Tensions between US-led occupation authorities and Iraq's residents came to the fore Sunday as the government in the country's second-largest city was dismissed amid rising popular discontent.
But the top US civilian administrator, Paul Bremer, struck a more hopeful note on a visit to Iraq's only deep-water port at Umm Qasr, where he examined reconstruction efforts, and some public service workers were paid.
Bremer declared Iraq "open for business" as he watched ships unloading food aid just a few days after the lifting of UN sanctions.
"I think this is really a wonderful indication of how things are getting better in Iraq ... It is a sign that Iraq is open for business," he said.
In nearby Basra, British forces announced they would replace an Iraqi city council that had been hailed as a model of post-war cooperation with a committee of technocrats chaired by a British military commander in order to make it non-political.
The decision provoked an angry reaction from the 30-member council, which is headed by a local tribal chief and has laboured to re-establish civic order in the southern metropolis.
And in the northern city of Kirkuk a US commander also risked raising local hackles when he swore in six members of the local council whose nominations had been contested on grounds they were mostly from the majority Kurdish community.
The nomination by US officials of the six councillors -- four Kurds, one Turkmen and one Assyrian, appointed to a council of 30 whose other members were elected -- had brought protests from the minority Arab community.
"Why is the running of the country and the government not transferred to Iraqis? Are they still minors who cannot govern their country?" the pro-Iranian Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, a leading Shiite cleric who returned from exile earlier this month asked at the domed Imam Hussain mosque, one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, paid its first visit to prisoners held by the coalition in the Baghdad region, including many from the most-wanted list of 55 former Iraqi leaders.
French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche claimed that one of Saddam Hussein's cousins, Special Republican Guard chief Maher Sufian al-Tikriti, betrayed the deposed Iraqi leader by ordering his elite forces not to defend Baghdad after making a deal with the US.
The paper quoted an Iraqi source close to Saddam's former regime to say the general, responsible for defending the Iraqi capital, left Baghdad aboard a US military transport plane, bound for a US base outside Iraq.
And Time magazine reported yesterday that one of Saddam's sons had tried to contact US occupation officials in Baghdad through an intermediary to negotiate a safe surrender.
A relative of Saddam had approached an intermediary asking the US if Uday Hussein could "work out something" or "get some kind of immunity."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia