Deutsche Welle English Service News 21. 08. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Pope Holds Mass With One Million Pilgrims Pope Benedict XVI sent a crowd of one million young pilgrims home happy from a gigantic open-air mass on Sunday, defying his reputation as a cold, distant pontiff who dislikes crowds. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1686424,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Germans will likely head to the polls to elect a new parliament on Sept. 18. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is fighting an uphill battle to remain in office while his conservative challenger, Angela Merkel, has her eyes set on the chancellery. Get all the information about Germany's 2005 election at DW-WORLD. To find out more, go to http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,6591,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Avoid do-it-yourself religion: Pope Pope Benedict XVI has cautioned young Catholics against constructing their religion on a "do-it-yourself" basis, saying it will prove fruitless. The 78-year-old pontiff celebrated mass at the close of the Catholic Church's World Youth Day festival in the German city of Cologne. He urged the gathering to keep God at the centre of their lives and underlined the importance of the everyday practice of religion. An estimated one million people from across the globe attended the open-air mass at a huge park outside the city. It was the highlight of Pope Benedict's four-day visit to his homeland -- his first since becoming pope. He announced that the next World Youth Day would be held in 2008 in Sydney, Australia. The event was created by the late Pope John Paul II. Bulldozers begin razing Gaza homes Israel is pushing ahead with the evacuation of Jewish settlers and protesters from the Gaza Strip. Israeli bulldozers leveled homes in three Gaza settlements, marking the first large-scale demolitions since the Israeli pullout began six days ago. Earlier Sunday, thousand of troops poured into four other settlements in the final phase of removing Gaza settlers from their homes. In Jerusalem, Israel's Cabinet gave final approval to the evacuation of the last seven of 25 Gaza and West Bank settlements marked for dismantling. Four US soldiers killed in Afghan blast Four US soldiers have been killed and three wounded in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan. The soliders were trying to clear militants from an area in Zabul province ahead of parliamentary elections due next month. Hours later, two US embassy staff were hurt when their vehicle was hit by a blast near the Afghan capital, Kabul. The attacks come amid a renewed Taliban-led insurgency that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people in Afghanistan, including 47 US soldiers this year. The militants have vowed to derail parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18. Jordan arrests Arabs over rocket attacks Jordan has detained scores of Arab suspects as part of the investigation into Friday's rocket attack on US warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba. Security officials said that most of the suspects were arrested in the Shalala quarter of Aqaba that overlooks the port. They said several Iraqis, a Syrian and scores of Egyptians and Jordanians were among those detained. Police sources said a number of unused Katyusha rockets were also found in the warehouse from where investigators say the rockets were launched. London police chief defends shooting London's police chief has defended his handling of the fatal shooting of a 27-year-old Brazilian man by his officers. Ian Blair insisted he believed the dead man, Jean Charles de Menezes, was a suicide bomber up to 24 hours after the killing on July 22. Blair said the media were concentrating too much on the shooting rather than the deadly suicide bombings police were investigating when they mistakenly killed Menezes on an underground train. Blair has come under heavy pressure after leaked documents from the investigation into the case exposed blunders and cast doubt on initial accounts from police and witnesses. Low turnout for Albania's repeat poll Albanians are voting in a repeat election for three parliament seats. Some bureaucratic obstacles delayed opening of some polling stations and later it was noted that voter turnout was low. Two journalists from newspapers supporting the opposition Democrats were reportedly beaten while visiting a polling station. The new poll was ordered after irregularities spoiled a first round in July. The partial repeat vote is expected to confirm former President Sali Berisha's return to power after eight years in opposition. His Democratic Party and allies won 78 of parliament's 140 seats in the July vote. EU sends help to fight Portugal fires Germany, France, Italy and Spain have offered Portugal help to battle forest fires raging across the country. Lisbon made a request for assistance to the EU's executive Commission as up to 35 fires continue to burn throughout Portugal. Germany's Interior Ministry said it would send three "Super Puma" police helicopters to arrive with up to 25 officers on Monday. France and Italy will send specially equipped aircraft. Two planes from Spain, which has also suffered forest fires and severe drought this year, started work in neighbouring Portugal early on Sunday. N.Korea restarts Yongbyon reactor: report A US satellite has reportedly detected signs that North Korea recently restarted a reactor that could be used for the extraction of material to make nuclear warheads. That's according to a report published in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on Sunday. The surveillance satellite detected steam coming out of a boiler connected to a building housing the reactor at Yongbyon, the paper said, quoting unnamed officials close to six-party nuclear talks held in July. The sources said the steam had been detected before the resumption of the talks aimed at convincing the North to give up its nuclear programme in exchange for aid and security guarantees. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The waiting is over for fans of German soccer as the Bundesliga starts again. Get it all on DW-WORLD.DE: We offer you results, tables and live tickers of the matches. Check out picture galleries of the best players and interactive features such as quizes and betting games where Chinese Bayern Munich fans get a chance to compete against Texan Schalke supporters. You'll find it all at www.dw-world.de/soccer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. 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