Iraqi militants took six foreign truckers hostage Wednesday and said one would be beheaded every three days if their employer doesn't leave the country. The six hostages -- two from Kenya, three from India and one from Egypt - were shown with three masked gunmen in a video aired on the Arabic-language network al Arabiya.
A spokesman for the group calling itself Black Flags ordered the company or countries to pull their personnel from Iraq. Kenya, India and Egypt do not have troops in Iraq. The six hostages work for a Kuwaiti trucking company. The militants said one hostage will be beheaded every 72 hours -- the first on Saturday -- if the demands are not met. In other developments, a U.S. army spokesman said an American soldier was killed and six others were wounded Wednesday in a bomb explosion in Iraq. A military vehicle was also destroyed in the blast, which occurred when a roadside bomb hit a U.S. patrol in the area of al-Dalouiya, 50 miles north of Baghdad.
Thousands of people have been paying their respects to Ronald Reagan as the former US president's body lies in state in southern California. Reagan's coffin will remain in the presidential library in Simi Valley, near Los Angeles, before being taken to Washington late on Tuesday. Mourners have left tokens, ranging from US flags to jelly beans, which were a favourite of the much loved leader.
The death continues to prompt reaction, from tributes to denunciations. At the library, tearful mourner Magda Lopez, 60, said it was "almost like losing your own father". Another, unnamed, mourner from Santa Barbara told AP news agency that Reagan had been a "down-to-earth man". "I could understand him," she said. "I wish those days would come back." Reagan died in Los Angeles on Saturday at the age of 93 after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease, with his wife Nancy by his side. Prayers and tears
Mourners filed past the coffin through the night and officials estimate that as many as 50,000 may appear before the body's departure to Washington on Tuesday evening local time.
RONALD REAGAN
1911: Born in Tampico, Illinois
1937: Wins Hollywood contract
1966-74: Serves as governor of California
1981-89: Serves as 40th president of the US
Mar 1981: Survives an assassination attempt
1994: Reveals he has Alzheimer's Disease
A steady stream of everyday Americans have been making the journey up the steep hillside that leads to Reagan's official library, where his body rests in the main lobby, the BBC's Michael Buchanan reports. They weep and pray and salute as they circle the flag-draped mahogany casket, silently expressing signs of love, gratitude and admiration for the former president, he says.
Our correspondent notes that, amid the sorrow and sympathy, it is easy to forget that Ronald Reagan was a controversial political figure. Many of his White House policies were bitterly opposed by the Democrats. But in a sign of how affection for Reagan has transcended partisan politics, the party's presumptive nominee for this year's White House race, John Kerry, is expected to pay his respects later on Tuesday by visiting the Reagan library.
'Dangerous' leader The BBC's Pentagon correspondent, Nick Childs, notes that the US armed forces will be rendering full honours at Friday's state funeral to a former commander-in-chief to whom they owe a considerable debt. Much current US conventional firepower was developed during the Reagan years, including the B2 stealth bomber and cruise missiles. The communist government in Cuba, for decades the object of punishing US sanctions, has condemned Reagan even in death as "the destroyer of policies of detente". "He who never should have been born has died," a state radio commentary said. In Europe, The Irish Times newspaper recalled Reagan's "dangerous ratcheting up of military tension in Europe, subversion of change in Central America, growing support for expansionist Israeli policies in the Middle East and backing for Iraq in its war against Iran". UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Reagan would be "remembered for his leadership and resolve during a period of momentous change in world affairs" but also for the "warmth, grace and humour with which he conducted affairs of state".
Monday, May 10, 2004 at 05:00 JST
JOHANNESBURG � South African pop star Brenda Fassie, who died Sunday from a cardiac arrest at age 39, was a daring and brash singer known as much for her energetic onstage performances as for her colorful life away from the microphone.
Fassie, adored by millions throughout South Africa and beyond, was nicknamed the "Madonna of the townships," in allusion to the equally controversial and creative American singer. Born in 1964 in the sprawling township of Langa, outside Cape Town, Fassie moved to Johannesburg in her teens where a stand-in gig launched her singing career, turning the mercurial singer into a pop icon for millions of fans. But as much as her voice, described as "power-packed, versatile and gutsy" did for her singing career, so did the controversy surrounding her antics on and off the stage, making her a regular target for tabloid fodder in South Africa's Sunday papers.
"I'm a shocker. I like to create controversy. It's my trademark," she once said in an interview. The tabloids devoted reams to following her every move � "Caught in the act!" read one recent headline, which speculated on Fassie's new lover, a man half her age. Fassie was a self-confessed bisexual, whose woman lover, Poppie Sihlahla, died of a drug overdose in 1994. "Kadhafi woos bad girl Brenda" read another in 2000 after a meeting between the pop diva and Libyan leader Moammer Kadhafi, after which Fassie reportedly said: "I knew he was going to be at the show, but I didn't think he would be crazy about me."
