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DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News
24.12.07, 17:00 Uhr UTC
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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Slovenia Steps into European Spotlight
When Slovenia takes over the European Union presidency on Jan. 1,
2008, it will focus on issues close to home: Kosovo's independence
and the efforts of neighboring Balkan countries to join the bloc.
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internet address below:
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Thai parties start coalition talks
Thailand's political parties have started talks to form a coalition
government. Allies of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra say
they already have the support needed to form a government but have
not yet named their future partners. In Sunday's parliamentary
polls, the People Power Party or PPP won just under half the 480
seats in parliament. The PPP has promised to bring back Thaksin, who
has been living in self-imposed exile ever since the military
deposed him in a coup in September last year. Washington meanwhile
has welcomed initial reports indicating that the vote had been free
and fair.
Russia to let in fewer monitors for presidential poll
Russia has said it will invite far fewer foreign observers to
monitor its March presidential election than for it did four years
ago. President Vladimir Putin steps down as president next year and
has named his protegé Dmitri Medvedev as his preferred successor.
Medvedev in turn has promised to appoint Putin to the post of prime
minister if he wins the presidential ballot. Observers say that is a
foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, Russia's lower house of Parliament,
the Duma, has met for the first time since general elections earlier
this month which saw Putin's United Russia Party win a huge majority.
Putin did not attend Monday's meeting, citing time restraints.
Abbas criticises Israeli settlement expansion plans
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned that Israeli plans to
build hundreds of new homes on occupied land in East Jerusalem and
the West Bank next year are a serious obstacle to peace negotiations
which resume on Monday. Israel had declared at the US-sponsored
Annapolis peace conference last month that it would adhere to the
2003 international roadmap for Middle East peace. The roadmap
includes a stoppage of Israeli settlement expansion. The Israeli
government said new homes in one settlement were part of a plan
drawn up seven years ago and not part of that agreement
Israeli aircraft kill Hamas militants in Gaza
Israeli aircraft have killed two Hamas militants in an airstrike in
the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the attack,
saying the gunmen approached the Gaza-Israel fence, prompting
suspicions they were trying to strike at troops near the border.
More than 20 Palestinian militants have been killed in Israeli
strikes in Gaza in the past week.
Israel considering change to prisoner-release policy
Israeli officials say Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trying to relax
the criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners. A key ally of Mr.
Olmert's is expected to convene a meeting of senior ministers Monday
to ask them to approve the release of prisoners involved in
attempted attacks against Israel. The official said that should the
criteria not change, future prisoner swaps would be impossible.
French tourists killed in Mauritanian attack
Four French tourists were shot dead Monday and a fifth wounded in an
attack by unidentified armed men, east of the Mauritanian capital
Nouakchott. The police chief of Aleg, the town near where the
incident occurred, said the four were robbed at gunpoint and then
killed in a volley of bullets. The French embassy confirmed a fifth
French tourist was seriously injured.
5 died as housing complex collapses in Egypt
At least five people were killed after a 12-storey block of flats
collapsed in the northern Egyptian Mediterranean port city of
Alexandria on Monday. 20 people are still missing and believed to be
trapped under rubble. Police say the 30-year old building originally
had seven storeys but five more were added in recent years. Building
collapses are a frequent occurrence in Egypt, where many housing
structures are unauthorised and not built according to regulations.
Police detain 59 Chechen refugees crossing into Germany
German and Polish authorities have detained 59 Chechen refugees who
attempted to cross illegally into Germany, two days after the
European Union's borderless travel area expanded eastward. The
Chechens held visas for Poland, but did not have papers to travel
elsewhere in the European Union. Passport controls between Germany
and nine newcomers to the so-called Schengen zone, including Poland,
were abolished Thursday at midnight. Experts say guarding the zone's
5,000-kilometre external frontier with Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and
the Balkans against illegal migration and goods smuggling poses a
major security challenge for Schengen member countries.
12,000 face charges in child pornography crackdown in Germany
German police say up to 12,000 people could face charges of
possessing child pornography. Police said about 1,700 people
throughout Germany have already been accused of possessing illegal
material following a long-term police investigation and more are to
follow. During the operation code-named Heaven, police cracked a
major pornography distribution network following a tip-off by an
internet operator who said he had detected an unusually high amount
of data traffic.
German family minister wants to curtail abusive parent rights
Germany's family minister Ursula von der Leyen wants to curtail the
rights of parents in an effort to curb child abuse and neglect. In
an interview with the daily Bild, the family minister said she wants
to give authorities and courts more rights to intervene faster if
children are believed to be in danger. There have been a number of
highly-publicised cases of child abuse in Germany, where parents
have starved and or beaten their children to death.
French nurse takes ill during Chad orphan trial
A French nurse on trial with five colleagues for trying to kidnap
103 African children was taken out of a Chadian courtroom on Monday
after she fell ill while on hunger strike. Nadia Merimi from the aid
organisation Zoe's Ark and her five co-workers began a hunger strike
early in December to draw attention to their case. The six claim
they had intended to rescue orphans from Sudan and take them to
Europe. Prosecutors say most of the children were Chadian nationals
living with families. Several Chadians are also on trial. It's
expected that if convicted, the French aid workers will serve their
sentence not in Chad but in France.
Uzbek hardliner president wins vote
Official figures show that Uzbekistan's authoritarian leader Islam
Karimov has won 88.1 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential
elections, extending his 18-year rule by another seven. Critics have
dismissed the poll as a sham while the election-monitoring arm of
the OSCE said the poll failed to meet democratic standards. There
was no real competition from other candidates. The three who did run
against Karimov all publicly supported him.
Nepal to abolish monarchy
Nepal's government has voted to abolish the country's monarchy.
Nepalese leaders agreed to a new deal that would bring former Maoist
rebels back into the government and set the stage for an end to the
240-year-old monarchy. The Maoists had left the government in
September. One of the communists' key demands to rejoin was the
declaration of a republic which is to be formalised in an interim
constitution. The monarchy is officially to remain in place until
elections that have been rescheduled for next spring.
Child soldier surge in DRC
A British-based charity says that renewed violence in eastern Congo
has brought with it a surge in child soldier recruitment. Save the
Children country director for Congo, Hussein Mursal, said in a
statement that the situation for children there was catastrophic.
Mursal said fighters from all sides were using boys and girls as
front-line fodder, forcing them to fight, carry ammunition or become
sex slaves. The charity could not put a number on how many children
are affected. The eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo
has been almost lawless since the country's five-year civil war
ended in 2003.
German President's Christmas Message
In his traditional Christmas message, German President Horst Köhler
called for more interaction between the country's young and old,
saying both sides could profit greatly from one another. Mr. Köhler
said that good things happen when life experience comes in contact
with youthful curiosity. He also expressly thanked the country's
soldiers and aid workers stationed abroad this holiday season.
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