Deutsche Welle English Service News 07.11.2002, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Another year of "Enduring Freedom" for German troops On Thursday Germany's parliament debates whether to prolong the deployment of German troops under the aegis of "Enduring Freedom" for another year. The vote next week may help thaw US-German relations. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_671240_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UN Security Council debates new Iraqi resolution The United States, in what it calls Iraq's last chance to disarm or face war, is pushing the U.N. Security Council to adopt a tough new resolution by Friday, and veto-holders France and Russia are edging closer to agreeing. The UN Security Council will continue its debate of the six-page draft on Thursday, however, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he doubts the resolution would be adopted by Friday. A revised version was presented on Wednesday. Both France and Russia said the draft contains, "ambiguities", but French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said France was almost satisfied with the revised text. President Jacques Chirac told reporters in Rome he was seeking further adjustments. The US-British draft, the result of 8 weeks of negotiations, gives U.N. arms inspectors far-reaching powers, including unrestricted access to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's palace compounds. In Baghdad, Saddam met with a delegation from Malaysia on Thursday. Iraqi television quoted Saddam as saying that opposing US and British intentions also served the interests of all countries. Indonesian police believe they have one of the Bali bombers Indonesian police say one of the persons arrested in connection with last month's bombings on the island of Bali has confessed to planting one of the bombs. Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, police chief Dai Bachtiar said the suspect during interrogation, admitted to parking an explosives-laden minivan outside of a nightclub on the vacation island. The suspect is one of 10 people being held by police. 191 people, mostly Australians died in last month's attacks. Investigators search for the cause Lux-Air crash and train fire Authorities in Luxembourg are still looking for the cause of Wednesday's Lux-Air crash that killed 20 people. Some 70 relatives visited the crash site on Thursday to pay their last respects to their loved ones. A memorial service was also held on Thursday afternoon in the village of Betzdorf. The Fokker 50 aircraft crashed in thick fog in a field some 5 kilometers short of the Luxembourg airport. Meanwhile, railway and transportation ministry officials said they still don't know what had caused a fire on a sleeping car that claimed 12 lives on Wednesday. Twelve others have been treated for smoke inhalation. The fire broke out early Wednesday morning in a Deutsche Bahn sleeping car on a train bound from Paris to Vienna. Referendum on future status of Gibraltar Voters in Gibraltar are going to the polls this Thursday in a referendum on the British-ruled territory's future. In the poll, voters are asked to approve or disapprove the principle of Britain sharing sovereignty over Gibraltar with Spain. London and Madrid have long been in talks over Gibraltar's future status, and earlier this year, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said London was, in principle, if favour of sharing sovereignty over the territory. Observers say Gibraltarians are likely to vote no by an overwhelming margin. London and Madrid have both said they won't recognise the result of the vote. 775 people, mostly children, in Russian food poisoning outbreak Almost 800 people, mostly children, have been hospitalized for food poisoning in Russia's southern region of Krasnodar. Health ministry officials in Moscow said they have linked the outbreak of food poisoning to bad milk from a factory in the town of Kropotkin. Russia's chief medical officer, Gennady Onischenko, who flew to the region, told the Interfax news agency that "the number of people hospitalised is continuing to rise." Krasnodar's regional prosecutor told ITAR-TASS that a criminal inquiry had been opened against the milk producer. Japanese minister retracts anti-semitic slur Japan's deputy minister for health and welfare has retracted his remark that he would protect the country's healthcare market from "money-grubbers like Jews". Yoshiro Kimura of the liberal Democratic Party said the remark was thoughtless and apologized. A spokesman for Tokyo's tiny Jewish community said he was stunned and deeply disappointed that someone of Kimura's standing would make such an offensive and insensitive remark. ECB holds key interest rates steady The European Central Bank did not follow its American counter-parts and left key interest rates as they were at its regular monthly meeting on Thursday. The US federal reserve on Wednesday cut its prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 1.25 percent, the lowest in 41 years. The ECB announcement followed the Bank of England's decision earlier Thursday also to leave the central bank's main lending rate unchanged at 4.0 percent for the 12th month in a row. German publisher Augstein, father of Der Spiegel, dies ATTENTION - ADDS details The founder of the German news magazine Der Spiegel and one of Europe's leading postwar journalists, Rudolf Augstein, died on Thursday at the age of 79. Spiegel journalists under Augstein's leadership uncovered several of postwar Germany's most explosive political scandals. The publishing house said Augstein died of pneumonia two days after his 79th birthday. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. You can even listen to all programmes as audio-on-demand. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
