International News

    Edited by Jacques Dussek, Eddy Dupiton, Romy Dussek and

                                     Terry Dussek

2007

NAIROBI, Kenya  -- Ambitious plans to rush life-saving AIDS drugs to millions will be unveiled on Monday as experts warn that the worst is yet to come from a disease that has so far defeated all efforts to check its advance.

Marches, candlelight vigils and exhibitions marking World AIDS Day will serve reminders that deaths from the illness and new cases of HIV/AIDS reached new highs in 2003 and are set to rise further as the epidemic keeps a grip on Africa and scythes across eastern Europe and Central Asia.

A Cape Town concert, headlined by Beyonce Knowles and U2's Bono and broadcast across the Internet, helped launch the campaign to raise awareness of the threat on Saturday. African statesman Nelson Mandela urged world governments to act now.

Some hope may come from the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO), which will unveil a global strategy to help 3 million people get anti-retroviral medicine by the end of 2005.

The WHO, whose advice guides policymakers around the world, is expected to outline ways to expand access to "combination therapy," which improves the effectiveness of treatment.

The WHO said in a statement that its strategy will call for "extraordinary and unconventional efforts to get anti-retroviral treatment to the people who will die without it."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan thinks many political leaders still simply do not care enough to fight the disease, which has killed 28 million people since it was first reported among homosexual men in the United States in 1981.

"I am not winning the war because I don't think the leaders of the world are engaged enough," Annan said last week.

"I feel angry, I feel distressed, I feel helpless ... to live in a world where we have the means ... to be able to help all these patients, what is lacking is the political will."

Expanding "combination therapy" should save lives, experts say.

"Giving such treatment is urgent, otherwise people will die," Morten Rostrup, president of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) medical charity, told Reuters.

"We hope the WHO presents a feasible model to scale up treatment for all patients who need it and that it will be available at a reasonable price."

The WHO initiative follows a high-profile policy U-turn by South Africa, which in November finally buckled under huge domestic and international pressure to roll out anti-retroviral drugs, despite President Thabo Mbeki's previous backing for scientists who have questioned the link between AIDS and HIV.

Access to anti-retrovirals around the world is minimal in the poverty-stricken countries worst affected by the virus; of the 4.2 million people who need them in sub-Saharan Africa, only an estimated 50,000 get supplies, health officials say.

Experts say the WHO will also promote the provision of emergency response teams to guide the purchase and financing of anti-retrovirals for poor countries where treatment is sparse.

In other events U.S. Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson will lead U.S. business executives on a tour of AIDS projects in Zambia. Also on the trip is Randall Tobias, recently appointed to oversee $15 billion in funding over five years proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush for assistance against HIV/AIDS.

The United Nations says the epidemic, fueled by drug abuse and unprotected sex, is spreading in India, China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst affected region with about 3.2 million new infections and 2.3 million deaths in 2003. Southern Africa, with less than 2 percent of the global population, is home to about 30 percent of people with HIV/AIDS.

MADRID, Spain   Spain will stay in Iraq and continue to support the U.S-led coalition despite the weekend deaths of seven Spanish intelligence agents near Baghdad, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar told the nation. "Our presence in Iraq makes sense," Aznar said in a nationally televised address Sunday. "Our freedom is threatened by the terrorists, who act wherever they can. "We are where we have to be and won't abandon (the effort). We will carry out our mission." Aznar spoke as the bodies of the seven agents were flown to Madrid. The agents, assigned to Spain's National Intelligence Center, were ambushed and killed south of Baghdad on Saturday.

An eighth agent who survived the attack returned to Spain with the bodies of his slain comrades. Aznar cut short a weekend away from Madrid to rush back to the capital following the attack. Wearing a black suit and black tie, he told Spaniards that withdrawal from Iraq would be the "worst alternative" and called on them to stand united to get through the shock of the agents' deaths. He said Italians, Britons, Americans, Poles, Iraqi civilians and international diplomats have suffered losses in Iraq as well.

