Deutsche Welle English Service News 17th April 2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: EU Leaders Grow More Critical of Israeli Peace Plans Officially, EU foreign ministers concluding a meeting on Saturday dismissed allegations they are at odds with the U.S. over Bush's decision to back Israel's unilateral peace plan. But is that really the case?
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1716_A_1172858_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan confirms release of two nationals The Japanese government has confirmed the release of two of its nationals who'd been held hostage in Iraq. Arabic television stations had earlier reported that the two civilians were handed over to Japanese officials and Muslim clerics at a Baghdad mosque. They had been reported missing on Wednesday. Meanwhile the Al-Jazeera network has broadcast a videotape showing a captured US soldier who has been missing since last week. About 40 foreign nationals have been taken hostage in Iraq. Among those still missing are a US contractor, a Palestinian, a Dane, a Jordanian-born businessman and three Italians. Captors have threatened to kill the Italians one by one unless Rome withdraws its troops from Iraq. US hopeful in Fallujah talks In the Iraqi town of Falluja, a leading American official has joined discussions with with community leaders aimed at ending the fighting there between insurgents and US troops. The senior spokesman for the US-appointed administration in Iraq, Dan Senor told a Baghdad news conference that they were hopeful that the talks would be successful. US Marines launched a crackdown in Fallujah early this month after the killings and mutilations of four US contractors. Senor also told reporters the US-led coalition was open to a peaceful end to the standoff with radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr. He's reportedly holed up in the holy city of Najaf. More than 2,000 US soldiers are outside Najaf, with orders to kill or capture him and dismantle his militia. New book says Bush planned Iraq war in 2001 Meanwhile in a new book on the Iraq war, the Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward claims that President Bush asked the Pentagon for a war plan in November 2001, just after US troops were sent to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. At the same time the Bush administration was saying that it was seeking a peaceful solution to the standoff with Iraq. Woodward writes that Bush met several times with his war cabinet in late 2001 to plan the US attack on Iraq but kept it secret from the CIA and his national security staff. Woodward also says that relations between Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell are so strained over Iraq that they are hardly talking to each other. Report says German convoy ignored warnings Germany's interior ministry has rejected a report that a German convoy that was ambushed near the Iraqi town of Fallujah earlier this month had ignored warnings not to travel. A ministry spokesman said this information had not been confirmed. According to a report in the newsmagazine Focus, the convoy was warned by intelligence services both before and during its journey from the Jordanian capital, Amman to Baghdad, that it wasn't safe to travel. Two German GSG9 elite border guard officers are presumed to have been killed in the ambush. They were on their way to Baghdad for a rotation of security staff at the German embassy. The Foreign Office in Berlin has said embassy staff are still trying to recover the bodies. Four injured in suicide bombing at Erez crossing There's been a suicide bomb attack at the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Israeli military sources said the blast injured four Israeli security officers, one critically. They said the bomber blew himself up near an Israeli army checkpoint. The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have claimed joint responsibility for the attack. EU says US has damaged Mideast peace European Union foreign ministers meeting in Ireland have said that the roadmap to peace in the Middle East is the only way to end the conflict. The EU's external affairs commissioner, Chris Patten, said US backing for Israel's unilateral peace plan had caused a great deal of damage and alienated Palestinians and other Arabs across the Middle East. Patten said Arabs saw Bush's decision as proof that the United States had abandoned its policy of 40 years to support a two-state solution. Meanwhile thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated in Gaza and the West Bank demanding the release of prisoners held by Israel. It's believed that some 7,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails. Bush and Blair show resolve on Iraq British Prime Minister Tony Blair is back in London following his meeting on Friday in Washington with US President George W. Bush. Both stressed their resolve to stay the course in Iraq and meet a June 30th deadline for transfering power to Iraqis. The US President again backed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip while retaining Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The British prime minister dismissed allegations that the plan would destroy the road map for peace in the Middle East. Instead, he said, the initiative would breathe new life into the peace process. Zapatero sworn in as new Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been sworn in as Spain's new prime minister. The Socialist leader took the oath of office in a formal ceremony in the presence of King Juan Carlos. Zapatero was approved as prime minister by the Spanish parliament on Friday. His party was the surprising winner of the general election on March 14 that was overshadowed by the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people. Saudi police find car rigged with explosives Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry says police have seized a car packed with explosives that they had been looking for since February. One official said the car was found in a neighbourhood in eastern Riyadh. Residential compounds in the capital were targeted last year in a string of suicide bombings that killed 522 people. China gas explosion kills 9 At least nine people have been killed and about 150,000 evacuated after a number of gas explosions at a chemical plant in south-western China. The official Xinhua news agency said chlorine gas leaked from seven tanks at the plant in the city of Chongqing. Residents were moved from areas within three kilometres of the plant. Rescue teams said initial investigations showed that the explosions were caused by antiquated equipment. A worker was quoted by Xinhua as saying it was the third gas leak at the plant since last year. In December 234 people were killed in a gas field explosion in Chongqing. Burmese activists stage rare protest Around 400 members of Burma's opposition party have staged a rare protest demanding the release of their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The ruling military government didn't interfere in the march although police stopped activists approaching Suu Kyi's home. Earlier the government reopened the opposition party's headquarters in Rangoon, a year after they were closed. The National League for Democracy's offices were shut down when Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and placed under house arrest. There are renewed hopes that she could be free soon after two other leading NLD members were released on Tuesday. The military government plans to hold a national convention next month which it says is the first step in its seven-step "road map" to democracy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
