US President George W. Bush can look forward to a hearty welcome from his old friend, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Rome. That is not what he should expect in the streets, however, where anti-Bush sentiment over the war in Iraq still lingers.
Anti-war activists and thousands of other demonstrators planned to march through the streets of the Italian capital to protest Bush’s visit, which was to include meetings with Berlusconi and the pope yesterday.
Commercial flights have been banned over Rome during Bush’s two-day stay. Dozens of buses and trams have been rerouted. Thousands of policemen have been deployed to monitor the protests.
Slovenia and Germany, the first two stops on Bush’s trip, were devoid of demonstrators.
That was evidence that trans-Atlantic relations are on the mend, that European leaders have moved beyond their anger over the war. The Rome protests are evidence that the Italian public still opposes the Bush administration.
The 71-year-old media mogul defied domestic opposition and dispatched about 3,000 troops to Iraq after the fall of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Those troops came home, but more than 2,000 Italian troops, however, are deployed as part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.
Italy, along with Germany, France and Spain, have restricted their troops to less dangerous areas in northern Afghanistan.
That has caused a rift because other NATO members are deployed in the more violent regions of the country.
The Italian government is reviewing the restrictions and Berlusconi’s office said the prime minister would talk to Bush about that when they meet.
Berlusconi and Bush also were expected to discuss Italy’s interest in joining with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, that are making a diplomatic push to get Iran to give up what the West believes is an effort to develop nuclear weapons.
Bush was scheduled to meet with the pope today before departing to Paris to continue his farewell European tour.
It will be Bush’s third meeting with Benedict. The two last met in April at the White House in Washington.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS