New protests by Iraqi journalists greeted UN arms experts yesterday, the 50th day of inspections, as the US deployed more troops to the Gulf, fueling anti-war demonstrations across the globe.
However, rumors that President Saddam Hussein might go into exile were roundly dismissed by his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Maji.
"These are stupidities ... and one of the methods of psychological warfare against Iraq," said Majid, a member of Iraq's decision-making Revolution Command Council.
Arab diplomats were quoted earlier this week as saying Turkey was working on an exile plan with several Arab states.
Majid, who spoke to al-Jazeera television from Damascus, was to have visited Egypt to deliver a message to President Hosni Mubarak, but the trip has been postponed.
Syria, along with other neighbors of Iraq and Egypt, is trying to find a formula acceptable to both Washington and Baghdad to head off a US-led war.
Turkey has invited Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran to a summit to save Iraq.
In Baghdad, several hundred angry Iraqi journalists blocked the exit gate from the inspectors' headquarters.
Iraqi security forces kept control, but UN vehicles had to go out through an entry gate, edging their way through the crowd, fists raised, shouting "Down Down Bush."
The journalists' union, headed by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, staged a first demonstration on Friday to commemorate the outbreak of the Gulf War on Jan. 17, 1991.
Meanwhile, a UN team returned to visit Baghdad University, while more inspectors entered a rocket factory south of the capital.
In Japan, thousands of people took to the streets yesterday in the first of a series of weekend rallies worldwide against war.
More than 4,000 people demonstrated in Tokyo, in the biggest of about 10 rallies held across the nation.
Demonstrations were also expected in the US and Latin America, western Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
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China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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