US President George W. Bush can look forward to a hearty welcome from his old friend, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Rome. That is not what he should expect in the streets, however, where anti-Bush sentiment over the war in Iraq still lingers.
Anti-war activists and thousands of other demonstrators planned to march through the streets of the Italian capital to protest Bush’s visit, which was to include meetings with Berlusconi and the pope yesterday.
Commercial flights have been banned over Rome during Bush’s two-day stay. Dozens of buses and trams have been rerouted. Thousands of policemen have been deployed to monitor the protests.
Slovenia and Germany, the first two stops on Bush’s trip, were devoid of demonstrators.
That was evidence that trans-Atlantic relations are on the mend, that European leaders have moved beyond their anger over the war. The Rome protests are evidence that the Italian public still opposes the Bush administration.
The 71-year-old media mogul defied domestic opposition and dispatched about 3,000 troops to Iraq after the fall of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Those troops came home, but more than 2,000 Italian troops, however, are deployed as part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.
Italy, along with Germany, France and Spain, have restricted their troops to less dangerous areas in northern Afghanistan.
That has caused a rift because other NATO members are deployed in the more violent regions of the country.
The Italian government is reviewing the restrictions and Berlusconi’s office said the prime minister would talk to Bush about that when they meet.
Berlusconi and Bush also were expected to discuss Italy’s interest in joining with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, that are making a diplomatic push to get Iran to give up what the West believes is an effort to develop nuclear weapons.
Bush was scheduled to meet with the pope today before departing to Paris to continue his farewell European tour.
It will be Bush’s third meeting with Benedict. The two last met in April at the White House in Washington.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home