Deutsche Welle English Service News April, 26th, 2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Aventis Accepts Sanofi Bid The French-German pharmaceutical group Aventis has agreed to merge with its French rival Sanofi-Synthelabo in a move that is expected to create the world's third-largest drugs company. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1431_A_1182263_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- US Marines fight major battle in Fallujah U.S. Marines in Iraq are fighting a major battle with guerrillas in the besieged town of Falluja. At least one Marine was killed and four others were wounded. The number of Iraqi casualties is not known. The latest clashes come after Sunday's agreement between U.S. officials and negotiators from the Sunni Muslim city to put joint patrols of Marines and Iraqi police into Falluja on Tuesday. In Baghdad, an explosion has levelled a building suspected of being a facility used to make chemical weapons. At least two U.S. soldiers were killed in the blast and several Iraqis were wounded. Meanwhile, Iraq has resumed oil exports from its main tanker terminals, two days after suicide boats attacked Iraqi oil facilities in the Gulf. The attacks left three U.S. Marines dead and cost the country some 40 million dollars in lost revenues. North Korea meets international donors South Korea says that relief supplies it is trying to send to the communist north in the aftermath last week's train explosion will have to be dispatched by ship, after North Korea refused to permit their entry to the country via a land route. Last Thursday's explosion killed 161 people and injured around 1300 others, more than half of them children. Emergency aid packages from China, meanwhile, were allowed to cross the border on Sunday. North Korean officials say the blast happened when electric cables ignited explosives that were being transported on a passing train. Pyongyang is meeting with international aid groups to map out a response to the devastating accident. Violence as India opens third round of elections At least eight people have been killed in violence during the latest phase of voting in India's parliamentary elections. In the disputed territory of Kashmir, militants opposed to Indian rule launched attacks on security forces and polling stations. At least three people were reported wounded. Demonstrators clashed with police in the city of Srinagar. The protesters are opposed to the vote, which they say legitimizes the Indian administration of the disputed territory. Militant Muslim separatists have called for an election boycott and turn out was low in Srinagar in the first few hours after polling stations opened. EU seeks to help Turkish Cypriots European Union foreign ministers will discuss the future of Cyprus at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, after Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected a UN-backed plan to unite the island. As a result, only the southern, Greek part of Cyprus will join the EU this week. European leaders have expressed regret at the Greek Cypriots' decision, saying they'd missed a historic chance to overcome the island's division. Members of the Greek community were unhappy with what they saw as limits on their right to return to property in the Turkish north as well as Ankara's right to keep troops on Cyprus. Two thirds of Turkish Cypriots endorsed the U.N. plan, believing it would end their isolation, bring them into the E.U., and improve living standards. China quarantines hundreds to contain SARS International health officials have blamed a breach in lab security for China's latest emergence of SARS. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities are keeping nearly 500 people quarantined in a struggle to contain the virus before the May holiday puts millions of travelers on the road. Two confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome and six suspected ones have been announced in China over the past week, with all of them linked to people who worked in a SARS laboratory in Beijing. The World Health Organization said it was dispatching a team to find out how two workers could have become infected at the Beijing lab and then passed SARS to others. Clashes break out in Indonesia's Moluccas Fresh clashes have erupted between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia's eastern Molucca Islands. Police say at least 22 people have been killed in two days of violence. Police reinforcements have been rushed to the provincial capital Ambon. The clashes broke out after the region's largely Christian separatist movement held a rally in Ambon. Observers say this was viewed as a provocation by many Muslims. It's one of the worst outbreaks of violence since a 2002 that ended two years of religious violence in which 9,000 people were killed. IFO business confidence index rises Business confidence has improved in Germany over the past month. The Munich based Ifo Institute's business confidence index rose by just under a full point to 96 point 3 in April. Economists had predicted that it would fall slightly, after the two previous months of decline. Most economists expect Germany's economy to produce modest growth this year. Aventis accepts take over bid The Franco-German pharmaceuticals group Aventis has accepted a friendly take-over bid from its smaller French rival Sanofi. The French company upped its bid over the weekend to about 54 billion euros. The merged entity would be Europe's largest and the world's third largest pharmaceuticals company. The European Commission is expected to give the go-ahead to the take-over. Mitsubishi chief executive resigns Rolf Eckrodt, the chief executive and president of the Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi has resigned. In a statement released to reporters in Tokyo Mitsubishi said chief financial officer Keiichiro Hashimoto would take over until a permanent replacement has been appointed. The German-born Eckrodt's resignation comes just days after DaimlerChrysler, which owns 37 percent of Mitsubishi, announced it would not provide any further financial support to the loss-making carmaker. Jackson changes star lawyers Pop superstar Michael Jackson is replacing his high-profile lawyers. According to a report by the Associated Press Mark Geragos and Benjamin Brafman are to be replaced by another high profile defence lawyer, Thomas Mesereau Jr. Jackson is facing charges related to child molestation. Irreconcilable differences was the official reason given for change in legal representation. Jackson is free on $3 million bail and recently has been staying at a Florida compound with his children. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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/
