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DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News
29.04.08, 16:00 Uhr UTC
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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
Serbia Steps Closer to EU With Signing of Long-Delayed Pact
Serbia has signed a historic agreement that will bring it closer
to coveted European Union membership. But the Balkan country will
have to convince its EU partners and its own countrymen that it's
ready to join the bloc.
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
internet address below:
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evyamfI4501ileI1&req=l%3DevyameI4501ileI1
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Serbia sign key EU pre-membership deal
The European Union has signed a long-delayed pact with Serbia that
brings the Balkan nation closer to EU membership, despite Belgrade's
failure to deliver war crimes suspects to a UN tribunal. EU foreign
ministers meeting in Luxembourg have said, however, they would not
implement Serbia's text until Belgrade showed full cooperation with
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The
Hague. The signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement
comes ahead of May 11 parliamentary elections in Serbia. EU
officials hope that the agreement will boost the chances of
President Boris Tadic and other pro-European forces in the polls. An
agreement for Bosnia-Herzegovina has to wait until it is translated
into all 23 EU languages, a process likely to take several weeks.
Aziz trial adjourned until May after short opening session
The international trial of Tareq Aziz, Iraq's former deputy prime
minister to dictator Saddam Hussein, and seven other defendants, has
been adjourned until May 20 after a short, 45-minute opening session.
The eight are facing trial over the executions of a group of Baghdad
merchants in 1992 for hiking food prices at a time when Iraq was
under UN economic sanctions for invading Kuwait in 1990. Aziz faces
the death sentence if found guilty. It's the fourth case being heard
by the Iraqi High Tribunal since it was formed to try former regime
members.
UN to open more missions in Iraq
The United Nations has announced plans to expand its work in Iraq
despite ongoing security concerns. Missions are to be established in
the cities of Najaf, Ramadi and Kirkuk. The UN has also re-
established its presence in Basra. Currently there are 140 UN staff
in Baghdad and 40 in Erbil. Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency says
according to a survey, 90 percent of Iraqi refugees who fled to
Syria to avoid the violence, do not plan to return.
Zimbabwe to verify presidential votes
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has again delayed announcing
formal results of the presidential votes. The commission invited
presidential candidates and their agents to verify results from May
1 but now says it could take another week before a result can be
made public. Meanwhile an opposition lawyer says Zimbabwe police
have released nearly 200 people arrested last week in a swoop on the
Movement for Democratic Change headquarters. Many of those seized
had fled to Harare to escape mounting violence and intimidation in
rural areas. The detainees were freed in accordance with a High
Court order issued Monday. The UN Security Council is due to discuss
the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe in closed session later on
Tuesday.
UN sets up food crisis task force
The United Nations and the World Bank have announced the creation of
a task force to deal with an unprecedented rise in global food
prices. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference in
Berne, Switzerland that the task force would help to provide a
coordinated response to the food crisis. World Bank president Robert
Zoellick called on countries not to ban exports on food, saying it
only worsened the current situation. After two days of meetings of
agency heads, the UN said in a statement that escalating food prices
have become a crisis for the world's most vulnerable, including the
urban poor.
Austrian appears in court over cellar abuse case
A 73-year-old Austrian who has confessed to locking his daughter in
a windowless cellar for 24 years, and fathering her seven children,
has appeared before a judge. Fritzl was ordered to be kept in
detention while inquiries continue. Investigators are meanwhile
searching the 60 square metre cellar beneath Josef Fritzl's two-
storey home. Elisabeth Fritzl, now 42, says her father lured her
into the cellar of their home in 1984, where he drugged and
handcuffed her before imprisoning her. Three of her children, aged
19, 18 and 5, had been locked in the cellar with her since birth and
had never seen sunlight.
China jails 30 for Tibetan riots
A Chinese court has jailed 30 people for terms ranging from three
years to life, for their roles in riots in Tibet's capital Lhasa
last month. The unrest triggered anti-China protests across the
globe ahead of the Beijing Olympics. China has blamed Tibet's
spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his government-in-exile for
plotting the riots, in which Beijing says at least 18 innocent
civilians were killed by Tibetan mobs. The sentences were the first
meted out since the March 14 violence and the Chinese military
crackdown that followed. That spawned protests in several European,
US and Asian cities along the route of the global Olympic torch
relay.
Hague court issues warrant for Congo militia leader
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest
warrant for Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntaganda. The court
accused Ntaganda of allegedly using child soldiers, saying he
conscripted child soldiers to fight in eastern Congo from July 2002
until December 2003. Prosecutors also say that Ntaganda is chief of
staff of a militia group commanded by rebel Laurent Nkunda. He's
also connected with Thomas Lubanga, the first suspect taken into
custody by the ICC and is due to go on trial this summer for
allegedly using child soldiers.
East Timor rebels surrender
Officials in East Timor say a group of rebels involved in attacks on
the country's president and prime minister has surrendered to
authorities. They said rebel commander Gastao Salsinha and 12 of his
men have turned themselves in and handed over weapons and ammunition.
Salsinha took over command of the group after his predecessor,
Alfredo Reinado, was killed in a February attack on President Jose
Ramos-Horta. Ramos-Horta nearly died in the attack, while Prime
Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unharmed from a separate ambush of
his motorcade. East Timor has remained politically unstable since it
won independence from Indonesia in 2002.
Wagner Festival head resigns
Wolfgang Wagner, the chief of one of Germany's most renowned music
events, the Wagner Festival, is to resign from his post at the end
of August. Together with his brother Wieland, Wolfgang resurrected
the festival in Bayreuth after World War II. Wolfgang Wagner is a
grandson of German opera composer Richard Wagner and has run the
festival more than four decades. His two daughters, Eva Wagner-
Pasquier and Katharina Wagner, are to head the annual summer
festival.
Deutsche Bank posts first qtly. loss in five years
Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, has posted its first
quarterly loss in five years. Deutsche Bank recorded a loss of 141
million euros, mostly as a result of a 2.7 billion euro writedown in
the value of assets as a result of the global financial crisis. In
the same period last year, the bank made a record profit of more
than 2.1 billion euros.
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Here you'll find out what's happening in Germany, Europe and the
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