Deutsche Welle English Service News 16.10.2004, 16:00 UTC
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To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1360396,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Churches targeted by blasts in Iraq In Baghdad a series of bomb blasts has damaged five Christian churches. Also the US military said that a suicide car bomber killed three US troops and an Iraqi civilian in an attack in the town of Qaim near Iraq's border with Syria. Meanwhile US-led forces continue to surround the rebel hub of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, for a second straight day in the hunt for Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man. A US military spokesman refused to say if marines would enter the city, which has been the target of regular air raids by US planes, although Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Friday that Fallujah must surrender Zarqawi or face invasion. Zarqawi's group, which is allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, is accused of some of the deadliest car bombings and a string of kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq. Israel ends N. Gaza offensive Israeli troops have withdrawn from northern Gaza after an 18-day operation which saw the heaviest fighting there in four years. More than 120 Palestinians have died since the incursion began. According to Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim the operation has been successful in stopping rocket attacks on nearby Israeli settlements. He also implied that the withdrawal was a mark of respect for the start of the Muslim holy season of Ramadan. Around 100 houses were levelled in the refugee camp of Jabaliya and neighbouring Beit Lahya, scenes of the heaviest violence, according to Palestinian security sources. A spokesman for the Palestinian group Hamas said the withdrawal marked a "victory" for the militants. The United States welcomed news of the withdrawal. Cleric Bashir charged over Bali bombings In Jakarta the Indonesian radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been charged with involvement in the 2002 Bali night-club bombings that killed 202 people. Bashir is assumed to be the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group. A new trial against Bashir could start within two weeks after prosecutors filed the terrorism charges against him on Friday. Bashir denies any links with Jemaah Islamiah or terrorism. The group has been blamed not only for attacks in Indonesia but for planned and actual violence throughout the region. A car bomb outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta last month, which killed nine, is the latest attack intelligence experts blame on the group. Fresh violence in Haiti There have been fresh outbreaks of violence in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince as security forces confronted supporters of ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide who are demeanding his return. Gunfire erupted when police entered the slum of Bel-Air, scene of a rallies in support of Aristide observing the 10th anniversary of his first return from exile in 1994. The centre of Port-au-Prince was largely deserted on Friday as businesses shut down in a national call for peace after two weeks of deepening violence in which 40 people have died. The United States closed its embassy in Haiti to mark the protest and renewed a warning to US citizens to leave the country. Aristide is presently in South Africa. Iran to continue to enrich uranium Iran continues to be adamant in its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. EU diplomats are seeking US and Russian support for a deal that would ask Iran to give up uranium enrichment in return for technical and economic assistance. Hossein Mousavian, Iran's head of foreign policy said on state television that any proposal which deprives Iran of its right to nuclear fuel is not acceptable. Uranium enrichment can be used in nuclear warheads although oil-rich Iran claims that its atomic programme is intended solely to produce domestic electricity. Israel has increased pressure on Iran's enrichment activities by buying in weaponry that could target centrifuge bunkers. Two fatal bombings in Afghanistan News has emerged from Afghanistan of two fatal roadside bombings blamed on insurgents. The bureau of interim president Hamid Karzai said three children and a policeman were killed in the eastern province of Kunar when a remote-controlled explosive went off in a crowd that had gathered around a burning truck. It had been delivering food to US bases. Karzai condemed the attack. In the other bombing two US troops were killed on Thursday in Afghanistan's central province of Uruzgan. The US military said a landmine detonated as a patrol drove past. In slow vote counting of ballots from last weekend's presidential election, Karzai is well ahead but election commission officials said it could take a week to 10 days before results showed reliable trends. Germany to support Libya's WTO bid German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has ended a rare trip to Libya and has travelled on to Algeria. In Algiers, at talks with President Abdeleziz Bouteflika, Schroeder urged Algeria's government to make democratic and socially beneficial economic reforms. Algeria has endured conflicts since an uprising by Islamist extremists in 1992 after election results were cancelled. In Libya on Friday, Schroeder told its leader Muammar Gaddafi that Germany would support Libya's bid to join the World Trade Organisation. Schroeder highlighted German-Libyan trade opportunities. Germany, like Italy, draws oil from Libya. Schroeder's visit was the latest by western leaders since Libya renounced mass weapons and paid compensation for terror acts. WPF highlights hunger It is World Food Day and the United Nations agency the WFP has accused much of the international community of ignoring the plight of hungry millions. The World Food Programme says while the focus has been on Darfur in Sudan, the public has shown little awareness of hungry children in locations such as Peru, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka and Guinea. WFP chief James Morris said the volume of food aid had dropped from 15 million to 10 million tonnes in the past five years. Despite this, the world had on average enough foodstocks. A German charity World Agro Aid said newly-developed seed varieties had left small-scale farmers without their more robust traditional crops. * WFP spokesman Jean-Jacques Graisse GM compromise over job cuts? Germany's IG Metall trade union says the US giant General Motors has signalled readiness to compromise over its plan to slash up to 12,000 jobs at its European subsidies, mostly in Germany. IG spokesman Detlef Wetzel said the union wanted a Europe-wide deal with GM, which also has plants in England, Sweden and Belgium. Workers at GM's Opel plant in the Ruhr District city of Bochum are still off work after downing tools on Friday. Another employees' representative, works council chairman Klaus Franz, has warned of painful times ahead. GM's European manager Fritz Henderson has been quoted by the magazine Spiegel as saying he could not exclude the closure of an Opel works in Germany, where four are located. That, however, would not happen before 2006, he said. Greenspan plays down oil prices Despite record oil prices the US Federal Reserve bank chairman Alan Greenspan says the impact on the economy is significantly less compared to the oil shock of the 1970s. He warned, however, that harm could intensify if prices rose further. On Friday one American brand of oil reached 55 dollars a barrel for delivery in November. Greenspan predicted that the trend would spur industry's transition to more fuel-efficiency and alternative energy sources. New crew docks with ISS A Russian Soyuz spacecraft has docked with the International Space Station, bringing a fresh crew. The Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and the US astronaut Leroy Chiao will replace two colleagues who have been aboard the ISS since April. Deliveries to ISS depend at present solely on Russian craft because of the disintegration last year of the US shuttle Columbia. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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