Aznar read the names of the seven Spanish agents and said they were all career military personnel. "No one knew the risks better than them, but in spite of that, they wanted to fight terrorism" in Iraq, he said. The slain agents were identified as Alberto Martinez Gonzalez, Jose Merino Olivera, Jose Carlos Rodriguez Perez, Jose Lucas Egea, Alfonso Vega Calvo, Luis Ignacio Zanon Tarazona and Carlos Baro Ollero.

The agent who survived the attack, with just slight wounds, was identified as Jose Manuel Sanchez Riera. Aznar said a day of national mourning would be declared to coincide with the funerals, which have yet to be scheduled. A Spanish Hercules C-130 based in Kuwait retrieved the remains Sunday at a morgue at Baghdad airport and returned to Kuwait.

The caskets were then transferred to an Airbus A310 for the flight to Madrid, a senior aide to Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo told. On Saturday, the Airbus flew from Madrid to Kuwait with Trillo and Jorge Dezcallar, director of Spain's National Intelligence Center. Trillo and Dezcallar were expected to return with the caskets to Madrid Sunday night.

The remains of the agents were to undergo autopsies at a military hospital in southern Madrid later Sunday. In a nationally televised address from the Defense Ministry Saturday night, Trillo said the attack was an "assassination."

An Iraqi man beats up the burned out car in which seven Spanish intelligence agents were killed. The attack happened at 3:45 p.m. (7:45 a.m. ET) in an area under U.S. control near Suwayrah, 30 miles (48 km) south of Baghdad, on the main highway connecting the capital to Hillah. The eight agents had just finished lunch in Baghdad and were heading south in a convoy when insurgents shot rocket-propelled grenades and rifles at their two civilian cars.

The eight had been on rotation: Four were to have remained in Iraq, and four were to have returned to Spain. Aznar's conservative government has been a staunch supporter of the Bush administration over the war in Iraq. Since August, Spain has had about 1,300 combat-ready troops stationed in the Polish-controlled sector of Iraq between Baghdad and Basra. But opinion polls show that the vast majority of Spaniards oppose the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

In a written statement from Washington on Saturday, a White House press officer said President Bush called Aznar to express his condolences. "This afternoon President Bush called President Aznar to express his sympathy on behalf of the American people for the loss of seven Spanish intelligence agents in Iraq today.

"Aznar thanked Bush for the call and reaffirmed his support for our joint efforts in Iraq," duty officer Allen Abney said. At the scene of the attack, witnesses said a group of insurgents in one or two cars followed the Spaniards, who were traveling south in two four-wheel-drive vehicles. From their cars, the gunmen -- joined by people on the side of the road -- fired on the Spaniards in what appeared to be a coordinated ambush that lasted 30 minutes, during which only one of the eight escaped, the witnesses said.

A crowd at the scene chanted pro-Saddam slogans and kicked the bodies after the killings, the witnesses said. Spanish television stations showed pictures of some of the bodies by the roadside, with young Iraqi men and boys standing over them and appearing to kick some of the bodies. News of the attack dominated Spain's press on Sunday. In October, a Spanish diplomat attached to Spain's intelligence agency was shot and killed near his residence. The diplomat, Jose Antonio Bernal Gomez, 30, lived outside a secure area.

On Sunday, an editorial in El Pais, Spain's largest-circulation newspaper, said: "Spain is paying a high price" for its support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and that Spain never should have become involved. However, an editorial in the leading conservative daily, ABC, called the attack on the intelligence agents "terrorism in its pure form" and said the attackers were "organized terrorists opposed to a transition from a dictatorship to freedom" in Iraq. ABC said Spain must stand with its allies "to wipe out international terrorism."

The front pages of the major newspapers had photographs of young Iraqi men or boys standing over some of the bodies of the slain intelligence agents by the roadside.

DOZENS KILLED IN LIBERIA SHELLING

Dozens of people have been killed in a heavy bombardment of the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

The mortar barrage began as the streets were crowded with people taking advantage of a 12-hour lull in the shelling to try to find water and supplies.

Many of the dead have been piled in front of the US embassy as a protest against lack of action by the United States, shortly after the arrival by helicopter of about 40 US soldiers to reinforce security there.

