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DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News
26.04.08, 16:00 Uhr UTC
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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Germany Apologizes for Spying on Afghan Minister
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called his Afghan
counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta on Saturday to express regret over
the monitoring of another Afghan minister by the German foreign
intelligence service.
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
internet address below:
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evy9uwI4501ileI1&req=l%3Devy9uvI4501ileI1
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Mugabe's party fails to regain parliamentary majority
President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party has failed to win
back control of Zimbabwe's parliament in a partial vote recount. The
country's electoral commission says that 14 out of the 23 seats have
been recounted so far, and that none of the original results have
been overturned. To win back a parliamentary majority, the ruling
party needed to pick up nine more seats. But only nine seats are
still to be counted, and ZANU-PF already won three of those in the
first count. Mugabe pushed through the partial recount after the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change won a parliamentary
majority in the March 29 polls. Results still have not been released
from the parallel presidential election. Meanwhile, police say they
have arrested more than 200 people during a raid on the MDC's
headquarters in the capital, Harare. A police spokesman said no
charges had yet been laid.
Iranian conservative ahead in run-off elections
Iranian state media say conservatives have won 52 seats in Friday's
run-off parliamentary elections. Thirty seats went to reformists. If
confirmed, this would give conservatives a total of around 200 seats
and reformists at least 60 MPs in the new 290-seat parliament, with
the remainder going to independents. Many reformist candidates were
barred by the government from running in parliamentary elections
ahead of the first round of voting in March.
German chancellor welcomes China's dialogue offer over Tibet
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has welcomed Beijing's offer to meet
representatives of the Dalai Lama. Merkel told the Sunday edition of
the mass-circulation Bild newspaper that she hoped the Chinese move
would open the way to a peaceful and successful Olympic Games. The
Dalai Lama has also welcomed China's offer, saying it was a step in
the right direction. Tibet's exiled spiritual leader is due to visit
Germany in mid-May. He will be making a series of addresses focusing
on human rights. The Dalai Lama won't be meeting the chancellor, who
will be in South America at the time of his visit. Merkel's meeting
with the Dalai Lama last September led to a chill in relations
between Berlin and Beijing that ended only after months of intense
German diplomatic efforts.
Olympic relay ends with minor disruptions in Japan
The Japanese leg of the Olympic torch relay has ended amid protests
and scuffles. Despite heavy security, at least one man made an
attempt to snatch the Olympic flame from the runner, before being
arrested by police. Around 3,000 police were deployed to prevent
pro-Tibet demonstrators from disrupting the relay, and to prevent
clashes with pro-China crowds. Hundreds of people holding Chinese
flags lined the route, outnumbering demonstrators protesting against
Chinese rule in Tibet. The Olympic torch will now move on to South
Korea.
German FM apologises to Afghan counterpart over spy scandal
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has spoken via
telephone to his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta to
apologise for the monitoring of another Afghan minister by the
German foreign intelligence service, the BND. This comes a week
after it emerged that the BND had spied on correspondence between
Afghan politician, Mohammad Amin Farhang, and a journalist working
for Der Spiegel news magazine. Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered
an inquiry into the affair and that the officials involved be
disciplined. Meanwhile the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newspaper has
reported that officials in Kabul fear that the BND may have also
been tapping Farhang's phone calls and monitoring other Afghan
cabinet ministers.
Afghan leader criticises US over war against Taliban
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called on US forces to stop
arresting suspected Taliban members. Karzai told the New York Times
that fear of arrest and past mistreatment were discouraging Taliban
members from coming forward and laying down their arms. Karzai, who
faces re-election next year, demanded that his government be given
the lead in policy decisions. He criticised the American-led
coalition as prosecuting the war on terrorism in Afghan villages,
saying the real terrorist threat lay in sanctuaries of the Taliban
and Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
Turkish army attacks PKK targets in Iraq
Turkish military sources say that government warp***s and artillery
have struck Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK targets inside northern
Iraq. PKK sources said nobody was killed in the attacks. Turkish
media report that one government soldier was killed, bringing to
three the number of soldiers killed since the latest clashes with
PKK rebels began on Friday. Ankara considers the PKK a terrorist
organisation and says it uses northern Iraq as a base to launch
attacks against targets inside Turkey.
Raikkonen takes pole for Sunday's Spanish GP
In sports: The captain of Germany's national soccer team, Michael
Ballack, has kept Chelsea's hopes of reclaiming the English Premier
League title alive by scoring both goals in a 2-1 win over
Manchester United. The win left Chelsea level on points with the
league leaders. In Formula One motor racing, Kimi Raikkonen of
Ferrari has edged Renault's Fernando Alonso to take pole position
for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. Ferrari's Felipe Massa will start
from third place in the grid.
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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
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.
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Copyright Deutsche Welle 2008
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