Deutsche Welle English Service News 21. 06. 2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Ratifying EU Constitution Will Be a 'Tough Battle' European Union leaders agreed on Friday to the final text of Europe's first ever constitution, but now comes the hard part: selling it to the people. Will British and Danish voters reject it? To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1433_A_1242283_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Attention: Due to e-mail manipulation, many e-mails are being sent from e-mail accounts that resemble Deutsche Welle mail accounts. Many of these mails contain viruses. We would like to inform you that Deutsche Welle (DW-WORLD) is not responsible for sending such mails. We are are doing our best to put an end to external e-mail manipulation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy our "World News" newsletter? Why not also subscribe to "Daily Bulletin", DW-WORLD's latest daily digest of the day's top German and European stories, delivered to you around 18:30 UTC. To find out more and sign up, please go to http://www.dw-world.de/english/newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Militants threaten to kill hostage in Iraq Islamic militants are threatening to behead South Korean Kim Sun-Il in a few hours' time, unless Seoul ends its co-operation with the US-led coalition occupying Iraq. The militants made the threat on a videotape aired on Arabic Al Jazeera television on Sunday evening. The kidnappers said they were part of a group led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. They said South Korea had 24 hours to reverse its decision to send troops to Iraq. Following emergency talks in Seoul, the South Korean government said there would be no change to its plan to send 3,000 troops to Iraq by August. Abu Ghraib declared crime scene A US military judge in Iraq has declared the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad a crime scene that cannot be dismantled until legal cases of alleged prisoner abuse are wrapped up. President George W. Bush had offered to dismantle the facility to help remove the stain of torture and abuse from the new Iraq. Iraqi officials had already rejected the offer. The judge issued the order during pre-trial hearings for three US soldiers facing charges of mistreating Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. Four US soldiers killed in Iraq Four more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq. US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad that the four had been killed in the Sunni Muslim town of Ramadi. He said the servicemen were conducting operations there, and that they had failed to check in with superiors at an appointed hour. He declined further comment until the families of the dead could be notified. Iran captures 3 British vessels Iran says it has seized three British navy vessels inside its territorial waters near the Iraqi border. State-run Iranian media said eight British sailors on board were arrested when the vessels were seized on the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The Ministry of Defence in London confirmed that it had lost contact with three small patrol boats in the area.A spokesman for the UK foreign ministry in London said British diplomats in Tehran were "in close contact" with the Iranian government over the incident. Life sentence sought for Dutroux Belgian prosecutors have called for a life sentence for convicted paedophile Marc Dutroux. Last week, the court in the eastern town of Arlon found the 47-year-old Dutroux guilty of kidnapping and raping six girls, killing two of them and causing the deaths of two others. Public prosecutors argued that Dutroux's former wife, Michelle Martin and Michel Lelievre each deserved 30-year jail terms. Martin was found guilty of complicity in the girl's incarceration, while Lelievre was found guilty of kidnapping. Prosecutors also called for a 10-year term for Michel Nihoul, who was acquitted of kidnapping but convicted of smuggling drugs and people into Belgium. A 12-member jury and a panel of three judges are to determine sentencing. Social Democrats discuss strategy in Berlin Leading members of Germany's governing Social Democratic Party are meeting in Berlin this Monday to discuss how to respond to their major defeats in the recent European election and the Thuringia state election. The Social Democrats slumped to their worst nation-wide result in half a century, when they took less than 22 percent support in the European poll. Some left-wing members of the party have called on Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to scale back the government's package of cost-cutting economic reforms. Both the chancellor and the party's chairman, Franz Muentefering have pledged to stay the course. Germany's Greens discuss immigration bill Leading figures in Germany's Green Party are meeting in Berlin this Monday to discuss a compromise between the government and the opposition on a new immigration bill. The Greens are the junior partners in the governing coalition. Party officials said they expected a special party conference to be called to decide whether to approve the bill. The deal was reached last Thursday following talks between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats and the opposition Christian Democrats. It's meant to allow more skilled foreign workers to enter Germany, while at the same time making it easier for the authorities to detain and deport foreigners suspected of extremist activities. The Greens have repeatedly raised human rights concerns about the proposed legislation. UN calls for more NATO troops in Afghanistan The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan has called for more NATO peacekeepers to be deployed to the country ahead of September's planned elections. Jean Arnault told reporters in the capital, Kabul, that a recent wave of violence showed that the country was becoming increasingly volatile in the months leading up to the polls. Arnault was speaking just hours after militants fired three rocket propelled grenades at a voter registration office about 60 kilometres south of Kabul. No-one was injured in the attack. Local officials blamed rebels of the former Taliban regime and a renegade warlord who have vowed to sabotage the vote. Fischer holds talks in UAE German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Crown Prince Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates have held talks in Abu Dhabi to try to boost economic ties. They also reviewed the situation in Iraq and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Fischer, who is also to visit neighbouring Dubai, is to hold talks in Oman before flying back to Berlin on Tuesday. Private rocket-plane completes mission The first privately financed rocket ship to enter space has returned to Earth in California. Mission control said SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 100 kilometres above the Earth's surface before beginning its descent. Engineer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who funded the flight, greeted the South African pilot, Mike Melvill, after he landed in California's Mojave desert. The spacecraft had been launched from a jet at an altitude of 15 kilometres. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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