About 4,500 other marines and sailors have been ordered to the Mediterranean to be ready to intervene in Liberia.

The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for urgent intervention by peacekeeping forces, saying Liberia was poised between hope and disaster.

President George W Bush earlier said the US was monitoring the situation very closely.

"We're concerned about our people in Liberia. We continue to monitor the situation very closely. We're working with the United Nations to effect policy necessary to get the ceasefire back in place," he said.

He also said the US was working with regional nations to determine when peacekeeping troops will be able to move into Liberia.

During more than an hour of continuous bombardment, mortars came in rapid succession sending people running for cover.

At least four were killed in a compound full of refugees opposite the US embassy, while another building full of refugees was apparently hit, killing 18, our correspondent says.

Another mortar shell hit a building of the embassy compound in Monrovia.

Twenty-seven dead have been taken to the main hospital, and there are reported to be hundreds of wounded.

Hundreds have taken shelter in UN buildings.

The rebels, who are seeking to overthrow President Charles Taylor, have denied in an interview that they were responsible for the shelling.

Anger

The US soldiers were flown in from nearby Sierra Leone earlier on Monday.

The helicopters then carried foreign aid workers, including the UN's last seven foreign staff in the country, and journalists back to the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown.

US soldiers in Monrovia are to protect their own staff and people, but not to get involved in the battle that is taking place for the city between government troops and rebels.

One man told the BBC that if they are going to come here, they should come to help and stop the breakdown of the ceasefire that was in place.

"A lot of us are dying," he said.

There has also been widespread looting in government-held areas of Monrovia, with gunfire being heard and government militia targeting homes, businesses and vehicles.

Washington has called for an immediate ceasefire and wants President Taylor to step down.

Mr Taylor has accepted an offer of asylum from Nigeria - but he refuses to stand down before the arrival of international peacekeepers.

Hampered aid

The continuing fighting is hampering humanitarian efforts to help injured and displaced civilians.

Doctors at two makeshift hospitals run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) say the recent shooting and mortar bombardment between government militias and rebel troops have made it nearly impossible to treat patients.

Aid agencies say their staff have been trapped indoors by the fighting and are unable to reach centres where thousands of people have gathered and are now living in appalling conditions.

The head of the MSF mission in Monrovia, Alain Kassa, said the intense fighting on Sunday made it difficult to transport the injured to hospital for treatment.

Missile Fired at U.S. Plane in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a marked escalation in attacks, suspected insurgents tried to shoot down a U.S. transport plane with a surface-to-air missile Monday, killed an American soldier in a convoy and gunned down the pro-American mayor of a city in the restive "Sunni Triangle."

The violence marked the eve of a banned holiday when Saddam Hussein loyalists were expected to demonstrate their power.

The U.S. military said one surface-to-air missile was fired on a C-130 transport as it landed at Baghdad International Airport. Spc. Giovani Lorente said he could not say where the plane was arriving from or whether it was carrying passengers, cargo or both. Lorente said it as only the second known missile attack on a plane using the airport since Baghdad fell to U.S. forces April 9.

In Hadithah, Mayor Mohammed Nayil al-Jurayfi's car was ambushed by unidentified attackers firing automatic rifles as he drove away from his office with one of his nine sons, police Capt. Khudhier Mohammed told the Associated Press. Hadithah, a city of about 150,000, is 150 miles northwest of Baghdad on the road to Syria.

Mohammed said the mayor was killed because "he was seizing cars from those that used to work at the president's (Saddam Hussein's) office" in Hadithah. It's one of several cities in the so-called "Sunni Triangle," so named because it contains the bulk of active supporters of Saddam, whose Sunni Muslim minority ran the country until April 9.

The American soldier was killed and three others were injured in a rocket-propelled grenade attack west of Baghdad near the Abu Ghraib prison, a U.S. military spokesman said. In a separate attack, an 8-year-old Iraqi child died when an assailant threw a grenade into a U.S. military vehicle guarding a bank in west Baghdad.

The U.S. driver of the vehicle was wounded along with four adult Iraqi bystanders, according to a U.S. officer, said Maj. Kevin West of the 4th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery.

