Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said yesterday his position on withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq remained firm despite an appeal from US President George W. Bush to stand by the US.
"My position is the same. I have explained it throughout the election campaign," he told Onda Cero radio. "I will listen to Mr. Bush but my position is very clear and very firm."
Zapatero has pledged to withdraw troops from Iraq by July 1 if the UN does not take charge there.
PHOTO: AP
"The occupation is a fiasco. There have been almost more deaths after the war than during the war," he said. "The occupying forces have not allowed the United Nations to take control of the situation."
On Tuesday, Bush called on Spain and other allies in Iraq not to yield to pressure from al-Qaeda by pulling their troops from the coalition occupying the country.
"It's essential that we remain side-by-side with the Iraqi people," Bush said. "Al-Qaeda wants us out of Iraq."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan cautioned Spaniards and others against sending a "terrible message" by letting "terrorists" influence their elections and policies.
The White House said it may seek a new UN resolution before it hands back sovereignty to Iraqis by the end of June to persuade allies such as Spain not to withdraw.
With Europe struggling to digest the consequences of what may be the first al-Qaeda-style attack in the West since the Sept. 11, 2001, strikes, France, Britain and South Korea said they were targets for Islamic militants.
Outgoing Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio summed up global fears at a memorial service on Tuesday in Morocco, home of eight of the main suspects in last Thursday's train bombings that killed 201 people and wounded nearly 1,700.
"We were all in those trains blown apart by hatred," she said. "Those who think they can find a safe haven from terrorism delude themselves."
Spanish media said police were looking for five Moroccan men, part of a group of eight main suspects. Three Moroccan suspects have already been detained.
One of the three detained Moroccans has been identified as Jamal Zougam. Police said bomb survivors had identified him from photos as having been on board one of the trains but they were treating witness reports cautiously.
There were reports Zougam had connections with some of those arrested for last May's bombings in Casablanca that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. In Rabat, Moroccan authorities said no direct links had been established.
In France, a letter sent on Tuesday by a shadowy Islamist group to several newspapers threatened "to plunge France into terror and remorse and spill blood outside its frontiers."
The government confirmed the letter mentioned possible attacks on France and French interests abroad.
The group called itself the Movsar Barayev Commando, an apparent reference to the militant who organized the October 2002 Chechen hostage-taking at a Moscow theater.
In Seoul, South Korea's acting president ordered security to be boosted, saying the country was a major potential terrorism target.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS