Iraqis carry an injured employee at Baghdad's al-Salhiya communications centre after it was hit by a missile during a coalition air raid yesterday.Agence

Baghdad rocked by more blasts on 12th day of war

Two large blasts rocked central Baghdad early on Monday as US and British warplanes kept up a fierce barrage on the Iraqi capital.

Washington too optimistic entering Iraq war: poll

More than half of Americans believe the US government was too optimistic in its assessments of the probable course of the war in Iraq, and one in three would not support the war if more than 500 US troops were to die, according to a poll released early on Monday (HK time).

Casualty toll may be high in battle for Baghdad

The defences of Baghdad do not look much: sandbagged emplacements outside government offices, trenches in parks and palm groves, ditches of blazing oil belching out smoke to interfere with the US and British laser-guided bombs. Six-lane motorways ideal for fast-moving armour snake into the city.

Iraqi suicide bomber offers up a prayer before dying

"After he kissed a copy of the Koran, he got into his booby-trapped car and went to an area where enemy armoured cars and tanks were gathered on the fringes of Najaf and turned his pure body and explosives-laden car into a rocket and blew himself up."

Rumsfeld's strategy is questioned

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's influence in crafting the plan for the Iraq war is facing scrutiny as it becomes apparent the campaign will not be as quick or easy as some American leaders had predicted.

Death and uncertainty put a family's faith to the test

When Americans Jane and Athos Riley heard that their son had been taken prisoner in Iraq, they thought things couldn't get much worse. Then their daughter died.

Father cheers attack on radical Islamists

Nabi Aga sheds no tears at the thought that US special forces are closing in on the mountain hideout of his youngest son and his fellow radical Islamists.

Hundreds turn out at China's first public protests

China allowed its first public protests against the war in Iraq yesterday as hundreds of people demonstrated at several different locations.

Posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2003 NOTEBOOK

POWs from first Gulf War sought

ORLANDO, Fla. - Specially trained U.S. forces behind enemy lines in Iraq are searching for evidence of allied prisoners of war, including Navy pilot Capt. Scott Speicher, whose F/A-18 fighter jet went down in the opening hours of the Persian Gulf War 12 years ago.

Speicher, initially thought killed in action Jan. 17, 1991, reportedly was seen alive on several recent occasions, including early this month by an informant near Baghdad, according to Amy Waters Yarsinske, a former U.S. Naval Reserve intelligence officer and expert on POWs and those missing in action. Lt. Cmdr. James Brooks noted that special military units are in Iraq on a variety of missions, including searching for the Jacksonville, Fla., pilot and father of two. -- ORLANDO SENTINEL

Pope pleads for religious harmony

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II urged the faithful Saturday not to allow the Iraq conflict to stir up hatred between Christians and Muslims, saying that would transform the war into a "religious catastrophe."The pontiff, who opposes the war, made the comments to bishops from Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country with a small Christian community.

"War must never be allowed to divide world religions," he said. "I encourage you to take this unsettling moment as an occasion to work together, as brothers committed to peace ...

"Let us not permit a human tragedy also to become a religious catastrophe." -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Australia increases assistance for Iraq

CANBERRA, Australia -- Amid warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis, Australia announced Saturday it will significantly increase its aid to Iraq.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government will donate $50 million to a U.N. appeal for Iraq, adding to the $10.5 million Australia has already sent through U.N. agencies and aid groups. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Grenade suspect returned to U.S.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- A U.S. soldier suspected of a deadly grenade attack on his own comrades in the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait is back in the United States, Army officials said Saturday. Hasan Akbar, 32, arrived in the United States on Friday.The Army had previously said Akbar's first name was Asan, though family members had insisted all along that he spelled it Hasan.

The statement did not indicate where Akbar was being held, or whether he had returned to Fort Campbell Akbar is the only person being held in the grenade attack that killed two U.S. officers and wounded 14 soldiers March 23. A military judge found probable cause to prosecute Akbar for the attack, the Army said. Akbar still has not been formally charged with any offense. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Peace rallies held around the globe

BERLIN -- Antiwar demonstrators turned out in the thousands from South Korea to Chile on Saturday, spattering streets with paint, jeering outside U.S. embassies and, in one case, forming a 31-mile human chain.

More than 100,000 people protested in strongly antiwar Germany, half of them at a rally in Berlin.