Her penchant for shocking audiences reached new heights in 2001 while performing in a club in Washington, DC, where her breasts popped out of her tight-fitting costume. "The audience gasped, but Fassie unabashedly grabbed her bare bosom and thrust it at the crowd," Time magazine said of the show. "This," she proclaimed, "is Africa!" Despite her bad-girl image and sometimes eye-popping behavior, Fassie's popularity remained cemented firmly within South African pop culture. On April 26, she suffered cardiac arrest following an asthma attack and slipped into a coma, from which she never recovered. While in hospital, she was visited by former and current presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, as well as several of her musical contemporaries, a testament to Fassie's broad draw among South Africans. But the singer with the coy smile and the affectionate nickname of Ma-brr really just desired one thing, as she once said. "I wanna be loved. I just wanna be loved."
ISLAMABAD, April 20 ) � The Pakistani Foreign Ministry and political parties joined hands in blasting Israel over its cold blooded murder of Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Abdelaziz Rantissi The 56-year-old Rantissi was assassinated late Saturday, April 17, in an Israeli air strike that also killed at least two other Palestinians. The seven party alliance Mutahidda Majles e Amal (MMA) condemned the extra-judicial execution and urged the Muslim world to rise to the responsibility and take the Israeli regime to task
"If the OIC [Organization of Islamic Conference] cannot condemn and take effective action to check this Israeli and Anglo-American terrorism against the people of Palestine at such a crucial time as the present one, I do not know when their conscience would awaken and when they would show loyalty to Muslims and their aspirations," Professor Khurshid Ahmed, leader of MMA, said in a statement issued Monday, April 19. "The shameful endorsement by [U.S.] President [George] Bush and [British] Prime Minister Tony Blair of [Israeli Premier] Ariel Sharon�s terrorist plan to annex more than half of the West Bank and deny the Palestinians their right to return to their homeland is the worst form of legitimizing imperialism and terrorism," he said
Bush triggered Arab wrath by saying Palestinian refugees could not return to land lost in 1948 and then exchanged with Sharon letters cementing his position, in what is dubbed as a �Bushfour Promise�. The United Nations and the European Union immediately rebuked the Bush�s policy shift, which completely ignored dozens of U.N. resolutions in that regard The MMA warned the scheme "is tantamount to theft of Palestinian land by the Israeli colonial settlers and an end to the U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 and whatever peace plan pursued after that Professor Khurshid regretted that while Bush and Blair have endorsed and tried to legitimize this usurpation, occupation and terrorism, the entire Arab and Islamic world is not acting to counter this heinous crime against the innocent people of Palestine Jamaat e Islami Pakistan attacked United Nations for its pro-Israeli policies and urged it to take steps to stop Israel from terrorizing the Palestinian people
U.S. Overbearing "The increasing terror activities by Israel were a big slap on the face of the United Nations while an evidence of the U.S. overbearing. Israeli activities have become a threat for the global peace," said Liaquat Baloch, vice chief of the party In a statement, he said that if any foreign journalist was killed in a Muslim country, the U.S. would make hue and cry while it did not even condemn Israel for targeting a recognized freedom fighter movement He said that the Palestine liberation struggle could not be stopped through these killings and terror activities which would rather provoke bloodshed and unrest in the entire Middle East Chief of main Shiite party, Millat-e-Jafaria , Allama Sajid Naqvi, said Israel was able to pursue its aggressive policies against Palestinians with the support of the U.S.
In a statement, he branded the assassination of Rantissi as "an ugly example of Israeli state terrorism Sajid Naqvi said that the unarmed innocent people were being slaughtered in Iraq and Palestine in bloody attacks "It is high time for the Muslim Ummah to take cognizance to this savagery," he added. Bush�s statements gave Israel a green light to massacre innocent Palestinians, Sajid Naqvi added. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan had called on the international community to intervene to stop Israel�s "cycle of violence". "Pakistan condemns the killing. Such arbitrary and extrajudicial killings contravene international law and are a bane of the efforts aimed at fostering peace and security in Middle East, with the ultimate objective of creating a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state, " he said in a statement
By Noelle Straub
Wednesday, April 7, 2004
WASHINGTON - The nation will tune in tomorrow to watch national security adviser Condoleezza Rice defend President Bush [related, bio] against charges he ignored the urgent threat of al-Qaeda when she testifies before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.
�����For 2 1/2 hours, Rice will be grilled by the 10 members of the independent commission, many of whom have said publicly they think the Sept. 11 attacks could have been prevented. �����In a sign of the high stakes, all three TV networks will broadcast her testimony live. �����She will be pressed on accusations by former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke that Bush failed to make al-Qaeda and terrorism a top priority. �����Commission Chairman Thomas Kean said the panel will ask Rice about statements she's made in media interviews contradicting some testimony Clarke gave under oath.
�����He added that the questions will range from the earliest days of the Bush administration to how the war on terrorism is being managed today. �����``We want to hear from Dr. Rice about the development of policy in the first eight months of the Bush administration to the kind of threats and dangers that were apparent to her before 9/11,'' Kean said. ``We want to talk about the day of, and the immediate response of the White House.''
�����Rice's appearance comes after Bush reversed himself after weeks of refusals and finally allowed her to testify publicly. She already has testified privately, but before Clarke's remarks slamming Bush on his signature issue. �����Rice has a reputation for grace under fire, and Bush expressed confidence in her. �����``She'll be great,'' he said. ``She's a very smart, capable person who knows exactly what took place, and will lay out the facts.''
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