Deutsche Welle English Service News February 5th 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Germany Fights Right-Wing Extremism German President Horst Köhler has called on all Germans to actively oppose anti-Semitism, while politicians across the spectrum debate banning the right-wing NPD party. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1479338,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In light of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2005, DW-WORLD has put together a special site marking the occasion. Our coverage looks at the effect of World War II on countries around the world and includes interviews with scholars as well as picture galleries. To view the site, please go to http://www.dw-world.de/english ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Finance Ministers conclude G7 talks Finance ministers of the Group of Seven wealthy industrialised nations meeting in London have concluded a second day of talks on fighting global poverty and debt. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said the G7 summit would be remembered for an agreement on 100 percent debt relief for the world's poorest countries. The US had opposed a British relief and aid plan, but sources close to the talks say a compromise was reached. While Germany and France support the plan, Washington had rejected it as impossible to get past Congress. On Friday former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela had appealed to the world's richest nations to cancel all African debt and to double their aid and development spending for the next 10 years. Rice arrives in Turkey US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Turkey on the fourth leg of her week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East. In Ankara, Rice is to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, as well as with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In Poland, her last stop, she met with her Polish counterpart Adam Rotfeld and Prime Minister Marek Belka. Rice called on Russia to speed up its democratic reforms. She also acknowledged Poland's contribution to the US-led military coalition and praised emerging democracies including Afghanistan and Iraq. In Berlin on Friday, she confirmed that the United States currently has no plans for military action against Iran over its alleged attempts to build nuclear weapons. Rice is due to visit Israel and the West Bank on Sunday. Initial poll lead for Shiites in Iraq Iraqi election officials say initial results of last Sunday's poll show the United Iraqi Alliance, backed by Iraq's top Shiite clerics, with more than two thirds of the vote. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his party are trailing by a significant margin. The figures are based on the roughly three million ballots counted so far out of a total of eight million. The Italian government says it's doing all it can to secure the release of one of its journalists taken hostage on Friday. Giuliana Sgrena was abducted while conducting interviews near Baghdad University. Her captors have given Italy a 72-hour deadline to remove its troops from Iraq. In further violence in Iraq at least eight Iraqis and two US soldiers were killed in separate attacks. No survivors in Afghan plane crash An Afghan government spokesman has announced that NATO-led troops have found the wreckage of an Afghan passenger jet that disappeared off radar screens two days ago. He said the plane had crashed around 35 kilometers southeast of the capital Kabul. A Defence Ministry official said there were no survivors among the 104 passengers on board. The Boeing 737 disappeared on Thursday in poor visibility. It was traveling from the western Afghan city of Herat to Kabul but was unable to land because of a heavy snowstorm. Pope said to be better and happy Pope John Paul II is said to be making a steady recovery at Rome's Gemelli hospital. A visiting delegation of bishops said he was getting better and was happy. The Vatican said the pope would give his traditional Sunday blessing from his hospital bed with the prayer being recited by an aide. Pope John Paul was admitted on Tuesday after complaining of breathing problems brought on by a heavy cold. Annan to act on oil-for-food report United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has pledged prompt action after a new report on Iraq's oil-for-food programme accused UN officials of misconduct. An independent inquiry into the 69-billion-dollar programme issued an interim report on Thursday accusing the scheme's director, Benon Sevan, of steering lucrative Iraqi oil contracts to a relative of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Annan said disciplinary action would be taken against Sevan, who has retired from the UN. From 1996 to 2003 the oil-for-food programme aimed to help Iraqis cope with international sanctions imposed over Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Kuwaiti forces arrest militants Kuwaiti state television says five wanted Islamic militants have surrendered to Kuwaiti security forces Saturday after a one-hour siege west of the capital. The arrests for a large-scale raid using armoured vehicles and smoke bombs to flush out suspected militants in the residential Sulaibiya district. In violence last month, four Kuwaiti security men were killed and ten wounded, while eight militants were killed and 14 captured. Limburg bomber sentenced to death An appeals court in Yemen has sentenced to death the leader of a group found guilty of bombing the French oil tanker Limburg in 2002. The man had previously been sentenced to 10 years in jail. The court also condemned to death another man over the attack. One crew member was killed and 12 others wounded when a boat filled with explosives rammed the oil tanker off Yemen's southeastern coast in October 2002. Other members of the group had their prison sentences raised from 10 to 15 years. The court verdicts also covered other activities of the group, including a plot to kill the US ambassador to Yemen. Miller wins skiing downhill gold Finally sport and the American Bode Miller has won the men's downhill gold medal at the ski world championships in the Italian resort of Bormio. His compatriot Daron Rahlves won silver, while the Austrian Michael Walchhofer took the bronze medal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DW-WORLD's "Click Back" monthly review quiz for February 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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