Deutsche Welle English Service News 07. 01. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
EU Ministers Coordinate Tsunami Aid Foreign, health and development ministers from the European Union came together on Friday for quickly arranged talks to coordinate further plans to help those countries affected by the Asian tsunamis. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1452028,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD's "Click Back" monthly review quiz for January is waiting for you and will test your knowledge of stories we've written. If you answer all questions correctly, you can also win a great prize. To play, please go to: http://www.dw-world.de/english ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UN chief tours tsunami-hit Aceh Amid concerns in Western countries about the remains of their nationals killed in the Asian tsunami disaster, Thailand's government insisted that no foreign victims have been buried in mass graves or cremated without identification. Officials said forensic teams were working to identify unrecognisable bodies through DNA testing. The bodies of several German victims of the tsunami disaster have in the meantime arrived back in Germany. Thousands of people are still unaccounted for, and the UN warns that the death toll, now at more than 150,000, could climb sharply. EU discusses further aid European Union foreign ministers have met to look at how Europe can further help disaster-hit south Asia. EU aid commissioner Louis Michel stressed that the world needed to prepare for the vast task of reconstruction, expected to cost far more than the current emergency phase. Draft conclusions emphasised the leading role of the United Nations in coordinating aid. Plans for a rapid response force for future disasters were also discussed. The EU and its member states have so far pledged nearly 2 billion euros in aid for victims of the tsunami disaster. Other crises need focus too, says UN UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland has welcomed the massive tsunami rescue efforts but warned that major crises in Africa could go unnoticed. Egeland, in New York, said in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Sudan's western region of Darfur thousands of people were dying from neglect and the impact of conflicts. Egeland described as "accurate" a recent estimate by the International Rescue Committee that 1,000 persons died daily in Congo. In Germany, the deputy chairperson of the governing Social Democrats Gernot Erler said he hoped international aid coordination in Asia could also be applied to crises, such as the one in Darfur. Palestinian candidate detained by Israel Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa Barghuti has been briefly detained by Israeli police on his way to the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem. Israeli officials said Barghuti had violated an agreement not to go to the mosque compound, considered the third holiest site in Islam and the symbol of the Palestinian struggle for independence. A lawyer for Barghuti said he knew of no such agreement and accused Israel of harassing his client on the final day of campaigning. The Palestinian presidential election takes place on Sunday and will be monitored by hundreds of international observers, including European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Somalia picks new parliament Somalia's new president has named a new cabinet, nearly a month after parliament sacked his first team. Abdullahi Yusuf swore in the ministers in Kenya, where the Somali parliament has been sitting since its formation last September. MPs were unhappy with his first team, saying he ignored clan-based quotas. Kenya has repeatedly urged the new administration to pick a cabinet and go home. Somalia has been without an effective government since it descended into anarchy thirteen years ago. Since then rival warlords have battled for control of the country and Somalia has been divided into a patchwork of fiefdoms. The African Union has agreed in principle to provide troops to ensure the Somali government's safe return. Textile factory blaze in Bangladesh In Bangladesh a fire has swept through a garment factory killing at least 22 workers. Police say they are looking into suggestions that the factory's exits were locked. Another 25 workers were injured, some with serious burns. The fire in Godnail town, near Dhaka, gutted the factory completely. Police say the likely cause was an electrical short circuit. Four years ago the government introduced tighter safety regulations after a series of fires in the garment industry, which is Bangladesh's largest export sector. Italy train crash kills at least 14 At least 14 people have been killed and more than 50 others injured in a train crash in northern Italy. Police said a passenger train and a freight train collided on a one-way rail track. Officials said heavy fog could have been the cause of the accident. Big variations in EU employment rates Newly released unemployment rates show vast variations across the European Union. Joblessness was lowest in Ireland, Luxembourg and Austria with rates of just over four percent. In Germany, one in ten workers are unemployed. At 18%, unemployment was highest in the new EU member state of Poland, followed by Slovakia with 17%. The Polish Economy and Labour Ministry has said it expects the Polish unemployment rate to decline considerably by the end of the year, thanks to the shifting of jobs from other EU states to Poland. The guaranteed minimum salary in Poland is six times lower than in countries such as France or the Netherlands. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 news@antic.org http://www.antic.org/