In the Arab world, 10,000 turned out at a rally organized by Egypt's ruling party in Port Said, and in Amman, Jordan, more than 3,000 people demanded the government expel U.S. troops.

Demonstrations also took place in Italy, Greece, Bangladesh, Malaysia, South Korea, Great Britain, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ireland, Chile and Venezuela. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Geir Moulson ASSOCIATED PRESS 3:03 p.m., March 29, 2003

BERLIN – Anti-war demonstrators turned out in the thousands Saturday from South Korea to Chile, spattering streets with paint, jeering outside U.S. embassies and in one case forming a 31-mile human chain.

More than 100,000 people protested in strongly anti-war Germany, half of them at a rally in Berlin, where banners read "Stop America's Terror." About 30,000 people held hands along the 31 miles between the northwestern cities of Muenster and Osnabrueck – a route used by negotiators who brought the Thirty Years War to an end in 1648.   Hundreds of women, some carrying placards declaring "the United States and Britain are the axis of evil," protested in San'a, Yemen. Elsewhere in the Arab world, 10,000 turned out at a rally organized by Egypt's ruling party in Port Said, and in Amman, Jordan, more than 3,000 people demanded that the kingdom expel U.S. troops.

In Stuttgart, Germany, about 6,000 protesters encircled the U.S. military's European Command, releasing blue balloons adorned with white doves as they joined hands to form a chain.

Farther north, police detained 100 demonstrators at a sit-in outside Rhine-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, a key transit point for U.S. military traffic to the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.

Protesters in Rome hung black mourning banners from the city's bridges. At Vicenza, in northeastern Italy, demonstrators threw red paint and flares at the walls of a U.S. military base where hundreds of paratroopers now in northern Iraq had been based.

In Athens, Greece, 15,000 people chanting "We'll stop the war" marched to the U.S. Embassy. Protesters splashed red paint on the road outside the building and on the windows of a McDonald's restaurant.

Thousands in Canada and the United States rallied in support of the war.

About 4,000 Canadians angered by Prime Minister Jean Chretien's decision not to support a war without United Nations approval marched in front of the Parliament building in Ottawa, waving flags of the U.S. and allies Britain and Australia.

In the United States, up to 12,000 flag-waving war supporters packed the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg. A rally in Cape Cod, Mass., supporting U.S. troops drew about 2,000 and in Miami, thousands of Cuban exiles and others marched to support the military and to oppose opening relations with communist Cuba.

In New York City, several hundred staged a Times Square anti-war rally while throwing in a wide array of other causes – from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to abortion rights.

Barbed-wire roadblocks and riot police kept thousands of Bangladeshi protesters away from the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka. The demonstrators burned a U.S. flag and an effigy of President Bush.

Police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, used tear gas to break up a protest outside the Australian Embassy, whose country has about 2,000 soldiers in the coalition.

Students in South Korea's capital, Seoul, scuffled with riot police as thousands marched down half of an eight-lane boulevard chanting "Stop the bombing! Stop the killing!"

The mood was more subdued in Britain, where public sentiment had been strongly against the government's participation in the U.S.-led coalition before the outbreak of fighting but appears to be swinging. A MORI poll released Friday put Prime Minister Tony Blair's popularity rating at its highest level in nine months.

Turnout out at a series of British rallies was a tiny fraction of protests before the war. Still, activists vowed to keep marching to demand Blair pull British troops out of Iraq.

"We didn't stop the war starting, but we can still stop its progress. I think this is going to become the next Vietnam," said Rebecca Mordan, 26, an actress who took part in a rally of about 100 people in London.

Poland, which committed up to 200 soldiers to the war, saw its largest demonstration yet. Two thousand mostly young people marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, banging drums and chanting "No blood for oil." They called President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Leszek Miller "Bush's two dogs."

In Hungary, another nation whose government has supported the war, about 2,000 people whistled and jeered as they marched past the U.S. and British embassies in Budapest on their way to parliament.

A crowd estimated at 6,000 people demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

More than 10,000 people marched in Paris, watched by 5,000 police. The demonstration turned violent when about 20 youths attacked a couple angry about protesters carrying posters of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Both were treated for bruises by rescue workers.

Around 8,000 people marched in Dublin to criticize the Irish government's decision to let U.S. forces bound for Iraq use the country's Shannon Airport for refueling and stopovers.

