 | | | | | | | Newsletter | 16.01.2009, 17:15 UTC | | | Newsline | | | World news: international | | | | | | | | | News | | | | | Current Article | | | | Hope for Gaza ceasefire grows
There is hope in the Middle East that a ceasefire may soon be reached between Israel and the Hamas administration of Gaza, as the conflict enters its third week. Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev said it was possible that cabinet ministers could agree to end the Israeli offensive this weekend. Regev said the government was awaiting the reports of envoys who are discussing terms of a ceasefire in Cairo as well as Washington. Israel is seeking to end Hamas rocket attacks as well as mechanisms that would prevent the militant Palestinian group from rearming. Hamas is offering a year-long ceasefire, open to renewal, if Israel withdraws its forces from Gaza within a week and guarantees to keep border crossings open. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to Israel to call a unilateral ceasefire while details for a longer term truce are hammered out. |  | | Putin talks gas in Berlin
Moves to resolve the gas row between Russia and Ukraine are underway in Berlin, ahead of a key summit scheduled to take place in Moscow this Saturday. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is in the German capital to discuss the dispute with Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as heads of several European energy concerns. The chief of Italian gas firm ENI said the European companies would examine Russia's proposal to form a consortium to help underwrite gas exports through Ukraine. The European Union has threatened to review its relations with both Ukraine and Russia if their dispute continues to hold up gas supplies to Europe next week. | | | Praise for US pilot who landed in Hudson River
United States investigators are examining a passenger plane that was forced to ditch in New York's Hudson River on Thursday afternoon. The exact cause of the crash has not been made public, but it is thought the plane struck a flock of birds, which disabled both engines shortly after take-off. All 155 passengers and crew escaped, with only a handful of people treated for minor injuries and hypothermia. The pilot and crew are being praised for their handling of the emergency. Within moments of the Airbus A320 aircraft landing in the Hudson's freezing waters, passengers were guided onto the plane's wings where they were swiftly rescued by ferries and rescue services. The flight was en-route from New York's LaGuardia airport to Charlotte in North Carolina. | | | US Senate approves second half of bailout package
US senators have given their approval for the incoming Obama administration to tap the second half of a 700-billion-dollar bailout package. The Democratic-led Senate rejected a Republican resolution that would have blocked the release of 350 billion dollars. President-elect Barack Obama said he was gratified by the Senate's decision. Obama has promised to place strict conditions on wages for chief executives, provide more loans to small businesses and guarantee more transparency so that taxpayers could see where their money was being spent. | | | Red Cross worred over Sri Lankan refugees
The International Red Cross says it's "extremely concerned" about tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting in northeastern Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's military officials say troops are advancing on the last Tamil rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu, a port. The Red Cross says the warring parties have not agreed to routes of safe passage for trapped civilians. Some had been forced to move several times and the lives of patients had been put at risk. The fighting had also delayed deliveries of relief supplies. A spokesman for the military said more than 1,000 people had crossed front lines on Thursday. For years Tamil Tiger rebels had tried to set up a mini-state. Sri Lanka's government pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce a year ago and resorted to military operations. | | | Citigroup discloses losses, reorganisation
Citigroup has disclosed a fifth straight quarterly loss of 8.3 billion dollars and announced that the ailing banking giant is to be split into two businesses. Citicorp will do traditional banking and Citi Holdings will encompass the group's riskier assets. Citigroup has already received 45 billion dollars in US Treasury injections and had shed about 52,000 workers last year. Bank of America has just received a 20 billion dollars lifeline from the US government to help it absorb its recent acquisition Merrill-Lynch which itself lost a record 15.3 billion dollars in last year's four-quarter. For the same period, Bank of America has posted a 1.8 billion dollar loss, its first quarterly loss in 17 years. | | | Ireland to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank
The Irish government has announced plans to nationalise the troubled Anglo Irish Bank. The stock market value of Ireland's No. 3 bank has gone into freefall since a loans scandal last month. The government said full state control would ensure that the lender's 80 billion euros worth of deposits would be secure. | | | Former Bosnian Serb general transferred to Germany
A former Bosnian Serb general has been transferred to Germany to serve out his life sentence for crimes committed in and around the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994. Stanislav Galic was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for his role in the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, that led to the deaths of nearly 12,000 people. This is the third time that Germany has been tasked with enforcing the jail sentence of a convicted war criminal from the former Yugoslavia.
| | | Zimbabwe unveils 100 trillion dollar note
Zimbabwe will introduce a 100-trillion dollar note in its latest attempt to keep pace with hyperinflation that has left the once-vibrant economy in tatters. The new 100-trillion Zim-dollar bill is worth about 300 US dollars at the current exchange rate, but the value of the local currency erodes dramatically every day. Just last week Zimbabwe introduced 10, 20 and 50 billion-dollar bills, but those notes are no longer large enough to keep up with hyperinflation. The last official estimate put inflation at 231 million percent in July, but outside experts now believe it is many times higher. | | | | | |  | | |  Up-to-date news at DW-WORLD.DE | | | | | | |  | | | Note
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UN Chief Urges Israel to End Fighting in Gaza
