cook also played a key role in NATO's campaign to force Serbian troops out of Kosovo. Cook quit Britain's cabinet in 2003 in opposition to Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq. Ivanova record in women's 20km walk At the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki a new world record has been set in the women's 20 kilometre walk by Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia. She crossed the line after one hour 25 minutes and 41 seconds. That was 41 seconds faster than the previous world best. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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