In Santiago, Chile, more than 3,000 people staged a peaceful march, and in Caracas, Venezuela, about 100 people called for an end to the war.

"The war is illegal," said Jose Luis Lucena, 24, a student in Caracas. "Those wretched gringos decided to leapfrog the U.N.'s authority. The world told them no and they didn't listen. I hope they pay dearly."

<a href=www.nytimes.com>Web March 30, 2003 By THE NEW YORK TIMES

More than a week and a half after the fighting in Iraq began, newspaper editorials around the world are as bitterly divided about the wisdom of the war as ever.

The following excerpts of editorial commentary — ranging from People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, to El Espectador of Colombia — are by turns damning and supportive of the United States and its role in the conflict.

The foreign-language editorials were translated by The New York Times or the BBC World Monitoring Service. Headlines were edited, but kept as close to the originals as possible.

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan)

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had every reason to back the United States-led action in Iraq in that his decision reflected his desire to defend national interests during the crisis. The latest survey indicates that the majority of the public feels that the prime minister made the right decision.

Koizumi must continue to steadfastly support the United States in dealing with the current crisis. If necessary, he should directly appeal to the public for support.

In urging the public to support his decision, the prime minister has cited two reasons —Iraq's repeated violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring the country to scrap its weapons of mass destruction, and the significance of the Japan-U.S. alliance.

Over the past 13 years, Iraq has contravened 17 Security Council resolutions. The prime minister is correct in insisting that Iraq has disregarded, slighted and ridiculed the U.N. resolutions.

The eventual reply given to Iraq by the United States was use of force. Japan's support for the United States-led military action was the only viable choice, given Tokyo's alliance with Washington, which must fulfill a grave obligation to defend this country under the bilateral security pact.   March 25

People's Daily (China) The Pitfalls of Making A Pre-emptive Strike

The mutation of "pre-emptive strike" from a strategy to a reality is a tragedy for America and a misfortune for the world. In the fall and winter of 2001, America fought one anti-terrorist war — the Afghan War. In this assymetrical war, America easily overthrew the Taliban regime. As a result, it became smug and cocky and its ego swelled, and this was manifested in its moral conceitedness and militaristic tendencies...

After 9/11, a country capable of introspection should have examined its policies towards the Third World; it should have questioned its conscience: in international economic life, did it help the poor and suffering? Did it try its best to narrow the gap between North and South? Did it devote enough funds to assistance and development policy? Did it treat others equally in international life, and did it respect other religions and civilizations apart from Christianity? In the American intellectual community, and among thoughtful figures in the Republican and Democratic parties, these questions were considered, but these reflections never became a part of mainstream views, and they weren't strong enough to influence policy. On the contrary, America proclaimed itself to be a benign empire — a savior who decides who it wants to save and who it wants to punish. In international relations it adheres to a simplistic moral dualism. Wielding its extraordinary military strength, it believes it has the right to launch decapitation strikes against the leaders of rogue nations. Urged on by hawks, the American war chariot is carrying out a 21st century rampage.   March 29

Tishrin (Syria) The Responsibility Of Stopping Aggression

The scenes of round-the-clock fierce and devastating bombardment of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities and of human beings, installations and heritage draw a clear and accurate picture. The picture is that of a world in which the United States has abandoned international legitimacy and violated and undermined the principles and resolutions of the United Nations. The scenes of savage bombardment also reflect the real motives of the United States designs against Iraq and all the Arab countries. The United States wants to terrorize the people, control their wealth, and directly occupy their land in line with the growing Zionist schemes and their fatal perils on Arab identity, geography, and history.

In light of the course of events of this aggression on the Iraqi people and on their land, glorious history and resources it can be said that the current United States administration has fallen in the Zionist swamp. It has turned into the spearhead for colonialist projects that have been on the backburner for more than 100 years. The various former United States administrations were aware of the perils inherent in such projects so they disregarded them or refrained from implementing them. This was the case until this administration came to power through a suspicious judicial decision that raises thousands of questions. The situation changed after this administration came to power. The Zionist files and schemes were dusted and put in the offices of the White House that eventually found itself — in view of its structure and the mentality of those in charge — wallowing in the mud of these files and schemes...

