Deutsche Welle English Service News 08. 10. 2004, 16:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: British Hostage Beheaded in Iraq Despite international appeals for his release, Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage kidnapped last month by an insurgent group in Baghdad, has been killed by his captors. They released a video of the beheading. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1353109,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- British hostage reported killed A video released by Iraqi militants and seen by a Reuters correspondent appears to show the beheading of British hostage Ken Bigley. The video reportedly shows Bigley clad in an orange jumpsuit making a statement surrounded by six militants. One of them is then seen to cut his head off with a knife. The British Foreign Office is still trying to corroborate reports of his death. The Arab Abu Dhabi television station had first reported that Bigley had been killed, citing what it termed informed sources in Baghdad. Bigley was abducted in the Iraqi capital on September 16, along with two American colleagues who were beheaded a few days later. US strike kills 11 in Fallujah Eleven people have been killed and 17 others wounded in a US air strike on the city of Fallujah in western Iraq. Hospital officials said women and children attending a wedding party were among the casualties. The US Army called the attack a "precision strike" which hit a safe-house being used by the network of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi's Tawheed and Jihad group has claimed responsibility for some of Iraq's deadliest suicide bombings, as well as the beheading of several foreign hostages. Schroeder to visit Kabul despite violence There's been a series of rocket attacks in Afghanistan ahead of Saturday's presidential election. In the capital, Kabul, a rocket slammed into a parking lot near the German embassy. No one was injured. In the eastern city of Jalalabad a rocket hit a house, injuring two people. The militant Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attacks and threatened further violence. Eighteen candidates are running for the presidency, including interim President Hamid Karzai, who is expected to win. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, meanwhile, says that despite the recent upsurge in violence, he will travel to Afghanistan on Monday as planned. Schroeder made the comment on the sidelines of the ASEM summit in Hanoi. Germany condemns Egypt bombings Germany has condemned a series of bomb blasts that killed at least 26 people and injured more than 100 others at Egyptian Red Sea resorts popular with Israeli tourists. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in a statement that the perpetrators of these criminal acts must be brought to justice. He also expressed Germany's sympathies for the victims and their families. Late on Thursday, a truck full of explosives drove into the lobby of the Hilton hotel at Taba. Shortly afterwards, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the hotel's swimming pool. Later, two bombs went off at backpacker resorts further south on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. A previously unknown group called Islamic Tawhid Brigades has claimed responsibility. Schroeder addresses ASEM summit Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called on Burma to respect internationally accepted standards on human rights. The chancellor made the statement on the first day of a meeting of the leaders of the 25 European Union and 13 Asian countries in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Burma has been allowed to attend the two-day ASEM summit, despite the objections of the European Union. The EU had threatened Burma's military government with sanctions, over its failure to release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Schroeder also asked delegates to the ASEM summit to support Germany's bid to be granted a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council. Kenyan woman wins Nobel Peace Prize Kenya's deputy environment minister, Wangari Mathai, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee chose the 64-year-old Mathai from a list of a record 194 nominations, for her work as leader of the Green Belt Movement that has planted more than 30 million trees across Africa. Committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes made the announcement in Oslo. Mathai is the first African woman to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901. She's to be presented with her award in Oslo on December 10. Protests in Pakistan after bomb attack Thousands of Sunni Muslim radicals have been protesting in central Pakistan following a bomb attack on a religious rally that killed 42 people. Demonstrators chanted slogans against the government and minority Shiite Muslims, who they blame for Thursday's attack in the city of Multan. The protest came despite the deployment of hundreds of police and troops and a temporary ban on all gatherings. The attack in Multan came just days after a suicide bomber killed over 30 people at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot. Pakistani government officials said the latest attack could have been a sectarian act of revenge. Blast at Indonesian embassy in Paris Authorities in Jakarta are urging Indonesian embassies around the world to be on heightened alert after a bomb exploded outside the country's mission in France. Nine people were injured in the blast, which also damaged cars and blew out windows. Officials in Paris said there had been no specific threat and it was still unclear why the embassy was targeted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy our "World News" newsletter? 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