Deutsche Welle English Service News 20. 06. 2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
EU's Solana Enters Presidential Race EU leaders agreed on a new constitution on Friday, but the bloc is still searching for the next Commission president. Now the union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said he wouldn't turn down the job. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1433_A_1241513_1_A,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Attention: Due to e-mail manipulation, many e-mails are being sent from e-mail accounts that resemble Deutsche Welle mail accounts. Many of these mails contain viruses. We would like to inform you that Deutsche Welle (DW-WORLD) is not responsible for sending such mails. We are are doing our best to put an end to external e-mail manipulation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy our "World News" newsletter? Why not also subscribe to "Daily Bulletin", DW-WORLD's latest daily digest of the day's top German and European stories, delivered to you around 18:30 UTC. To find out more and sign up, please go to http://www.dw-world.de/english/newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Al Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia killed The al Qaeda network has vowed to continue committing acts of terrorism in Saudi Arabia. This, despite the death of the group's leader in that country. A statement on an Islamist Internet Web site said that Abdul Aziz al Moqrin had died a martyr's death in a shootout with police in Riyadh on Friday. The shootout came just hours after images emerged on the Internet of the beheading of American contractor Paul Johnson. Earlier in the week, al Moqrin had claimed responsibility for kidnapping Johnson. The foreign affairs adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, told reporters the government would increase its efforts stamp out terrorism in the country. Algerian military kills al-Qaida leaders And in Algeria, the military say they've killed one of North Africa's most-wanted terror leaders, who allied his group with Osama bin Laden, raising fears that they may attack overseas. The military say Nabil Sahraoui, one of his right-hand men and other key lieutenants were killed in what they call an ongoing "vast anti-terrorist operation" by army units in the Kabylie region east of the capital, Algiers. Allawi defends US air strike in Fallujah Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi has defended Saturday's US air strike on a house in the city of Fallujah, which killed 22 people. Speaking to reporters in Baghdad, Allawi said his government was certain that the target had been a safe house for al Qaeda terrorists. He also said the US military had informed him prior to the strike. US military officials say the house was used by militants led by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who they say is al Qaeda's leader in Iraq. Witnesses, though, said women and children were among the dead. Meanwhile, an explosion near the Central Bank in Baghdad has killed a security guard and injured several others. India, Pakistan to establish nuclear hotline Indian and Pakistani officials say they have agreed on a series of confidence-building measures to reduce the risk of a nuclear confrontation in the region. In a joint statement released after two days of talks in the Indian capital, New Delhi, officials said among other things, they had agreed to set up a hotline between the two countries' foreign ministries. They said the aim was to prevent possible misunderstandings. India and Pakistan both carried out nuclear tests six years ago. There were widespread fears of a nuclear conflict, when the countries came close to war in 1999 and 2002. Palestinian workers cross from Gaza into Israel Palestinian workers have crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip for the first time in three months. Israel had barred workers from entering the country after the killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Israeli army officials said they had opened the Erez border crossing on Thursday to about 500 Palestinian labourers, but that none had turned up. Early this Sunday, hundreds of workers crossed into Israel. Before Israel's killing of Yassin, up to 15,000 Palestinian workers crossed daily into Israel. Arroyo declared election winner Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will stay president of The Philippines. A Congressional committee that recounted votes six weeks after a contentious election result has declared her the winner by almost a million. On Friday, police used water cannons to disperse about fifteen hundred supporters of film star Fernando Poe Jr. who tried to march on the presidential palace to protest against alleged fraud. The military and police have been put on full alert. Mubarak for surgery in Germany The Egyptian embassy in Berlin says President Hosni Mubarak has arrived in Munich for an operation for a slipped disc. The embassy said Mubarak is in good shape, it was a routine operation and nothing serious. Doctors in Egypt said during the operation scheduled for Monday, surgeons will insert a microscopic endoscope in Mubarak's lower back to remove displaced cartilage. Joschka Fischer visits Arab Emirates The German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, has flown to Abu Dhabi to begin three days of talks in the Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman. His agenda is centred on the troubled situation in the region. He'll also be talking about bilateral trade. Abu Dhabi has indicated that it wants to become a major shareholder of Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car maker. Solana possible candidate for EC president There's speculation this weekend that the European Union's foreign policy co-ordinator, Javier Solana, could succeed Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission, after Prodi's term expires in November. Speaking to reporters outside of Barcelona on Saturday, Solana said it would be hard to turn down the job if it was offered it to him. EU leaders failed to agree on who should become the Commission's next president during their summit, which ended early on Saturday. But they did reach an historic agreement on the bloc's first constitution. The deal came after intense negotiations by the 25 member states. It still has to be ratified by national parliaments or in public referendums before it can come into force. The deal has been welcomed by all major German political parties. Iran backs off threat to resume nuclear activity Iran's top security official has backed away from a statement, suggesting his country may soon resume uranium enrichment activities. Hassan Rowhani told reporters in Tehran that his country had no intention of doing so for the time being. Earlier Rowhani had said Iran would decide in the coming days whether to resume uranium enrichment. His statements came after a rebuke from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which wants increased co-operation from Tehran in inspections of its nuclear facilities. Iran insists that its nuclear programme is for the sole purpose of generating electricity. Sudanese leader orders outlaw groups disarmed Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has ordered security forces mobilised to disarm all illegal armed groups in the western region of Darfur. A statement released on Saturday said they were to pursue all outlaw groups. International aid organisations have accused Arab militias and government troops of a wave of killings of African minority groups in Darfur, since February of last year. That's when fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and two rebel groups. The move came a day after the US State Department said it was considering imposing sanctions on Sudan. The United Nations says at least 10,000 people have been killed and more than a million residents of Darfur have been forced to flee the fighting. Germany draw 0-0 with Latvia In sports: The Czech Republic has become the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals of the European soccer championship in Portugal. This, after they came from behind to beat the Netherlands 3-2 on Saturday evening. The second Group-D berth in the quarters is still up for grabs, after Germany was only able to manage a scoreless draw against Latvia. And, in Formula 1 motor racing Rubens Barrichello has taken the pole position for this Sunday's US Grand Prix at Indianapolis. His Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher qualified in second, ahead of BAR-Honda driver Takuma Sato. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