"They're killing more Iraqis than they are Americans," West said, shaking his head.

The Hadithah police captain, whose station house sits next to the mayor's office, told the AP that some city government employees received a leaflet Wednesday morning warning them not to go to work.

The leaflets were signed by "Liberating Iraq Army." A day earlier, a member of the previously unheard of organization went on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television and promised retribution against any country that sends peacekeeping troops.

He read a letter directed to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan   and said peacekeepers would be attacked even if they were sent under a U.N. mandate and wearing the world body's traditional blue helmets.

The Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, meanwhile, reported that residents of Hadithah had accused the slain mayor of collaborating with coalition forces.

Hadithah shopowner Amir Jafar concurred.

"This mayor is an unwanted person." he said. "He doesn't belong to this city. He is from another city and he was cooperating with the Americans."

The attack was certain to have a chilling effect on other Iraqi officials sympathetic to the Americans. One of the members of the newly inaugurated Iraqi Governing Council, hand-picked by the U.S. administrator of Iraq, hails from Hadithah. Samir Shakir Mahmoud, the council member, is a Sunni but was a leading member of the opposition to Saddam Hussein.

In Baghdad, former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is now running the Iraqi interior ministry and working to rebuild police in the country, was asked if he thought Osama bin Laden al-Qaida terror network was behind the escalating attacks.

"Nobody is identified as al-Qaida yet. Could they be out there? It's possible. The bottom line is I don't care if they're al-Qaida, I don't care if they're (Saddam) Fedayeen (paramilitary). I don't care if they are Baathists, I don't care who they are. If they attack the coalition and they attack the police they're gong to be arrested or they're going to be killed," Kerik said.

Wednesday's attacks were launched on the eve of a banned holiday that marked the 1968 Baathist coup that led 11 years later to Saddam grabbing power. The July 17th celebration was one of six holiday's important to the Baathists that was outlawed by the Governing Council in its first official action.

U.S. soldiers have come under increasingly ferocious attacks by suspected Saddam loyalists in recent weeks — reaching an average of 12 attacks a day. A total 33 U.S. soldiers have been killed in hostile action since President Bush   declared an end to major hostilities on May 1.

The Pentagon   said that as of Monday 144 U.S. personnel had been killed in combat since the start of the Iraq war. Since then, at least two U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraqi attacks, bringing the total just short of the 147 killed in combat during the 1991 Gulf War  .

In Wednesday's death, the rocket-propelled grenade blasted into the soldier's truck, hurling him out, as the 20-vehicle convoy passed along a main highway Wednesday morning. Soldiers at first believed a bomb was remotely detonated as the convoy passed.

Sgt. Diego Baez, who escaped without injury from the truck, wept over his comrade's death.

"We slept next to each other just last night. He was my best friend," Baez said.

The convoy, made up of reservists from a supply unit based in Puerto Rico, had been heading to a U.S. base near the Jordanian border.

"We need more protection. We've seen enough. We've stayed in Iraq long enough," said Spc. Carlos McKenzie, a member of the convoy.

Also Wednesday, a U.S. Marine died in the southern city of Hilla when he fell from the roof of a building he was guarding, the military said. The soldier was taken to a hospital but died of his injuries.

The deaths highlighted the long and painful road left for coalition forces as they try to stabilize Iraq.

The new Governing Council — Iraq's first postwar national body — met again Wednesday and talked with Bremer for three hours on ways to improve security in the country, the American administrator said, without giving details.

U.N. officials said a council delegation would visit the Security Council on July 22, when the world body is to discuss its role in postwar Iraq.

Most Britons Believe Blair Misled Them on Iraq

LONDON - Claims British Prime Minister Tony Blair made about banned Iraqi weapons continued to haunt him Monday as a new poll published shortly before he visits the United States showed most Britons think he misled them.

Blair flies Thursday to Washington -- where his stock remains high -- and then on for a weeklong tour of the Far East with questions about his justification for taking part in the U.S.-led war in Iraq   bombarding him from all sides.

At home, the premier has faced accusations that he overplayed intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to make the case for war. With no such weapons found months after the conflict ended, he is starting to suffer political damage.

