Deutsche Welle English Service News 13. 01. 2005, 17:00 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Indonesia Mulls Debt Moratorium Offer After meeting with German ministers in Berlin Thursday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Wirayuda said Jakarta was considering a debt repayment freeze offer amid misgivings that it could damage its economy. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1457963,00.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last chance to play! DW-WORLD's "Click Back" monthly review quiz for January ends today so visit our site quickly to test your knowledge of stories we've written and win a great prize. To play, please go to: http://www.dw-world.de/english ---------------------------------------------------------------------- March deadline in Aceh relaxed Indonesia has backtracked on its March deadline for foreign troops to leave Aceh where they are helping tsunami survivors. Visiting Berlin, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said they were "welcome" and their stay would depend on progress in getting aid to the remote Sumatran province. Restrictions on aid workers, he added, were for their own safety because of Aceh's lingering insurgency. Achenese rebels have offered Jakarta ceasefire talks. A UN World Food Programme spokeswoman in Aceh's devastated main city of Banda Aceh said cooperation with Indonesia's government and its 50,000 soldiers in the region was good. Aceh's governor says 75,000 bodies of tsunami victims have been buried, and 80 foreign aid workers have sought permission to go to another wrecked town, Meulaboh. A German naval supply ship has anchored off Banda Aceh, where German and Australian medics are restoring city hospital services. Gunmen kill aides to Iraq's Ayatollah Gunmen have killed two aides to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shi'ite authority. A Shi'ite official said Mahmoud al-Madaen was killed on Wednesday in Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, along with his son and four guards. Another aide working in Sistani's office in Najaf was also found dead. Iraqi officials have accused Sunni Islamist militants of trying to provoke a civil war by killing prominent Shi'ites. Sistani has appealed for restraint by Shi'ites, saying acts of revenge would destroy the country. Meanwhile gunmen have attacked a hotel in the Iraqi capital, kidnapping a Turk who was staying there and killing six Iraqis believed to be his guards. Expat Iraqis to vote in Germany The International Organisation for Migration says 65,000 Iraqis living in Germany are eligible to vote in the upcoming Iraqi elections. The IOM says ballot stations will be set up in Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Mannheim, between January 28 and 30. The IOM says security will be provided by police. The Geneva-based IOM has a contract with Iraq's electoral commission to run polling among one million expatriate Iraqis in 14 countries around the world. In Germany, voters can registered next week. There will be no provision for postal voting. IAEA monitors visit Iranian base Inspectors of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, have visited an Iranian military base, at Parchin, after waiting months for clearance. The United States claims that Iran used the base for covert bomb development. An IAEA spokesman said inspectors were taking environmental samples. Iran denies developing such weapons and said it would itself closely monitor the inspectors' work. They could take samples outside, said Iran, but not inside the buildings. The IAEA visit coincides with the resumption of EU talks with Iran on trade arrangments. They were suspended 18 months ago. At least 16 die in Iran school fire Iranian state television reports that at least 16 children and teachers have died in a fire at a village school in central Iran. Television said the death toll was expected to rise at the school in Safilan village in Chahar Mahar Bakhtiari province. A teacher was reported to be in a critical condition. The official IRNA news agency said the fire broke out on Thursday morning at an elementary school for boys. Nepal PM to call elections Nepal's Prime Minister has said he will call elections after rebels turned down his offer of peace talks. Sher Bahadur Deuba had given Maoist rebels a Thursday deadline to enter peace negotiations. The government chief said he would mobilise the military to force the rebels to come to the negotiating table. Maoist rebel chief Prachanda has warned of bloodshed if the government announced polls. The rebels, who want to abolish the monarchy and establish a communist republic, say a vote should first be held for an assembly to decide on the monarch's powers. Moscow will work with Yushchenko Russia has offered to cooperate with Ukraine's new President elect. Viktor Yushckenko announced that his first foreign visit would be to Moscow. The Kremlin said it expected Ukraine to establish "normal work" with Western Europe, as it has with Russia. Originally, the Kremlin backed Yushchenko's opponent in the election. Viktor Yanukovich has stalled Yushchenko's inauguration a day by delaying a legal appeal against the election result. Mark Thatcher pleads guilty The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has pled guilty to helping finance a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. Mark Thatcher accepted a fine of about 400,000 euros and a four-year suspended prison term. If he fails to pay the fine within this week he will be sentenced to five years in prison. Authorities arrested Thatcher in South Africa in August, on charges the he gave about 200,000 euros to help overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. Prince Harry pictured in Nazi uniform There has been outrage in the UK following the publication of pictures of Britain's Prince Harry wearing a Nazi soldier's uniform complete with swastika armband. The front page photo, published by the Sun newspaper, was snapped last weekend at a fancy dress party also attended by Harry's brother Prince William. Spokesmen for the royal family have issued a statement in which Harry apologised. But there have also been calls for a public apology. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, one of the world's leading Jewish human rights organisations, called it "a shameful act" which was offensive to both Holocaust victims and Allied soldiers who died defeating Nazism. VW names politicians on payroll German car manufacturer Volkswagen has named six members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) on the company's payroll in a growing controversy over politicians receiving a second income. VW said two were members of the Bundestag, the German lower house of parliament, and four were regional parliamentarians. The Wolfsburg-based company in Lower Saxony said it would end the payments immediately. Two leading CDU opposition members of the Bundestag recently resigned over a conflict of interests after it emerged that they'd been receiving payments from energy giant RWE. German 2004 GDP grows 1.7 percent Germany's economy has expanded after three years of stagnation. The Federal Statistical Office said that a rise in exports produced growth of 1.7 percent in Gross Domestic Product in 2004. In 2003, that figure was minus 0.1 percent. Germany's public deficit also increased last year, by one tenth of a point to 3.9 percent. That exceeds the deficit allowed by the European Union Stability and Growth Pact, which is three percent. It was the third year in a row that Germany has broken that three percent barrier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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