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Seven Spanish officers among 11 killed in Iraq
CIA admits lack of specifics on Iraqi weapons EU defence deal: USA to seek assurance Bono blames political glib for HIV deaths |
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Seven Spanish officers among 11 killed in Iraq
Baghdad, November 30 The seven Spanish agents were killed on their way from the capital to the town of Hilla, the coalition’s headquarters for south-central Iraq, where Spain’s 1,300 troops are stationed, the US military said. Their bodies were flown home from Baghdad today via Kuwait along with a wounded officer from Madrid’s national intelligence service, a Kuwait City airport source said. Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo and intelligence head Jorge Dezcallar met up with the Spanish Hercules C-130 flight in Kuwait. A correspondent of a London-based television, who was on the scene of the attack, said he saw a small crowd of Iraqis gathered around the bodies, chanting praise for Saddam Hussein. In a further blow to US efforts to bolster foreign support, two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver were killed on their way to an aid meeting in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit. The attack, the first against Japanese nationals here, came as the two diplomats stopped at a food stall to buy food and drink just 15 km short of the town, which is now a major US base. “The three persons had stopped for food and drink when attackers fired small-calibre weapons at them,” said Col Bill MacDonald, spokesperson for the US Fourth Infantry Division. “The three were taken to a Tikrit hospital,” said MacDonald, shortly before the opening of the aid conference at the division’s fortified headquarters compound in the town. Their bodies were flown from Tikrit to the embassy in Baghdad today. It was not clear why the diplomats had taken the risk of stopping in an area known to be hostile to the coalition. In a further attack yesterday, in the far west of Iraq near the Syrian border, two US soldiers were killed and a third wounded when their convoy came under rocket-propelled and small arms fire on the main highway through the Euphrates valley.
— AFP |
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CIA admits lack of specifics on Iraqi weapons
Washington, November 30 An explanation issued over the weekend by veteran CIA analyst Stuart Cohen, who was in charge of putting together the 2002 intelligence estimate and currently serves as vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council, made clear the case against Iraq, as presented by the CIA behind closed doors, was much less clear-cut and more nuanced.
— AFP |
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EU defence deal: USA to seek assurance
Brussels, November 30 Diplomats said it was not yet clear if the USA would force a showdown over the EU’s agreement to establish an independent military planning cell or whether it would accept the word of its closest European ally Britain that NATO is safe. Still, the breakthrough on defence arrangements for an enlarged EU — achieved by foreign ministers in Naples — may well eclipse debates at NATO in Brussels on military capability and on how to expand the alliance’s Afghanistan peacekeeping mission beyond Kabul. “I hope for the Americans’ sake that they don’t play it all icy because they would be putting themselves in self-fulfilling prophecy mode,” said Francois Heisbourg, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research. “If you say you don’t trust the European allies — particularly Britain, after all it has done in Iraq — you will probably end up not being able to trust them,” he said. After providing the NATO muscle to guard western Europe in the Cold War, Washington is annoyed by Europeans’ reluctance to spend more on NATO forces and suspects notably France of pushing a separate EU defence pact as a way to curb US influence. Paris says it wants to complement NATO, not set up a rival. — Reuters
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Bono blames political glib for HIV deaths
Durban, November 30 The singer, who was one of several top international and South African musicians at a musical concert hosted by former South African President Nelson Mandela yesterday to raise funds for the fight against the disease, said "it is absolutely unacceptable on any level that we have drugs in the USA and Europe that cost nothing to produce but yet hundreds of thousands of people are dying". "History will judge us harshly but God will be worse," Bono said. More than five million people are afflicted with the disease in South Africa alone while more than 30 million are affected worldwide.
— PTI |
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Vashi among favourites for Miss World 2003 Beijing, November 30 Besides 22-year-old Vashi, beauties from China, Ireland, Norway, Venezuela and Brazil are also tipped to win the coveted title, according to readabet.com website. Another website global beauties. com has included Vashi among the top 12 hopefuls out of 106 at the competition. An article on the pageant on Readabet.com noted that Miss India has become Miss world four times in the past 10 years, while no one else has won it more than once in this period. It also points out that Vashi has come through what is “the toughest national contest on the planet”. “With the record of her country it is perhaps not surprising that the best odds to be found are 16/1,” it said. “The Indian entrant will always be in with a chance but could they really win it for the fifth time this decade?” the website article wondered. Meanwhile, according to the website of the beauty pageant, Miss Ireland, Rosanna Davison was named Miss World beach beauty 2003 which was held on Friday in Sanya.
— PTI |
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World renowned singer Bono has blamed "political grandstanding" for the deaths of millions of people from AIDS.
"AIDS is a medical problem, but political grandstanding is killing people", Bono, part of the U2 band, said while visiting an AIDS orphanage in the black township of Khyalitsha in Cape Town.
