Deutsche Welle English Service News 07. 12. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Controversy Follows Rice to Brussels and NATO US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with her NATO and EU counterparts in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday for talks under the shadow of alleged secret CIA prison flights to Europe. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1806659,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Play DW-WORLD's Christmas Click & Win with a chance to get fabulous prizes from Playmobil! To participate, please visit our home page at http://www.dw-world.de/english ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saddam trial adjourned until Dec. 21 The trial of Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity has been adjourned until December 21. The court will reconvene again after Iraq's legislative elections which are scheduled for December 15. Saddam faces charges over the 1982 killing of 148 Shia Muslims in Dujail. Earlier on Wednesday the court heard testimony from two witnesses in an open hearing without the ousted Iraqi president in the courtroom. Saddam refused to attend the trial, complaining about detention conditions. Saddam Hussein on Tuesday said he would not attend an "illegal" trial and told the judges to "go to hell". Meanwhile a man suspected of plotting to kill a key Saddam investigator has been freed by gunmen in Kirkuk. About 20 militants attacked a hospital in the northern city where the suspect was being held. Rice says harsh interrogation banned US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sought to clarify American policy on harsh interrogation methods, saying no US personnel may use cruel or degrading practices at home or abroad. The statements on policy followed pressure from Berlin, where reports of covert CIA flights and secret prisons in Europe have caused a political storm. On Tuesday Rice held talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel amid revelations that a Lebanese-born German citizen was wrongfully imprisoned and tortured by the CIA at a secret jail in Afghanistan. The US Secretary of State left Ukraine Wednesday for Brussels, the final leg of a European tour. Still no trace of German hostage in Iraq Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has appealed for the release of a German woman abducted in Iraq. Schroeder's statement was aired on the Arabic television station al-Jazerra. Susanna Osthoff and her driver were seized in the north of the country nearly two weeks ago. The kidnappers have demanded that Berlin stop all its support for the government in Baghdad. Meanwhile the German foreign ministry is continuing its efforts to trace the 43-year-old German aid worker. Schroeder said that Osthoff had delivered medical aid supplies to the sick and needy and helped preserves Iraq's cultural heritage. During her visit to Berlin, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US would use its resources in Iraq to help save Osthoff. Iran authorities blamed for plane crash In Iran, relatives of more than 100 people who died in a crash of a military plane are blaming authorities for the disaster. Local newspapers are claiming that the three decade-old plane had been ordered to fly despite serious reservations. All 94 passengers and crew on board were killed when the plane suffered engine failure and crashed into a 10-storey apartment building in Tehran. More than a dozen other people were killed on the ground and around 90 were injured. Among the dead were 68 journalists on their way to the city of Bandar Abbas to report on military exercises. EU battles to break budget deadlock European Union foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels in a special session to try to break a deadlock over the EU's 2007-2013 budget. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has conceded that chances of resolving the row were "narrow", as London's bid to find a solution was criticisied at talks in Brussels. The British EU Presidency has proposed cutting financial aid to poorer EU countries from eastern Europe. European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has called for new proposals, saying the current ones were "unacceptable". EU leaders failed in June to agree on funding, split over Britain's refusal to give ground on its rebate and French resistance to reform of generous farm subsidies, of which Paris is the main recipient. Egyptian police kill 2 in election clashes Egyptian police firing rubber bullets have killed two men in election clashes on the final day of month-long legislative polls. Witnesses said government forces blocked access to polling stations where the opposition Muslim Brotherhood had done well in last week's voting, before the final run-offs. Rights groups have accused the authorities of widespread abuses throughout the elections, including blocking access to polling stations, vote-buying and fabricating results. Five people have been killed since the staggered parliamentary election started on November 9. UN court sentences Bosnian Croat The Hague war crimes tribunal has sentenced a former Bosnian Croat soldier to 20 years in jail. He had pleaded guilty to charges including murder, rape and torture of Muslims. Miroslav Bralo, also known as Cicko, changed his pleas to guilty earlier this year on eight counts of war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war in central Bosnia. Cuba to host Colombian peace talks The Colombian government and members of the country's second biggest rebel group have announced they will hold preliminary peace talks. The talks between the government and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, are expected to take place early next week in Cuba. The two sides have also asked the governments of Norway, Switzerland and Spain to be involved in the peace process. The Marxist ELN have been fighting a guerrilla war against the Colombian government for more than four decades. EU finds Venezuela's election fair The European Union has said they found no problems with Venezuela's legislative elections after President Hugo Chavez' ruling party and its allies said they swept all 167 seats. EU monitors said the results were "transparent," but added that many Venezuelans distrust their electoral system due to political polarisation in the Latin American country. The head of the EU mission, Jose Albino, urged the National Assembly to quickly appoint new electoral council directors to bolster voter confidence. Barely 25 percent of the 14 million voters took part. Chinese toxic spill official found dead A vice mayor in charge of evacuating the Chinese city of Jilin where a chemical plant exploded is believed to have committed suicide. Wang Wei had been in charge of dealing with the aftermath of the November 13 blast. Wang had been quoted as saying that the accident would not cause widespread pollution. But 100 tonnes of cancer-causing benzene compounds spilled into the Songhua river, which provides drinking water for the 9 million people of the city of Harbin. Chinese state media has reported that Beijing has promised harsh punishment for anyone guilty of misconduct over the incident. The slick is now heading northeast towards the Russian city of Khabarovsk. UN climate talks in deadlock After a week of preparatory talks, the UN's Climate Change Conference in the Canadian city of Montreal has now been joined by the world's environment ministers. Germany's new environment minister Sigmar Gabriel has also arrived, saying he hopes to persuade the US of the necessity of agreeing on long-term targets to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming. The aim of the Montreal gathering is to come up with a viable successor agreement to the Kyoto protocol that put caps on emissions, but which runs out in 2012. The US refused to sign up to Kyoto, saying it would cost jobs and wrongly excluded developing nations. South African ex-deputy Zuma barred South Africa's ruling African National Congress has barred former deputy president Jacob Zuma from speaking or acting as the party's deputy leader. The announcement came a day after Zuma was charged with rape. The ANC said it viewed the rape charge against Zuma as extremely serious. Zuma was once a frontrunner in the race to succeed President Thabo Mbeki when he steps down in 2009. Eritrea expels UN peacekeepers Eritrea has ordered the expulsion of US, Canadian, Russian and European staff of the United Nations peacekeeping mission that monitors the tense border with neighbouring Ethiopia. In a letter sent to the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the staff were given 10 days to leave the Horn of Africa nation. No reason was given for the expulsion, which comes two weeks after the UN threatened to impose sanctions if Eritrea failed to ease restrictions imposed on peacekeepers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Week in Germany: The best from German culture, business and politics in a convenient weekly wrap-up. Read and subscribe at www.germany.info/twig ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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