It is worth noting here that what is being said about smart bombs that hit their targets accurately is nothing but a big lie. The best proof is the painful scenes that are unfolding in Baghdad. Thus, the United Nations is called upon to take serious action to restore balance to this world that is out of balance on the security and political levels by stopping the aggressive war on Iraq.   March 23

The Independent (Britain) A Severe Political Price To Pay If the ... Costs Of the Conflict Mount

A cakewalk was originally an African-American dance competition featuring a laid-back walking style, with a cake as the prize. Later it came to mean any easy task. Last week it was prominent in the lexicon of this war. This week it has been replaced by a less optimistic, if no less flippant, phrase, "blue-collar warfare", meaning the long, hard and dangerous slog of street-by-street fighting.

The implications of a long war are serious. The case for military action was sold with the implication that it would be short and relatively bloodless. Even on that basis, George Bush and his award-winning salesman Tony Blair could not persuade world opinion that it was necessary...

This newspaper opposed the decision to go to war, not from pacifism but because the potential benefits of removing a dictator and neutralising a theoretical risk of his arming terrorists were outweighed by the horrendous costs of war. We were prepared to accept that, had Saddam been assassinated in the first, opportunistic bombing raid and his subordinates come out with their hands up, the costs and benefits would have been more balanced. Now, however, those costs seem heavier than ever.

This is not simply a matter of the immediate human cost in death, injury, grief and fear. That will be multiplied by an unknown factor as it is translated into anti-American sentiment throughout other Arab and Muslim countries. In Iraq, meanwhile, it is becoming clearer that the feelings of the people towards their self-appointed liberators are more ambivalent than was allowed for in the world-view of the American right. That means the post-war situation in Iraq will be less tractable, and more expensive, than expected.   March 29

El Espectador (Colombia) Colombia Is Aligned

It is popular to say that the Colombian government was wrong to support the United States in its military attack on Iraq. It is true that both Mexico and Chile denied their support and expressed their belief in the need to give the U.N. inspectors in Baghdad more time. However, we believe that President Uribe made a practical decision that responds to the country's strategic interests.

Colombia, led by the government and its president, is currently waging a frontal attack on terrorism. Álvaro Uribe was elected by the majority of Colombians for this purpose based on the fundamental promise to promote a democratic security policy...

It would have been unusual to have taken an opposing position. Uribe did what he had to do in an international scene in which the global fight against terrorism and its thousand heads has become a world priority. Colombia came down on the right side: with the United States, Great Britain and Spain, which are the countries that, with deeds and not just words, are helping to fight terrorism. This is not always true of countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany or France.

It was the late Francisco Fernández Ordóñez, a Spanish foreign relations minister, who said that intellectuals believed that governments made decisions that are either good or bad. "They do not know," he said during an interview before his death, "that they actually make decisions between what is bad and what is worse." President Uribe has taken a bad decision — to support this absurd and cruel war — over one that would have been worse. Not to offer our solidarity to the United States at this point would have been a mistake, because today Colombia has in that nation its strongest ally in the fight against terrorism and drugs.   March 23

The Toronto Star (Canada) Canada Is Helping Ally, the United States

Canada's decision not to attack Iraq without U.N. approval is a watershed in our relations with allies, and a healthy assertion of independence. It repudiates "pre-emptive" war, and recommits us to the U.N.'s consensual approach to threats to peace. Some 70 percent of us support it.

Bush's war is unwise, ill-timed and reckless. It is damaging America's image, straining alliances and fanning fanaticism. The U.N. could have disarmed Saddam within months, without loss of life. Instead, we have a "pre-emptive" attack of dubious lawfulness, and an anarchic precedent.

Moreover, few believe ousting Saddam will put Al Qaeda out of business. If anything, a United States occupation of Iraq will create new recruits.

These are all good reasons for saying No to this war, and focusing on fighting terror. There is nothing anti-American or pro-Saddam about it.   March 26

The Mail & Guardian (South Africa) Enemies of Decency

In these times of helplessness, there are only so many words one can say about the wretched war being fought in the desert of Iraq and there only so many slogans that can be chanted in opposition to it.

But so horrendous is the catastrophe unfolding before us that we are all compelled to continue to utter our howls of outrage and persist with our loud condemnation, the only weapons the rest of us can use against the power of the so-called allied forces...

On other pages of this newspaper are tales of the misery that is unfolding in Iraq and reports about the casualties that will not be tabulated when the war is finally over: the truth, media ethics, international law and the national pride of many ordinary Americans who want nothing to do with the war but are now seen by the rest of the world as enemies of peace and decency.

