Deutsche Welle English Service News 21 April 2004, 16:00 UTC ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Round: Go East! The EU Quiz: Europe is expanding East. Embark on a journey through the 10 candidate countries set to enter the EU by playing the fourth and final round of DW-WORLD's Go East quiz. Lots of great prizes are waiting to be discovered. http://dw-world.de/go-east ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Blair�s �Week from Hell� British Premier Tony Blair is facing one of the toughest weeks of his career: First he could suffer a major defeat in parliament Tuesday, followed by the Wednesday release of a report on the 2003 death of an expert on Iraq�s weapons. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www2.dw-world.de/bscms_english/current_affairs/1.56369.1.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Car bombs kill at least nine in Riyadh At least nine people have been killed and 125 injured after two car bombs went off outside the security service headquarters in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Medical sources said a senior Saudi security officer was among those killed. Witnesses said that at least 10 people were killed in the attacks and the General Security Building was severely damaged. The blasts come just days after Saudi authorities announced they had seized three booby-trapped vehicles loaded with more than four tonnes of explosives. Last year, suicide bombings at foreign residential compounds in Riyadh killed 51 people. Car bombings kill at least 68 in Basra At least 68 people have been killed and scores injured in car bombings in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The almost simultaneous explosions hit three police stations in Basra and a blast at around the same time struck a joint Iraqi-British post in the nearby town of Zubair. Many of those killed were children. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the transition of power to Iraqis would not be derailed. Meanwhile in Fallujah fresh fighting violated a fragile truce just hours after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the ceasefire would not continue indefinitely. Residents said six civilians were killed and 10 wounded in several hours of fighting between US Marines and insurgents. Dane reported missing in Iraq found dead. A Danish man reported missing last week in Iraq and believed to have been abducted has been found dead. Denmark's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the missing man, who has not been identified, was found dead on Easter Sunday by Iraqi police. Details as to how he died or where he was found were not immediately available. Vanunu released after 18 years in Israeli prison Mordechai Vanunu has been released from prison after serving 18 years for spilling Israel's nuclear secrets. Upon his release he said he stood by his actions. Vanunu flashed victory signs and waved to cheering supporters as he walked into the courtyard of Shikma Prison in the coastal town of Ashkelon. Vanunu, who converted to Christianity in the 1980s, said he was mistreated in jail because of his religion. He said he had no more secrets to reveal and that Israel should open itself up to inspections by the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. Vanunu said Israel's Mossad spy agency and the Shin Bet security services tried to rob him of his sanity by keeping him in solitary confinement for nearly 12 years. Israeli troops kill seven in Gaza after reprisals Israeli troops have killed seven Palestinians and wounded 25 others in a raid into Gaza in an effort to stop revenge attacks for the assassination of a top Hamas leader. Tension has soared in Gaza since Israel assassinated Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi on Saturday, less than a month after killing militant group's spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin. A column of tanks backed by helicopter gunships moved into the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya before dawn searching for militants. The raid comes a day after four Palestinians were killed and 25 wounded in confrontations with rioters after Israeli forces raided the same area. Weber named as new Bundesbank boss The German cabinet has officially nominated Axel Weber as the new president of the Bundesbank. The 47-year-old Weber is a professor in international economics at the University of Cologne and a member of the so-called "Five Wise Men" of independent economic adivsors to the government. He was named by the finance ministry as Berlin's surprise candidate for the top job at the Bundesbank late on Tuesday. The former Bundesbank chief, Ernst Welteke, resigned last Friday over an ethics scandal. Fischer pledges long-term help for Afghanistan Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has arrived in Baku for talks with senior figures in Azerbaijan's government. On Tuesday, Fischer pledged Germany's continuing support in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, during a meeting with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Fischer described Afghanistan as an example of how to rebuild a war-torn country. He noted that it was not under occupation, but was being aided by international troops working with United Nations approval. However, the foreign minister ruled out expanding the Bundeswehr's mission there. Two killed after German fighter jets collide Two German fighter jets have collided over the northern German coast. Local police said two of the four people on board the planes were killed, the two others were able to parachute to safety. The debris from the planes was spread over a large, uninhabited area. A spokesman for the Defence Ministry in Berlin confirmed that the two aircraft in question were German air force jets. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD.DE on Your Desktop. Keep up with events with our RSS-Feeds: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,5069_A_1137115,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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