 | | | | | | | Newsletter | 17.01.2009, 17:15 UTC | | | Newsline | | | World news: international | | | | | | | | | News | | | | | Current Article | | | | Israel prepares for ceasefire vote amid Hamas warning
Israel has blasted Gaza with new strikes ahead of an expected unilateral halt to its 22-day-old war against Hamas. The Israeli security cabinet is convening on Saturday to consider ordering a halt to its offensive which has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, including over 400 children, and left much of Gaza in ruins. Hamas has vowed to fight on as long as Israeli troops remained in the battered enclave. In the hours before the meeting, the Israeli army kept up its attacks, killing more than a dozen people, including a woman and a child who had taken refuge with hundreds of others at an UN-run school in the north. UN officials demanded an investigation into the new strike, the fourth such Israeli attack. The war in Gaza has drawn worldwide protests and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade ever since Hamas was voted into power. |  | | UN General Assembly calls for cease-fire in Gaza
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a non-binding resolution demanding an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. This is virtually the same wording as in the legally-binding UN Security Council resolution adopted more than a week ago. Friday's vote was 142-4, with eight abstentions. The four no votes came from Israel, the United States, Nauru and Venezuela. | | | Fatal bombing near German embassy, US base in Kabul
In Kabul a suicide car bomb attack in a heavily-guarded road between the German embassy and a US base has killed at least two Afghan civilians and a US soldier. Thirty others were wounded in the blast. Five soldiers and a US civilian were among them. A spokesman for the Taliban has claimed responsibility. A German foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin said "several" embassy staff had been injured in the Kabul blast. The attack has been condemned as a "cowardly act" by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He added that Germany, which has troops mainly in northern Afghanistan, remained committed and would not be deterred. | | | Tsvangirai returns to Zimbabwe for power-sharing talks
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has arrived back in the country, the first time he has been in Zimbabwe since last November. Tsvangirai spent much of the time in neighbouring Botswana. He was due to hold talks with his Movement for Democratic Change on whether the party should pull out of the power-sharing agreement which was reached last September but never implemented. Despite the accord, President Robert Mugabe's party has grabbed nearly all the key ministries. Tsvangirai said he would not be “bulldozed into joining this government, which does not reflect the interests of the people”. Zimbabwe's political parties are set to hold meetings with the presidents of South Africa and Mozambique and with Southern Africa Development Community mediator Thabo Mbeki on Monday. | | | Israel prepares for ceasefire vote amid Hamas warning
Israel has blasted Gaza with new strikes ahead of an expected unilateral halt to its 22-day-old war against Hamas. The Israeli security cabinet is convening on Saturday to consider ordering a halt to its offensive which has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, including over 400 children, and left much of Gaza in ruins. Hamas has vowed to fight on as long as Israeli troops remained in the battered enclave. In the hours before the meeting, the Israeli army kept up its attacks, killing more than a dozen people, including a woman and a child who had taken refuge with hundreds of others at an UN-run school in the north. UN officials demanded an investigation into the new strike, the fourth such Israeli attack. The war in Gaza has drawn worldwide protests and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade ever since Hamas was voted into power. | | | Russia - Ukraine looking to end gas dispute
Russia and Ukraine have begun gas crisis talks in Moscow that the European Union said were the "last and best chance" to resolve a row that has left Europe struggling without key gas supplies. At the start of the Kremlin talks on Saturday that included Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and European Union representatives, President Dmitry Medvedev said that “everything will be done to ensure the current crisis is resolved." Medvedev also called for the formation of an "international mechanism" to prevent future disputes. After talks with Russian Premier Vladimir Putin in Berlin on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that gas companies were discussing a "test" resumption of Russian gas supplies through Ukraine and that such a deal should be "implemented quickly." The gas crisis has cost EU states hundreds of millions of euros and meant little or no gas for many countries in southeastern Europe in the height of winter. Gazprom says it has lost more than one billion euros so far. | | | Refugees trying to flee Sri Lanka battle zone
Sri Lanka's military and Tamil Tiger rebels have disputed details of a battle around the village of Dharmapuram as increasing numbers of refugees flee the island nation's war zone. Red Cross and United Nations officials have again urged the combatants to allow safe passage to tens of thousands of civilians. The rebels on their web site claim to have killed 51 soldiers and repelled an army assault on the village. The military has denied that, saying seven soldiers and 21 rebels were killed. Verification virtually impossible because the army and rebels have sealed off access to northeastern Sri Lanka. Military units are reported to be converging on the rebels' largest stronghold, the port of Mullaittivu. On Friday India's foreign secretary visited Colombo. Amnesty International had urged India to raise concerns about the safety of the mainly Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka's conflict zone. | | | Nicaragua's Aleman free from house arrest
Nicaragua's Supreme Court has freed ex-president Arnoldo Aleman from a 20-year prison sentence by acquitting him of money laundering and embezzlement charges. Since 2003, the wealthy Aleman of Nicaragua's right-wing opposition has spent most of his time under house arrest. Judges overturned a 2003 ruling against Aleman, despite ratification of the original sentence by an appeals court in 2007. Nicaraguan media carried reports claiming that Aleman's freeing was part of a deal between the leftist government of President Daniel Ortega and the opposition to a end a crisis over disputed local elections held in November. Two of the six Supreme Court judges aligned with the governing Sandinista party opposed the overturning of the conviction. Ex-president Aleman ruled Nicaragua from 1997 to 2002. | | | Germany expected to suffer worst postwar recession
Economics Minister Michael Glos says Germany's economy is set to suffer its deepest recession since World War II. Speaking in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper to be published on Sunday, Glos said growth in Europe's biggest economy was expected to slump by as much as 2.5 percent this year. Previous government estimates had predicted slight but positive growth this year of 0.2 percent. Glos was speaking just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition government approved a stimulus package worth 50 billion euros aimed at softening the blow of the economic downturn. | | | Circuit City to liquidate, affecting 30,000 US employees
US electronics retailer Circuit City has announced plans to liquidate its assets after failing in its efforts to restructure the company. This has left the future of its 30,000-strong workforce in doubt. Circuit City chief executive James Marcum said in a statement that the company had been unable to reach an agreement with its creditors and lenders. The Virginia-based company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings last November. Circuit City's operations in Canada, where it employs about 3,000 people, will not be affected by the US action. | | | Baltic anti-government protests spread to Lithuania
In Lithuania, police have used tear gas and rubber-tipped bullets to disperse anti-government protesters outside of the country's parliament. The interior ministry said 15 people, including four policemen were injured in the clashes. Police said about 7,000 people attended the rally in the capital, Vilnius. The demonstration was called by trade unions to protest against an austerity drive in which the centre-right government is seeking to slash public sector wages by up to 15 percent and raise the country's consumption tax. The rally follows similar demonstrations in neighbouring Latvia earlier in the week. | | | Lufthansa flight attendants reject wage offer
Germany's flag carrier, Lufthansa, could be facing warning strikes by its flight attendants as soon as next week. This, after their union rejected the airline's offer of a 6.1 percent pay rise and a profit-sharing package of up to three-percent. The union is demanding an overall pay rise package of 15 percent. Following a third round of wage negotiations in Frankfurt, a senior union official told reporters that there would be no further talks until Lufthansa came back with an improved offer. | | | | | |  | | |  Up-to-date news at DW-WORLD.DE | | | | | | |  | | | Note
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Russian-Ukrainian Gas Talks End Without Consensus
