Three US soldiers were killed in separate attacks around Iraq, while US overseer Paul Bremer warned that he could veto the country's temporary constitution if it did not fit the US vision of democracy.
Capping a bloody day for the coalition, a US soldier was killed and another wounded late Monday afternoon when a bomb exploded as their convoy passed along on a road near Tall Afar in northern Iraq.
The convoy then came under fire, but there were no further casualties, the military said.
Earlier Monday two US soldiers were killed and five others wounded in separate roadside bomb blasts within an hour of each other in Baghdad and the northeastern city of Baquba.
According to Pentagon figures, attacks by insurgents have claimed the lives of 261 US soldiers since US President George W. Bush declared major combat over in Iraq on May 1.
Meanwhile, US civil administrator Paul Bremer signaled he was willing to use the occupation's veto if the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council drafted a temporary constitution that challenged the spirit of Western-style democracy.
"The Transition Administrative law will establish equal rights. The text of the current draft established Islam as the state religion, but says it will be a source of inspiration for law," Bremer said during a tour of a women's center on Monday in Karbala.
He vowed that the new law would protect civil liberties according to the agreement he reached with the Governing Council last November that set June 30 as the final day of the US-led occupation.
Meanwhile, the coalition's deputy operations chief, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said that a crude bomb exploded at a school in a Shiite district of Baghdad, killing two children and wounding four others.
A rebel group claiming to represent Islamist militants in the restive town of Fallujah, meanwhile, denied any involvement in a raid that killed 23 policemen on Saturday and called for a halt to all attacks on Iraqi security forces.
In Baghdad, China's first delegation of diplomats since the US-led invasion arrived on Monday to prepare for the re-opening of the Chinese embassy.
The 13-member delegation is headed by charge d'affaires Sun Bigan and comprises diplomats from the commerce and foreign ministries and six armed Chinese policemen.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS