Deutsche Welle English Service News 29. 03. 2005, 17:00 UTC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Place your bets on the World Cup qualifiers at DW-WORLD in our multilingual betting game, where you can win great prizes. Whether you want to compare your soccer knowledge with fans worldwide as an individual or in a team, this is the right address. Plus, DW-WORLD provides the results and tables for all continental groups: http://www.dw-world.de/qualifiers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: EU Seeks More Clout at World Bank A meeting this week between the US candidate to head the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, and EU ministers is set to be low key but various sources agree that the European Union wants a strengthened voice in the world body. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1533447,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Relief arrives in Indonesia Relief supplies have begun arriving in Indonesia following an earthquake that measured 8.7 on the Richter scale. The hardest hit areas were the islands of Nias and Simeulue off of Sumatra, where officials said more than 400 people were confirmed dead. Authorities fear that death toll could rise much higher. Concerns that the quake, which occurred below the sea, could spark a tsunami caused thousands of residents to flee inland. Destroyed buildings, streets and bridges were said to be hampering relief efforts. Iraq assembly fails to choose speaker Iraq's new parliament has failed to choose a speaker as rival political groups continue to wrangle over the assignment of cabinet posts. Just minutes after the parliament's second session began, the sitting was adjourned due to the deadlock between the Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab politicians over the choice of speaker. Since January's election, Iraq's ethnic and religious groups have failed to form a government due to quarrelling over key ministerial posts and the possible role of Islam. Romanian journalists missing in Iraq Romanian President Traian Basescu has asked coalition intelligence services in Iraq to help locate three Romanian journalists missing and feared kidnapped in the country. Officials have said it's not clear that the journalists were kidnapped. But a manager at the television station that two of them worked for said there was little doubt they had been abducted. The journalists managed to send mobile-phone text messages to colleagues before disappearing. Israeli settlers plan protests Jewish settlers say they plan to hold mass demonstrations to protest against the Israeli government's plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip. The settler organisation Yesha said it expected as many as 100,000 people to demonstrate in the territories slated for evacuation. This comes with the Israeli parliament set to pass this year's budget, which would move the government one step closer to implementing the withdrawal. On Monday the parliament rejected a bill to hold a referendum on the issue. The pullout is expected to start in July. Bosnian-Croat president sacked The international high representative to Bosnia has fired the Croat member of that country's three-man presidency. Paddy Ashdown told a news conference in the capital, Sarajevo, that he had sacked Dragan Covic after he ignored repeated calls to step down over criminal charges against him. State prosecutors have indicted him and six other Bosnian Croats for customs evasion, corruption and abuse of office. The alleged offences took place between 2000 and 2003, while Covic was deputy prime minister of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation. The Dayton peace accord that ended the Bosnian war in 1995 gives the high representative the power to fire government officials. Cambodia gets Khmer Rouge court Nearly three decades after Cambodia's genocide the United Nations has received nearly 30 million euros to set up a war crimes tribunal to try surviving members of the Khmer Rouge. At an international donor's conference, Japan made the biggest contribution with 16 million euros. The remaining amount will come from the Cambodian government. Nearly two million people died of starvation, forced labour, disease or execution during Cambodia's genocide from 1975 to 1979. EU offers Kyrgyzstan support Askar Akayev says he's still the president of Kyrgystan. In an interview with a Moscow radio station, Akayev said he had no plans to resign and that he remained his country's the only legitimate and elected president. He also said he would return from exile in Russia. Akayev fled Kyrgystan last week after protesters stormed government buildings in the capital, Bishkek. Taiwanese delegation visits China China has welcomed a visit by delegates from Taiwan's main opposition Nationalist party to the mainland. It is the first-ever official visit to China by members of the KMT, since China's communists took over power 56 years ago. The 34-strong delegation was led by KMT vice-chairman Chiang Pin-kung. The official China Daily described the visit as encouraging for cross-strait relations. Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province, and it recently passed a law authorising the use of what it called "non-peaceful means" should Taipei move to declare formal independence. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BalkanNews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
