UN experts met Iraqi leaders for the first time to discuss the chances of holding early elections as Britain's Prince Charles made a surprise visit and Japan expanded its first military deployment to a combat zone since World War II.
In fresh violence, insurgents attacked separate US Army convoys with explosives, killing one soldier and wounding three others, witnesses said. The soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near Mahmudiyah, 32km south of Baghdad, a military spokesman said. No other details were available.
Prince Charles, wearing desert camouflage and a black beret, made a surprise visit to British troops, the first member of the British royal family to go to Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster.
PHOTO: AP
At a former Saddam palace in the southern city of Basra, the prince mingled with about 200 soldiers, shaking hands, sipping tea and praising them for their role in keeping security in southern Iraq.
"This part of the world doesn't have much chance unless their armed force can learn a lot from your experience ... not only in the military but in the hearts and minds," the prince said, according to the British Press Association.
Security was tight for the prince's 5-hour visit. His staff only allowed journalists to report that he'd been to Iraq after he left for Iran -- the first member of a British royal family to visit that country in 33 years.
In southeastern Iraq, a heavily armored convoy of Japanese soldiers arrived as part of Tokyo's first military deployment in a hostile region since 1945.
The ground troops, mostly engineers, lead a deployment that will eventually reach about 800 soldiers in a humanitarian mission to improve water supplies and other infrastructure projects around Samawah.
The UN team, led by veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, sat down with the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to start determining whether legislative elections can be held by June 30, when the Americans plan to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis.
The current US plan is to choose legislators in regional committees, or "caucuses" -- a move opposed by the country's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. If early elections are deemed unfeasible, the UN team will offer alternatives to the American plan.
Failure to find a formula for establishing a new Iraqi government acceptable to al-Sistani and Iraq's other religious and ethnic communities could sabotage US plans for scaling back the US role here at a time when criticism of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy has become an issue in the US presidential election campaign.
After keeping the UN at arm's length in Iraq, the US administration asked for world body help last month to resolve the dispute with al-Sistani and find a way to constitute a new Iraqi government by July 1.
UN and Iraqi officials said little about the substance of the first day's talks. Brahimi, a special adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said after the meeting that the UN would "do everything possible" to help the Iraqi people "regain independence and sovereignty."
However, Iraqi sources said that the initial session was taken up mostly by Governing Council members expressing their views on elections.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS