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DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News
04.03.08, 17:00 Uhr UTC
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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
European Union Unveils Biggest Food Aid Package Ever
The European Commission has announced its most significant food aid
package ever to help feed the world's hungry as food prices rise across
the globe.
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
internet address below:
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evxt6fI4501ileI1&req=l%3Devxt6eI4501ileI1
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Rice meets with Abbas
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has just finished talks with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. She said she
believed a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians was still
possible this year and urged the two sides to resume talks. Progress
towards peace has been stymied by Israel's latest incursion into the
Gaza Strip, in which more than 120 Palestinians died over the past
week. Israel has threatened to take further military action in the
Hamas-controlled territory to curb cross-border rocket attacks. Rice
is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on
Tuesday evening.
Tensions rising over Colombian raid
Tensions are rising in South America over the weekend killing of a
rebel leader by Colombia on Ecuadorean territory. After cutting off
diplomatic relations on Monday, Venezuela has closed its borders
with Colombia. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe also wants to take
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to the International Criminal Court.
He has accused Chavez of sponsoring and financing genocide. Uribe
based his charges on information taken from computers found at a
camp in Ecuador where Colombian troops killed a commander of the
Marxist rebel FARC movement. Colombia has been battling FARC
guerrillas for more than four decades.
Ukraine warns of gas disruptions to Europe
An escalating dispute between Russia and Ukraine is threatening to
destabilise gas supplies to western Europe. Ukraine's state gas
company, Naftogaz, has warned that it may reduce deliveries to
Europe if Russia proceeds to cut supplies earmarked for Ukranian
consumers. Earlier, Russia warned the European Union's executive
that it had given Ukraine a deadline of Tuesday to resolve a debt
dispute, or face a 50 percent cut in gas supplies. Europe sources a
quarter of its gas from the Russian state monopoly, Gazprom. A
similar row disrupted gas supplies to the EU two years ago.
Fire in Germany was not arson
German prosecutors have all but ruled out arson as the cause of a
fire which killed nine people of Turkish ethnicity last month. The
blaze in an apartment house in the south-western city of
Ludwigshafen caused political tensions between Ankara and Berlin,
after initial speculation that the fire was deliberately started by
neo-Nazis. On Tuesday, police said the fire started in the basement
of the building. No evidence of arson was found. The trigger for the
blaze remains unclear. Turkish experts joined German police in their
investigations after media reports at the time suggested the Turkish
inhabitants of the house were being threatened by right wing
extremists.
EU finance ministers agree to step up efforts against tax havens
European Union finance ministers have agreed to bolster efforts to
crack down on tax havens.
At issue was a 2005 EU directive on savings tax. The directive
requires member states to share tax information. Germany would like
to see the directive extended to other non-EU countries, especially
those with highly secretive banking laws. Resistance from member
states including Austria means a deal is not likely in the near
future. Tax evasion has become a major issue in the EU. An ongoing
probe recently uncovered in Germany how hundreds of wealthy tax
evaders have set up foundations in countries like Liechtenstein to
hide their savings.
Merkel to meet with new Russian leader
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to travel to Moscow on Saturday
on the invitation of outgoing president Vladimir Putin. She's also
expected to meet president-elect Dmitry Medvedev during the visit.
Despite her criticism of Sunday's election, Merkel has expressed
Germany's desire to work closely with the new Russian leader, and
that Berlin would be a reliable partner in the modernisation process
that Medvedev plans for Russia.
France asks Sudan for help in finding missing soldier
France has asked Sudan to help it find one of its soldiers involved
in a clash between the two countries. The EU peacekeeping mission in
Chad has voiced concern about the fate of the missing soldier. Two
French soldiers reportedly crossed accidentally into Sudanese
territory on Monday. Their vehicle was fired upon there by Sudanese
troops. A rescue effort retrieved one soldier with light burns from
the vehicle, but is reported to have sparked a second clash. A
Sudanese army spokesperson said a Sudanese soldier and a civilian
were killed in that incident. Sudan has warned that the European
Union force has no right to violate its borders. The EU mission has
a United Nations mandate to protect refugees from western Sudan's
troubled Darfur region.
Pakistan hit by fourth bomb in five days
Another suicide bomb attack has struck Pakistan, killing at least
four people and injuring 14 others. Two bombers blew themselves up
in a prestigious naval college, in the country's second biggest city,
Lahore. It's the fourth bombing in five days, and is blamed on
Islamic extremists. The wave of violence poses an immediate
challenge to the country's incoming government, set to be a
coalition led by the parties of assassinated ex-premier Benazir
Bhutto and former premier Nawaz Sharif.
Four US primaries could determine Clinton's fate
Polls have opened for Democratic and Republican primaries in four US
states. Good results in Vermont, Rhode Island and the populous
states of Ohio and Texas are considered key for the chances of
Democrat Hillary Clinton who has lost 11 straight contests to
frontrunner Barack Obama. John McCain, on the other hand, is all but
assured of clinching the Republican party nomination.
China increases military spending
China has announced a 17.6 percent increase in its military spending
compared with 2007. A spokesman for the National People's Congress
said most of the increase will go to boosting salaries and to pay
for higher oil prices, with moderate increased spending for
armaments. Spending would total 417.8 billion yuan or nearly 39
billion euros.
China responds to new WTO trade complaint
China has said it will respect the authority of the World Trade
Organisation in its response to a complaint by the US and European
Union. Brussels and Washington launched their WTO complaint against
Beijing on Monday. They are objecting to Chinese rules introduced in
2006, which oblige financial news agencies like Bloomberg, Dow Jones
and Reuters to operate through their competitor - the Chinese state
news agency Xinhua. The western news organisations accuse Xinhua of
ripping off their information. On its website, the Chinese Ministry
of Commerce said it would seriously study the WTO challenge and deal
with it according to the organisation's procedures.
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the day's top stories right to your desktop. Download it today!
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For more information please turn to our internet website at
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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
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You can even listen to all programmes as audio-on-demand.
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Copyright Deutsche Welle 2008
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