One soldier was killed and one wounded in a bomb attack in Baghdad yesterday, one day after the US Senate approved President George W. Bush's request for US$87.5 billion to finance Iraq's occupation and reconstruction.
Congress sent Bush the bill, which gives him almost everything he sought to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through much of next year, the day after 16 US soldiers were killed in the worst single attack since the US invasion.
Faced with a mounting military and civilian death toll and stiffening guerrilla resistance, Bush vowed on Monday that the US would not run from its "vital" mission in Iraq.
"The enemy in Iraq believes America will run. That's why they're willing to kill innocent civilians, relief workers, coalition troops. America will never run," Bush said, despite falling approval ratings in the US over the war.
"The mission in Iraq is vital," he added.
Bush's comments were his first since the 16 soldiers were killed when guerrillas shot down their CH-47 Chinook helicopter on Sunday.
A US Army spokeswoman in Baghdad said the nationality of the soldier who was killed in a roadside bomb attack yesterday was not yet known.
The overwhelming majority of troops in the US-led occupation force in and around Baghdad are American.
"We are aware of an incident in the Baghdad area involving an IED [improvised explosive device] attack at 10:10am that killed one soldier and wounded one soldier," the spokeswoman said. She had no more details.
Bush said in a statement that the bill's passage "underscores that America and the world are united to prevail in the central front in the war on terror by helping build a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Iraq."
He said the US was "being tested" by forces who "want America and its coalition partners to run so the terrorists can reclaim control."
Occupation troops face daily attacks in Baghdad and areas to the north and west of the city. The lethal resistance has also forced most foreign aid workers to leave.
Bush blamed the series of attacks on Saddam Hussein holdouts and "foreign terrorists."
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)