Deutsche Welle English Service News 11.06.2005, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: G8 Scrap Debt of Poorest Nations The finance ministers of the world's eight wealthiest nations agreed Saturday on a deal for immediate 100 percent multilateral debt relief totaling $40 billion (33 billion euros) for 18 of the world's poorest countries. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1611573,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD values your opinion: We look forward to hearing from you about stories we write and regularly post your letters in our reader response section. Check them out at: http://www.dw-world.de/english or write us an e-mail yourself: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G-8 FMs agree on debt relief plan Finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialised nations have agreed to write off more than 33 billion euros of debt owed by the world's poorest countries. Following the talks, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told reporters in London that the deal would provide 100 percent write-offs immediately for 18 countries and that more countries would qualify for relief later. Brown also said the accord included safeguards to ensure that there would be no repeat of the debt problem. The accord covers debts to international lending agencies such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These agencies still have to approve the plan in order for it to go ahead. German UNSC bid gains support Germany's ambassador to the United Nations says three out of the five permanent Security Council members back Berlin's bid for a permanent seat. Gunter Pleuger told reporters at UN headquarters in New York that Britain, Russia and France had expressed their support in the lead up to a vote on the issue later this month. Germany, India, Japan and Brazil have jointly proposed a plan that would see them get permanent seats on an expanded Security Council. Under their plan the number of Council members would rise from 15 to 25. Moves to expand the Security Council have been under discussion for several years. But the idea gained fresh momentum earlier this year when Secretary-General Kofi Annan made it part of his plan for sweeping reforms to the United Nations. Aid hostages freed in DCR In the Democratic Republic of Congo, gunmen have freed two kidnapped employees of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. A spokesman for the organisation in Geneva confirmed the release of the French man and his Congolese driver. Both were taken hostage while on their way to a refugee camp in Ituri province last week. MSF said the two were in good health. Inter-ethnic clashes in the volatile province, near the Ugandan border, have claimed at least 60,000 lives and forced more than 500,000 people to flee their homes in the past six years. Suicide bomb attack on Iraqi police At least five people have been killed, and seven injured in a suicide bomb attack on a Iraqi police academy in the capital Baghdad. Police said the suicide bomber, who wore explosives under a police uniform and carried police identity documents, entered the Wolf Brigade headquarters with other members of the unit reporting for work. Sunni leaders have previously accused the Wolf Brigade of kidnapping and killing members of Iraq's minority Sunni community. In other violence in the capital, an Iraqi police commando was been killed and 12 others injured in a mortar attack. The attack came a few hours after a car bomb killed at least 10 and wounded nearly 30 people near a busy marketplace in a mainly Shiite neighbourhood in northern Baghdad. Bush, Roh agree on North Korea issue US President George W. Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun have urged North Korea to return to talks on its nuclear weapons program. After a meeting at the White House, both men played down differences in their approaches to the problem. Washington backs a hard line with Pyongyang and demands to see action before it gives any rewards. Seoul urges a more flexible approach. North Korea has recently hinted at returning to the six-party negotiations it walked away from a year ago. But it also continues to talk about its nuclear arsenal and its desire to build more nuclear bombs. US says Syria has spies in Lebanon United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has decided to send a UN verification team back to Lebanon to see if Syrian spy agents are still there. This comes after the White House said that it had information that Damascus had drawn up a hit-list targeting Lebanese political leaders. Syrian officials have denied the accusations. A UN team had reported at the end of May that Damascus had pulled-out all its soldiers after a 29-year presence. Lebanon is currently holding region by region elections ending on June 19, the first elections in three decades without Syrian forces in the country. More than 60 dead in Chinese flash flood Sixty four people, mainly children, have died after a flash flood hit a primary school in north-eastern China. The state news agency Xinhua reported that rescuers were still searching for missing students swept away in the flood in the town of Shalan in Heilongjiang province. Most of the town was still under one metre of water. US finds second mad cow case The United States is checking a possible new case of mad cow disease. A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture said more tests were needed to confirm the disease, but he stressed that the animal's carcass never entered the human food or livestock feed supply. The discovery comes at a time when the US is pressuring Japan and South Korea to resume buying of American beef. The two countries suspended purchase in 2003 when the first case of the brain wasting disease was discovered in the US. Federer reaches Halle Open final In sports: The world's No. 1 tennis player, Roger Federer, has reached the final of the Halle Open here in Germany, with a 6-4 7-6 win over Tommy Haas. The German-born Haas fought hard to take the second set to a tie break. But he double faulted at 9-10 to hand victory to his Swiss opponent. Federer is to face either Marat Safin of Russia or Argentina's Guillermo Canas in Sunday's final. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Send us your favorite picks for sight-seeing, museum hopping, historical edification � whatever you�ve got to share with others heading to Germany. Restaurants, hotels, back-country hideaways � write to us with your insider tips and tell us about what you liked best about traveling in Germany. For more information, please go to http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1096790,00.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. 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