Deutsche Welle English Service News October, 11th, 2002, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Germany Remains Firm on Iraq Position Regardless of the decision in the U.S. Congress regarding possible military action against Iraq, Germany and the EU maintain their current positions in favor of diplomatic negotiations and weapons inspections. 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_654261_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize Ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his work in promoting human rights and democracy. President from from 1977 to 1981, 78-year-old Jimmy Carter won the 1 million dollar prize from a record field of 156 candidates for his efforts to solve conflicts from the Middle East to North Korea, from Haiti to Eritrea. But President Bush's drive to wage war on Iraq, with or without U.N. support, gave the award an anti-U.S. sting, since Carter has said it would be a tragic and costly error for the United States to attack Iraq without U.N. backing.The chairman of the secretive Norwegian Nobel Committee said bluntly that the award was meant as a condemnation of Mr.Bush's policy on Iraq. Putin rejects Blair's charges against Iraq Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed claims by visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Mr.Blair, who ended a two-day visit today had hoped to gain Moscow's support for a tough U.S.-drafted proposal for a new Security Council Resolution on Iraq. But Mr. Putin has been reluctant to back Washington and said he still had no proof of Baghdad's alleged arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Britain last month issued a dossier, which it said proved Iraq held chemical and biological weapons and was willing to use them. Russia's opposition to U.S.-led strikes on Iraq has been widely linked in part to efforts to recover billions of dollars in debts run up by Iraq during the Soviet era. Senate and House of Representatives authorize Bush to wage war Members of the U.S. Senate early Friday approved a resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to wage war if necessary to disarm Iraq. The Democratic-led Senate handed President Bush a major political victory, as the war powers resolution easily cleared after long debate. The House of Representatives had voted for the measure on Thursday. President Bush sought the congressional resolution as the United States presses the U.N. Security Council to adopt a tough new measure demanding that Saddam abandon any programs for biological, chemical or nuclear weapons and allow unrestricted inspection of all suspected sites including presidential palaces or face military action. French defense minister says oil tanker blast was probably attack The French government says that the that the blast which hit a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen was a deliberate attack, as pieces of a small boat and traces of TNT were found aboard the tanker. The explosion ripped through the supertanker Limburg on Sunday,killing one crew members and leaving 12 others slightly injured. It crippled the ship as it prepared to enter Ash-Shir port on Yemen's southeastern coast, 30 kilometers from Al-Mukalla, where it was to load a cargo of crude oil. Meanwhile, the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, made up of a handful of extremist militants including veterans from the Afghan war against the former Soviet Union, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Amid sniper search, another person shot dead in Virginia In the United States, police said the man shot at a petrol station near Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Friday died later of his wounds in a local hospital. The shooting touched off a renewed hunt for a white van seen near the shootings, as investigators searched for the sniper, who has killed seven people and wounded two others in a week-long murder spree. Moroccan September 11 suspect remanded in Germany A Moroccan arrested on suspicion of helping a Hamburg-based al Qaeda cell that led the September 11 attacks was remanded in custody on Friday,German prosecutors said. Police arrested 29-year-old Abdelghani Mzoudi, who shared an apartment with several of the suicide hijackers in the northern port city of Hamburg, in raid on Thursday on suspicion of his having links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. He is also accused of providing logistical help to Mohammed Atta and other hijackers involved in the attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.The leading hijackers were students in Hamburg, before taking flying lessons in the United States and carrying out the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon. Algeria's ruling party wins municipal elections Algeria's ruling National Liberation Front or FLN came first in Thursday's local elections,the interior minister said on Friday. The FLN victory in the poll strengthens the party's grip on power after it won the parliamentary election last May. More than 100,000 people have been killed by Muslim rebels in Algeria since 1992, when army-backed authorities scrapped parliamentary elections radical Islamists were poised to win. Chechnya bomb kills at least 23 people A bomb that tore through a police station in Russia's rebel Chechnya during a meeting of police officers killed at least 23 people and injuring at least 10 others, some seriously. The rebel attack made a mockery of Kremlin claims to have the security situation in Chechnya under control and was the latest big security setback in Chechnya for Moscow, whose forces have been battling separatist rebels on and off for eight years. Although Moscow says the military phase of the war in Chechnya is over, it has failed to produce a long-term political solution to the conflict, which continues to claim lives daily among Russian forces and Chechen civilians. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
