Deutsche Welle English Service News 10.11.2002, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: A Return to Peace Marches in Europe? After thousands flocked to Florence, Italy, for the country's largest anti-war demonstration on Saturday, organizers of the European Social Forum said they would plan a series of Europe- wide protests against an Iraq war. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1433_A_673061_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saddam summons parliament to debate U.N. vote President Saddam Hussein has ordered the Iraqi parliament to convene to discuss Friday's U.N. resolution calling on Baghdad to disarm or face serious consequences, state television reported on Sunday.The report did not say when the lawmakers would meet. Iraq has until November 15th to agree to the resolution's tough terms. Top weapons inspectors are due to travel to Baghdad on November 18th to set up communications, transport and laboratories.Iraqi Foreign Minister Sabri has said that his country was still studying Friday's unanimous resolution by the Security Council to allow arms experts unhindered access to sites suspected of producing weapons of mass destruction. Arab foreign ministers and officials meeting in Cairo said the U.N. resolution offered hope for a peaceful alternative to war against Iraq. US battle plansfor Iraq leaked The New York Times has reported that war plans approved by U.S. President Bush included a shorter air campaign than in the 1991 Gulf War, but deployment of up to 250,000 troops. The air campaign would last less than a month and would build on lessons learned in Afghanistan, such as using infiltrated commandos to help home precision-guided missiles in on their targets,according to the Times, quoting unnamed senior administration officials. And Britain will also begin mobilising a fighting force of 15,000 troops this week to take part in a land war in Iraq if diplomatic efforts to disarm Saddam fail, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Fatah negotiates with Hamas in Cairo At talks in Cairo, the Fatah organisation of President Yasser Arafat has begun talks with the radical Palestinian group Hamas in an bid to persuade it to end suicide bombings inside Israel. The Egyptian-mediated talks began on Saturday evening at an undisclosed venue. In the past two years, Hamas has claimed responsibility for most bombings. President Arafat, facing mounting international abhorance at such tactics, has repeatedly called for a stop to them. On Saturday, the Israeli army killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant at Jenin in the northern West Bank. Jihad, in turn, claimed responsibility for a later bomb attack in the Gaza Strip that killed one Israeli soldier. Overnight, Israeli forces pulled back to Jenin's outskirts. Likud leadership ballot scheduled Members of Israel's main rightwing party Likud will pick their leader on November the 28th in a battle between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his bitter rival, previous prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Last week, Mr. Sharon called early elections - set for late January - after failing to forge a replacement coalition with extreme nationalist parties. The Labour Party quit his previous coalition in a row about the over-funding of Jewish settlements in the Israel occupied Palestinian territories. Students demand academic's release Iran's parliament has approved a draft bill to allow President Mohammad Khatami's to curb the powers of the hardline judiciary. But the bill is unlikely to be approved by Iran's 12-man Guardian Council, which rules whether legislation complies with the constitution and Islamic sharia law. President Khatami's brother has warned that if the bill is rejected , his brother might resign, resulting in the worst political crisis, since the foundation of the Islamic state. Meanwhile, about 500 students protested outside Tehran University and demanded the release of political prisoners, especially reformist academic Hashem Aghajari, who was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. The speaker or president of parliament, reformist Medhi Karroubi, who has called the verdict shameful and harmful to Islam said today that Professor Aghajari had been spared execution and would soon be freed. Firefighters in Australia report temporary reprieve from bushfires Firefighters in Australia said light rain on Sunday eased the immediate bushfire threat to homes on the country's east coast, though they expected conditions to deteriorate in coming days, with the return of high dry temperatures and strong winds. New South Wales state premier Bob Carr said fire conditions were the worst in decades as a worsening drought meant Sydney was at it's driest for over 100 years. He said almost 470,000 hectares or over 1 million acres of land burned in New South Wales alone and 30 of the 100 fires were out of control, with many of them lit by arsonists. Fires are now burning in five states in what is Australia's worst bushfire season. Bushfires have a role to play in the country's environment and many plants and shrubs depend on them for their regeneration. But the dramatic increase of the urban sprawl has now brought the bushfire line to city backyards. Germany opens inquiry into possible illegal arms sales to Iraq Police in the western German cities of Mannheim and Cologne have opened inquiries into a German-Russian businessman suspected of masterminding the illegal supply of weapons to Iraq, the weekly news magazine Focus writes in its Monday edition. The suspect,named as Mark V., specialises in selling weapons from former Soviet bloc countries to the Middle East. The United Nations imposed an embargo on sales of weapons to Iraq after Baghdad invaded neighbouring Kuwait in 1990. Mark V., who lives most of the time in South Africa, supplied arms to South Africa during the apartheid era, when such sales were banned by the United Nations, Focus wrote. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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