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DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter
English Service News
19.05.08, 16:00 Uhr UTC
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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:
German Minister Meets Dalai Lama Amid Protests
Ignoring criticism from China and from members of her own party,
Germany's development minister met with the Dalai Lama at a Berlin
hotel on Monday, May 19. She called the talk
"very good" and "fruitful."
To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
internet address below:
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evygk2I4501ileI0&req=l%3Devygk1I4501ileI0
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Burma to accept outside help
Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo says Burma has agreed to
accept foreign assistance from its Asian neighbours for victims of
Cyclone Nargis. The announcement follows an emergency meeting in
Singapore of foreign ministers from the Association of South East
Asian Nations. Yeo also said that Burma would hold a donors' meeting
in Rangoon on May 25 to discuss its needs. Aid agencies say the
death toll from the cyclone which hit Burma earlier this month
stands at 78,000, but that number could soar without a massive
increase of emergency food and medicine. Burma's military regime has
placed tight restrictions on foreign relief efforts.
Sirens, horns herald Chinese mourning
Chinese citizens have observed three minutes of silence across the
country to mark the exact moment a week ago when a devastating
earthquake struck Sichuan province. Air raid sirens and car, train
and ship horns all sounded at 2:28 pm local time as the nation came
to a standstill. The mourning took place as reports emerged that 200
relief workers were killed in Sichuan province by a mud slide which
happened during recovery efforts. Last week's 7.9 magnitude
earthquake was the worst in China in over three decades, killing an
estimated 50,000 people. Three days of national mourning are now
taking place.
Major biodiversity conference kicks off in Bonn
Some 5,000 delegates from 190 countries are gathering in the German
city of Bonn for a major biodiversity conference. The protection of
flora, fauna and even food sources is on the agenda of the
conference of the parties to the 1992 UN Convention on Biological
Diversity. The two-week meeting will also review the goal set at the
UN Earth Summit in 2002 of slowing the loss of biological diversity
by 2010, which critics say can no longer be reached. German
environment minister Sigmar Gabriel warned the discussions would be
complex and said flexibility was needed to avoid a failure. A group
of demonstrators picketed the conference demanding that delegates
adopt tough measures.
Dalai Lama wraps up German visit
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul has described
a controversial meeting with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai
Lama, as "fruitful". Wieczorek-Zeul is the only cabinet minister to
have met the Dalai Lama during his five-day visit to Germany. She
was criticised ahead of the meeting by senior Social Democrat party
colleagues, who claimed not to have been informed of her plans and
were concerned about provoking Beijing. China's government, which
holds the Dalai Lama responsible for separatist violence in Tibet,
filed a protest over the meeting. During his visit, which is to wind
up in Berlin later on Monday, the Dalai Lama repeatedly called for
non-violence and religious tolerance.
France acknowledges contacts with Hamas
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has confirmed a newspaper
report that France has opened political contacts with the radical
Islamist group Hamas. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is
considered a terrorist group by the European Union, the United
States and Israel. Kouchner defended the contacts as being necessary
for diplomatic negotiations in the region, and said they were
limited in nature. The French daily Le Figaro reported in Monday's
edition that a first contact between Paris and Hamas had occurred a
month earlier in the Gaza Strip.
Xenophobic attacks spread in Johannesburg
In South Africa, a wave of violence directed against immigrants has
left at least 22 people killed and dozens injured. The attacks,
which began a week ago in a township on the outskirts Johannesburg,
spread over the weekend to include other townships as well as the
city centre. Mobs targeted foreigners from neighbouring Zimbabwe,
Mozambique and other countries, blaming them for taking jobs and
fuelling crime. Police used rubber-tipped bullets to break up crowds
and arrested over 200 people. Meanwhile, hundreds of immigrants,
many of them from Zimbabwe, have taken refuge in police stations,
churches and government offices.
Wanted Colombian rebel leader hands herself in
Colombian officials say a wanted FARC rebel leader has handed
herself over to authorities. Eldaneyis Mosquera, also known as
Karina, was one of the most senior women in the FARC rebel army.
Security forces have blamed her for a number of murders, attacks and
kidnappings in the north-west of the country. President Alvaro Uribe
had put Karina on the most-wanted list in 2002, and a reward of more
than 500,000 euros was placed on her head. FARC rebels have been
fighting to overthrow the government for more than four decades.
Mahathir quits ruling party in snub to PM
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has quit the
country's ruling party in a surprise announcement that is expected
to weaken the government. Mahathir, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years
until 2003, has been engaged in a public fall-out with his hand-
picked successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Mahathir blames Abdullah
for the government's recent poor showing in national elections, and
has called for his resignation. Last week, the government ordered an
investigation of Mahathir and five others over the appointment of
judges during his rule. Mahathir, who was one of Asia's longest-
serving elected leaders, has been involved with the United Malay
National Organisation since its inception in the 1940s.
Merkel in Mexico
German chancellor Angela Merkel is in Mexico on the seventh and last
day of her Latin American tour. She is accompanied by a group of
German business leaders, eager to strike up deals with their Mexican
counterparts. The volume of trade between the two countries is now
around nine billion Euros a year and growing. The Chancellor has
come from Colombia, where she pledged to give German aid in
prosecuting and investigating human rights violations by right-wing
paramilitary death squadrons. Her trip has also taken her to Brazil
and the European Union-Latin America summit in Peru.
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For more information please turn to our internet website at
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evygk2I4501ileI1&req=l%3Devygk1I4501ileI1
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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