There are tales of how the United States government, with the help of nauseatingly pliant media, has tried to sanitize its excesses by using techniques designed to give the whole expedition a Hollywood feel.

But war is war and no amount of perfumery will remove its stink. This war, in particular, has a particularly pungent stench about it. Whereas the Pentagon strategists had hoped to use the immediacy of live television to score psychological victories it has, instead, increased the anger of all decent human beings. This war has made us sick. That is why the opponents of the war should not now be throwing their hands in the air in proclamation of defeat.

The overwhelming disgust registered by millions around the world and the defiant stance taken by certain members of the G8 should present a ray of opportunity for progressive-minded people. They should continue to agitate against the war, but the debate about the post-war world order should start now.

When Bush and the hard men of the Pentagon proclaim victory over Saddam, they must know it is a hollow victory because they will have made enemies of all the world's decent people.   March 28

<a href=www.nzherald.co.nz>web30.03.2003 12.10pm

BOSTON - Tens of thousands of people have marched through the streets of Boston to protest the war in Iraq, the latest in a wave of peace demonstrations around the globe.

In what officials and historians said was the biggest protest in Boston in at least 30 years, thousands chanted "This is what democracy looks like" as they paraded through the elegant streets of America's education capital on Saturday (Sunday NZT).

The diverse crowd included not just students and faculty from New England college campuses but families and retired people - many of whom said the US-led war had triggered a political awakening in their souls.

"This war spoke to me as being wrong, unjust, immoral and certainly not what American values are all about," said Susan Hughes, a former member of President George W. Bush's Republican Party.

"Bush started this war to depose a dictator, but now we have an administration that is acting like the dictatorship we are trying to take out," the 46-year-old said as she prepared to march through Boston.

In Melbourne, protesters ripped up an American flag and accused Australian Prime Minister John Howard of betraying the rule of law by backing the war, local media reported.

In New York, a few hundred protesters, primarily pro-Palestinian and also opposed to the Iraq war, marched down Broadway from Times Square to Union Square in downtown Manhattan. Demonstrators waved large Palestinian flags and chanted for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas and against the war.

Last week, an estimated 150,000 to 250,000 people protesting the war marched along same route.

Earlier, tens of thousands rallied in France, Italy, Germany, and in the cities of Moscow and Budapest, to call for an end to the US-led invasion launched to rid Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Demonstrations in Europe followed similar anti-war protests in Asia and Africa, home to some of the world's biggest Muslim populations. Malaysian police used tear gas to break up an unauthorised protest, while authorities in Bangladesh rolled out barbed wire to keep marchers from the US embassy.

More than 10,000 people marched on the US consulate in Cape Town, South Africa.

In a rare move, Chinese police allowed 100 demonstrators to rally in a walled park in eastern Beijing today.

In Rome, small groups of protesters hung black sheets from the sides of 16 bridges spanning the River Tiber, some of them crossed by invaders and victors in past centuries.

In a symbolic gesture, around 30,000 people in Germany formed a human chain between the northern cities of Munster and Osnabrueck, a 35-mile route taken in 1648 by negotiators who ended Europe's Thirty Years War.

Police said more than 23,000 people took part in two separate marches in the German capital, culminating at the country's "Victory Column" in the Tiergarten park. A giant globe-shaped map of the world emblazoned with the slogan "No War" marked out the destination.

Police arrested 25 people who tried to block a highway leading to the US Rhein Main air base in Frankfurt during a protest by more than 1,000 people. Some 4,000 others formed a chain around the US European Command headquarters in Stuttgart.

Hundreds of protesters, some carrying Iraqi flags and posters of Saddam Hussein, gathered in Caracas, Venezuela, and chanted slogans against US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"This is an illegal war, it has no justification," said 18-year-old Muslem Fuad, a Venezuelan student of Syrian origin.

Bangladeshi protesters, mostly from the radical Islamic Constitution Movement, burned American flags and effigies of Bush.

Demonstrators called for Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be tried as war criminals.

Hundreds of Russian protesters gathered in front of the US embassy in Moscow, waving red banners and calling on the Kremlin to form an international coalition to oppose the US-led strikes and to help Iraq.

Thousands marched through Paris in the city's fifth protest since the war began, but organisers this time stepped up efforts to avert anti-Semitic violence after two Jewish youths were beaten up at a similar march last week.