Deutsche Welle English Service News 17.10.2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
EU Big Five To Tackle Immigration Differences Interior ministers from five leading EU states gather in Florence on Sunday hoping to smooth out differences over how to tackle illegal immigration and strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1363691,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you mad about soccer and betting? DW-WORLD's new betting pool lets you match your wits against experts and soccer fans from around the world, game by game. You can play individually or as part of a team. You can test your ability to determine winners and losers, the up-and-coming and the has-beens as well as your general soccer expertise with friends and colleagues. Best of all: We'll be awarding fabulous prizes after each game. http://bundesligatip.dw-world.de/english.do ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Belarusians go to the polls Voting is underway in Belarus in a referendum on whether its constitution should be amended to let President Alexander Lukashenko run for a third consecutive term from 2006. The country's seven million eligible voters are also voting for members of parliament in the former Soviet republic. The Belarus student movement Zubr, which accuses Lukashenko of repressing all forms of dissent, has called for a "no" vote on extending his term. Lukashenko has already said he will win the referendum and that his supporters will win all 110 seats in parliament. The US says 40 percent of would-be candidates have been excluded. The OSCE, a pan-European democracy watchdog organisation, has sent observers to Belarus. The New York Times backs Kerry The US newspaper The New York Times has endorsed presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, two weeks before Americans go to the polls. The influential paper criticised the performance of incumbent President George W. Bush, accusing him of empowering the radical right. Speaking in Dayton, Ohio, Kerry attacked Bush's economic policies and his handling of a shortage in flu vaccines. Bush, while campaigning in Florida, cast doubt on Kerry's ability to provide strong leadership in times of crisis. Opinion polls have shown the two candidates virtually deadlocked for the November 2 presidential race. US siege of Fallujah continues Hospital officials in the rebel-held Iraqi city of Fallujah say three people were killed and 12 injured in overnight US airstrikes. Ongoing fighting has been reported between heavily armed rebels and US soldiers in tanks on the outskirts of the city. Insurgents in the Baghad slum district Sadr City have fired a mortar at an arms collection depot, killing two Iraqi police officers and one civilian. Nine people were wounded in the attack. The Iraqi interim government has extended by two days an arms-for-cash weapons handover programme it negotiated with Shi'ite rebels. A US officer said militiamen had surrendered few serviceable weapons. Near Baghdad, two US helicopters have crashed, killing two US soldiers. New Israeli incursion into Rafah Israeli forces have begun a new incursion into the Gaza Strip, entering the Rafah refugee camp with bulldozers. The Israeli military says it is looking for tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle arms from Egypt. Medics say two youths have been wounded, and witnesses say a number of houses have been destroyed. The incursion follows an 18-day Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, which ended on Friday. Palestinian sources say more than 120 Palestinians were killed and 100 houses demolished in that operation. Israel says it succeeded in halting rocket attacks by Palestinian militants on nearby jewish settlements. AU Darfur troop deloyment delayed Deployment of African Union troops to the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur has been held up. Rwanda says it is delaying the arrival of 300 soldiers until next weekend, because tents had not been erected. In total, the AU plans to send 4,500 troops by November to supplement a small team that is already guarding observers. They were sent to monitor Arab militias blamed for driving black African residents from their villages. Khartoum has disputed death toll figures in Darfur stated on Friday by the World Health Organisation. WHO official David Nabarro had said that since last year 70,000 weakened refugees had died, mostly from diarrhoea and lung infections. The UN says 1.4 million Darfur residents have fled their homes, many into Chad. Abuse reported at Guantanamo The New York Times reports that detainees at the US military base at Guantanamo bay, Cuba, have been subjected to abuse. The paper quoted unnamed guards and intelligence agents as saying uncooperative inmates were shackled and forced to endure strobe lights and loud music in high temperatures for as long as 14 hours. Prisoners at Guantanamo include detainees from Afghanistan and suspected terrorists. Earlier this year, photos of US personnel abusing Iraqi inmates in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq resulted in outrage around the world. The US military has released 200 prisoners from Abu Ghraib, after judging that they posed no security threat. Karzai leading in Afghan vote count Election officials in Afghanistan say results so far give interim President Hamid Karzai a clear lead, more than a week after the country's presidential election. With under half a million of the seven million ballots counted, Karzai has 67 percent of the vote, while runner-up Yunis Kanuni, a former education minister, has 16 percent. A final vote count is due for the end of the month at earliest. Italy rethinks Iraq deployment Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino says Rome is considering reducing the number of its troops stationed in Iraq. Martino says the contingent of 3,000 Italian soldiers could be scaled down in the course of next year, depending on the level of stability in Iraq in the aftermath of the elections, planned for January. Italy has the third-largest number of troops in Iraq, after The US and Britain. Bochum Opel workers to stay off the job Production lines at the Opel car plant in the western German city of Bochum are expected to remain idle when the work week begins on Monday morning. A spokesman for the works council there said employees would not return to the job unless Opel's US parent, General Motors, backs off on its plans to axe 12,000 jobs at its European subsidiaries. Opel plants in Germany are expected to bear the brunt of the cuts. Workers in Bochum walked off the job late on Thursday in protest against the planned cuts. The work stoppage at the factory, which supplies parts to other GM plants, also threatens production in England, Belgium and Poland. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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