 | | | | | | | Newsletter | 14.01.2009, 17:15 UTC | | | Newsline | | | World news: international | | | | | | | | | News | | | | | Current Article | | | | Ban in Cairo for Gaza talks as Israel continues offensive
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo at the start of a Middle East trip aimed at bringing about a truce in the Gaza Strip. Ban renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire, saying there was no time to lose in Gaza. Ban will also meet with leaders in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. He is not expected to meet representatives of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The trip comes as Israel steps up its campaign after 19 days of fighting.0 The Israeli offensive has so far killed over 970 Palestinians, while ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died. Meanwhile, Israeli officials say several rockets have been fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, the second such attack since Israeli forces launched the Gaza offensive. |  | | German FM to push for truce on new visit to Middle East
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to embark on his second trip to the Middle East in a week to help secure a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. A foreign ministry spokesman said Steinmeier would leave for Jerusalem later this Wednesday to hold talks with Israeli officials. He is also expected to travel to Ramallah in the West Bank and the Egyptian capital Cairo. On Tuesday, he called for a humanitarian truce to help ease the suffering of some 1.5 million people in Gaza. In a statement released after a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni, Steinmeier said a truce could provide the starting point for a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire. | | | EU threatens legal action over gas dispute
A row between Russia and Ukraine continues to hold up supplies of Russian gas to Europe. Both countries are blaming each other for the delay after securing an agreement two days ago on gas prices for 2009 and the settlement of Ukraine's debts. Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom said it opened its taps but its Ukrainian counterpart Naftogaz said Russia demanded an unfeasible transit route. Meanwhile, the chief of the European Union's executive, Jose Manuel Barroso, has threatened legal action against both companies. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans, especially in the Balkans, remain without heating amid one of the coldest winters in a decade. The prime ministers of Bulgaria and Slovakia have travelled to Ukraine and Russia to urge the two countries' leaders to resume supplies. | | | Greek militant group claims attacks on police
A Greek militant group has claimed responsibility for the shooting of a policeman last week and two other attacks. Police say the Revolutionary Struggle urban guerrilla group sent a statement to a newspaper saying it was behind the January 5 shooting, which left a 21-year-old police officer in serious condition in hospital. The group also said it attacked a riot police bus in December. That attack followed Greece's worst rioting in decades, which was triggered by the police killing of a teenager. Within hours of the boy's death, riots broke out across the country. The group, which first emerged within months of the capture of the deadly terrorist group November 17 in 2003, also claimed responsibility for the foiled bombing of the offices of the Dutch oil giant Shell in Athens last year. Two years ago, it fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the US embassy in Athens. | | | Merkel defends economic stimulus package
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended her government's economic stimulus package in a speech to parliament. She called it a comprehensive response to the international financial crisis. The 50-billion-euro program, she said, gave Germany a large number of options to respond to the crisis, but warned that Germany could not seal itself off from a global economic downturn. Responding to opposition criticism that the package was "too little, too late," the Chancellor said the money would be used over a two-year period to bolster employment, fund education, improve infrastructure and help cash-strapped businesses. | | | Germany forecasts higher deficit in 2010
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has said he expects Germany's federal deficit to exceed four percent of gross domestic product in 2010. Steinbrück said the shortfall would also exceed the officially allowed EU limit of three percent of GDP and was due to the 50-billion-euro economic stimulus package announced by the government this week. Steinbrück said 2008 had ended better than expected, despite the economic downturn. He said the government had incurred 300 million euros less new debt than originally planned. | | | Citigroup and Morgan Stanley agree to joint brokerage
US bank Citigroup and rival Morgan Stanley have announced plans to merge their worldwide brokerage operations. The combined brokerage would be the largest of its kind, with 20,000 brokers and financial advisors and 1.7 trillion dollars in client assets. Morgan Stanley is to lead the new brokerage and will pay Citigroup 2.7 billion dollars in cash. Citigroup has been hard hit by the financial crisis and has cut thousands of jobs. It has received two cash infusions totalling 45 billion dollars from the government. | | | China overtakes Germany as third-largest economy
China has overtaken Germany as the world's third-largest economy. Beijing's national statistics office published corrected figures for the year 2007, revising the growth of the country's gross domestic product from just under 12 per cent to 13 per cent. The revised figures put the country's largest economy just behind the United States and Japan in terms of size. | | | | | |  | | |  Up-to-date news at DW-WORLD.DE | | | | | | |  | | | Note
To unsubscribe to this newsletter, please click here.
If you have any questions or comments, please send us an email:
online@dw-world.de
For more information, please click here. | | |  | | | © 2009 DEUTSCHE WELLE | > Contact | | | |
Report: China Surpasses Germany as Third Largest Economy
