Deutsche Welle English Service News 09. 02. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Rice Chides Europe Over Iran A day after heralding a new era in transatlantic relations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scolded her European allies Wednesday over their handling of nuclear talks with Iran. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1482696,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bomb explosion in Madrid An explosion from a car bomb claimed by Basque separatists in the Spanish capital of Madrid has injured at least 42 people. None of the injuries are considered life-threatening. The blast occurred outside a convention centre in the outskirts of the city. Police said the Basque newspaper Gara had received a warning from the Basque separatist group ETA shortly before the blast. King Juan Carlos had been due to open an art fair at the conference centre later on Wednesday. The explosion coincided with a major police operation against ETA in northern Spain. Iraqi journalist killed, govt official seized An Iraqi journalist working for the US-funded Al-Hurra television network has been killed by gunmen at his home in Basra. Alhurra is a Virginia-based satellite news network set up with US funding to compete with Arabic channels such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. In a separate incident, a senior Interior Ministry official has been kidnapped in Baghdad. Colonel Riyadh Katei Aliwi was apparently dragged from his car by gunmen. Elsewhere in Baghdad, three members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party were killed in a guerrilla ambush, and clashes then erupted with Iraqi and US troops. Meanwhile, Iraq's Electoral Commission says the announcement of a final vote tally, previously expected by Thursday, will be delayed while around 300 ballot boxes are re-examined. Rice chides Europeans over Iran US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scolded her European allies Wednesday over their handling of nuclear talks with Iran. Rice complained that Britain, France and Germany had failed to make sufficiently clear the threat of UN sanctions if Tehran refused to renounce its suspected nuclear weapons ambitions. Iran's nuclear ambitions have been a major issue throughout Rice's week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East, her first trip since becoming chief US diplomat. The United States accuses Iran of trying to obtain nuclear weapons which Iran vehemently denies. Rice flew into Brussels Wednesday for a working lunch with her NATO counterparts and talks with European Union officials before heading off for Luxembourg, the last stop on her tour of eight European nations. Abbas happy with Middle East summit Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas expressed his satisfaction Wednesday at the "positive results" from a landmark summit which sought to draw the line under four years of Middle East bloodshed. In two separate declarations at the Tuesday summit in Egypt, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared an end to hostilities which have claimed some 4,700 lives since the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, erupted in September 2000. Israel has announced it would shortly reopen its border with Gaza to Palestinian workers and merchants. It also plans to release up to 500 of the some 8,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. Adding to the optimism, the "Quartet" consisting of the US, Russia, the UN and the European Union said they would attend a Palestinian reconstruction conference set for early March in London. Russian mine explosion kills nine At least nine people have died in a coal mine explosion in Russia's Siberia. News agencies report that up to 17 people are still missing. A team of 30 miners and experts had been sent to the mine in the Kemerovo region on Tuesday to investigate smoke inside the mine and stop it spreading. On Wednesday, a methane explosion occurred. Rescue efforts are continuing. Accidents are common in Russia's under-funded and unprofitable coal mining industry. Last year a blast in the same region killed 45 people. Danish PM wins re-election Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been elected for a second term. His alliance of Liberals, Conservatives and right-wing parties won 95 of the 179 seats in Tuesday's election, four more than needed to hold the majority. The centre-left opposition had its worst ballot in decades. The three-week campaign focused on Rasmussen's clampdown on asylum seekers and his record of cutting taxes without undermining Denmark's generous welfare system. The 52-year old Prime Minister is the first liberal leader to be re-elected in the country. Pope misses Ash Wednesday prayers Pope John Paul II's continued hospitalisation has forced him to miss Ash Wednesday prayers for the first time in his 26-year papacy. The Pope has begun a second week in a Rome hospital, where he is being treated for respiratory problems. There is no official word of when the 84-year old pontiff might be discharged. The formerly taboo question of the Pope's possible resignation has been hotly debated in Italy's daily newspapers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- When the ball gets rolling on the first day of the second half of the Bundesliga season, it’s time to place your bets at DW-WORLD again. Bet, score and win is the name of the game. Compete with soccer fans around the world by predicting who will be up or down, how many goals and how tops the table. Return for each match day and participate in the game individually or as a team with friends and colleagues. Prove your skill at picking the winners, and if you bet correctly, you’ll be awarded with great prizes each time the Bundesliga plays. So join the fun, it’s only a click away. http://www.dw-world.de/english/kickofftip ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
