 | | | | | | | Newsletter | 29.01.2009, 17:15 UTC | | | Newsline | | | World news: international | | | | | | | | | News | | | | | Current Article | | | | Germany and China to expand economic ties
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have agreed to expand economic ties during a one-day meeting in Berlin. Six agreements were signed by officials and business leaders, including stronger cooperation on climate change as well as business deals for the German companies ThyssenKrupp and Daimler. Merkel also appealed to Wen for China to resume talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. Wen's visit is seen by many in Berlin as a normalisation of relations that were chilled by the chancellor's meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2007. His stop in Germany is the second stage of a European tour will see him travel to EU headquarters in Brussels as well as to Spain and Britain. |  | | US envoy pushes for durable ceasefire in Gaza
The new US envoy to the Middle East has met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the situation in Gaza. Following the meeting in Ramallah, George Mitchell told reporters that a durable ceasefire could only be achieved if illicit weapons smuggling into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was stopped and the border crossings were opened to legal goods. He said that this required a control mechanism that included Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which is rival to Hamas. Mitchell also underlined the determination of the new US administration to push for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is Mitchell's first visit to the region since being appointed Middle East envoy last week. He has already held talks with Egyptian and Israeli leaders and is scheduled to meet with officials in Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. | | | UN urges Sri Lanka warring factions to respect civilian life
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm at the fate up to a quarter of a million people trapped in a warzone in Sri Lanka. Navi Pillay said civilians must urgently be allowed to find safe shelter away from the fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in the northeastern area of Wanni. She also accused the warring factions of committing grave violations. Pillay cited reports from aid agencies on the ground that the rebels had resorted to forced recruitment, including that of children, as well as the use of civilians as human shields. She also condemned the fact that safe zones promised by the government had subsequently been subjected to bombardment, leading to civilian casualties. Over the past two weeks hundreds of civilians have been killed in heavy fighting as government forces intensify their efforts to crush the 25-year-old separatist insurgency of the Tamil Tiger rebels. | | | Mugabe endorses plans for unity government
Zimbabwean state media say President Robert Mugabe's party has endorsed plans for a unity government to be installed by mid-February. The plan was drawn up earlier this week by the Southern African Development Community at a summit in Pretoria. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is to meet on Friday to decide whether to accept the deal which would see its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, become prime minister under Mugabe. Meanwhile the economic and humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe continues to decline. The World Food Programme says about 7 million people will need food aid in the next few months. That's about half the country's population. An ongoing cholera epidemic has killed over 3,000 people and infected more than 57,000 since August. New figures from the United Nations put Zimbabwe's unemployment rate at 94 percent. Zimbabwe also has the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million percent for July of last year. | | | Wen, Putin blame capitalist excesses for economic crisis
The annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos is into its second day. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, opened the conference on Wednesday with keynote speeches that they used to criticise capitalist excesses in the United States, which sparked the current global economic crisis. Wen called for swift action to reform international financial institutions and for a new world order for the global economy. Putin, who said he wasn't actually criticising the United States, noted that just one year ago American officials told delegates in Davos that the fundamentals of the US economy were strong. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to attend the World Economic Forum on Friday. | | | Pirates seize German-owned tanker
A German tanker has been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. A spokesman for the Hamburg-based MP Steamship has confirmed that his company owns the Longchamp, which flies the flag of its registered home port in the Bahamas. The spokesman said the ship was on its way to Asia with a cargo of liquefied petroleum gas. It was waiting to join a convoy under Indian naval protection to continue its journey when it was seized by the pirates. | | | German railway workers hold warning strikes
A series of warning strikes by railway workers has led to the delays and cancellations of passenger trains in Germany. Most of the routes affected were around Munich and Nuremberg in the south of the country. Disruptions at other major rail and commuter hubs, like Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg, were less severe. The Transnet and GDBA unions have since ended the walkout. The unions are seeking a 10 percent pay rise and better working conditions for their 130,000 members. The national rail carrier, Deutsche Bahn, has offered a pay increase of three per cent. | | | German jobless rate surges to 8.3 per cent
German unemployment jumped more than expected this January. Seasonally unadjusted figures released by the Federal Labour Agency show that almost 400,000 more Germans were out of a job this month compared to December. This brings the total number of people looking for a job in Germany to almost 3.5 million. The seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate is up to 8.3 per cent, compared to 7.4 per cent last month. | | | | | |  | | |  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 | | | |
Germany and China Discuss Economy and Tibet
