US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Germany tomorrow to start a four-country tour expected to be dogged by questions about reports of secret CIA prison camps and "torture flights."
Rice has promised to provide responses to European countries increasingly concerned that airports on their soil have been used for flights allegedly carrying undeclared detainees in the US-led "war on terror."
The German government said on Friday that it was expecting an explanation from Rice, but not while she is in Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday.
"We are not putting the US government under pressure of time," government spokesman Thomas Steg said. "It does not matter whether it [an explanation] comes on Tuesday or later."
The US this week acknowledged the European concerns, calling them "legitimate questions" that deserved a response.
Germany is home to the largest US airbase in Europe, Ramstein, and reports said as many as 80 flights which were possibly carrying terror suspects landed or took off from airports in the country.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier adopted a cautious approach to the reports, saying he can only deal in facts, not speculation.
The EU has threatened sanctions against any of its member states found to have been operating the secret prisons, or allowing their territory to be used for the transport of the phantom detainees.
The claims have emerged since early last month, when the Washington Post newspaper reported that "black site" prisons were, or had been, set up in eight countries including Thailand, Afghanistan and "several democracies in Eastern Europe" since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
A host of European countries are examining flight reports, including suspect flights landing in or flying over Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
France became the latest country drawn into the controversy when Le Figaro newspaper reported that aircraft hired by the CIA, possibly to transport Muslim prisoners, had made at least two stopovers in the country, in 2002 and this year.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number