A poll by ICM for the Daily Mirror newspaper Monday showed 66 percent of those questioned believed Blair had misled them -- either knowingly or unknowingly -- before he sent troops into action in Iraq.

Blair struck a defiant note at a news conference closing a summit of 14 center-left world leaders outside London.

"We should be proud Saddam has gone, glad that he's gone... The world will be a more secure place as a result," he said.

The British government was forced Monday to defend its claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger to support a nuclear weapons program, although Washington has abandoned the charge.

The White House said last week its claim was based on forged documents, a potentially embarrassing schism as Blair prepares to meet President Bush  , who included the allegation in a January speech, citing British findings.

Britain included the accusation in a September 2002 dossier setting out the case for war in Iraq. "We stand entirely by the intelligence we gave and shared with the public," Blair said.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw tried to paper over the cracks, saying Britain had received intelligence from a third country about Niger's uranium that the Americans had not seen.

"This information on which we relied, which was completely separate from the now notorious forged documents, came from foreign intelligence sources," Straw told BBC Radio.

"We believe in the veracity of the intelligence."

But that is only one of many questions posed about Iraq's banned weapons and what Blair said about them before the war.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix delivered the latest blow Sunday, declaring that Britain committed a "fundamental mistake" when it said Saddam Hussein   could deploy weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes notice.

Bomb Rocks Indonesia Parliament Complex

JAKARTA - A bomb exploded at Indonesia's parliament Monday, spraying nails and concrete over a wide area in an attack that came just days after police caught nine suspected Muslim militants and seized a huge cache of explosives.

The blast also follows parliament's passage last week of a bill paving the way for Indonesia's first direct presidential election in 2004. Security analysts said Monday they saw a growing threat of political assassinations ahead of the poll.

Police called the bombing a "terror" attack, although parliament is in recess and no one was hurt. Damage was minor.

National police chief Da'i Bachtiar said it was too early to blame anyone, but added the attack bore the hallmarks of bomb explosions in April at Jakarta's international airport and near the U.N. building in Jakarta. No one died in those blasts.

He said the high explosives used were also of the same type as that found among a cache of weapons seized in a raid on suspected operatives of the Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah in Central Java province last week. "Inside this tube were a variety of nails. If this explodes, then they become just like bullets," Bachtiar told reporters.

Late Monday, an Indonesian police source said four members of the Australian Federal Police had begun to probe the site, building on cooperation forged during the investigation of last year's Bali bombings, which have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiah.

A number of Australian police are still working on that case.

The latest device was placed near an air-conditioning unit at the back of a function room in the parliament complex but close to the main auditorium, which was empty.

ARRESTS, EXPLOSIVES

The attack follows Friday's announcement by police that they had foiled plans by Islamic radicals to attack churches and shops in Jakarta and had arrested nine suspected Jemaah militants.

They also seized TNT and chemicals with an explosive power 10 times greater than the bombs used in the Bali blasts that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Police said at the weekend they were hunting several more suspects.

Security analysts said it was too soon to connect the latest attack with Jemaah Islamiah, a group linked to al Qaeda. Jemaah aims to form an Islamic state across parts of Southeast Asia.

But the analysts said that safeguarding the 2004 elections -- especially in light of last week's arrests -- was starting to cause concern in Jakarta.

Zachary Abuza, a counter-terrorism specialist at Simmons College in the United States, said senior security officials were worried about political assassinations leading up to the polls.

"They are really expecting a lot more in terms of assassinations," Abuza said. One Western security risk analyst said police believed they had to rein in Jemaah Islamiah fast before the elections.

"They feel they have a limited window of opportunity to close these guys down before the elections. What they fear is that if they don't, they will create hell," the analyst said.

One of the suspected militants was arrested last week at a house close to President Megawati Sukarnoputri's main private residence. Police seized an M-16 rifle and 1,600 bullets during the raid. There have been reports the suspects were part of an operation aimed at killing several Indonesian political figures.

The alleged head of Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir, is on trial in Jakarta over a series of bombings in the country and an assassination plot against Megawati in 2001.

Bombings have occurred sporadically in Indonesia since it began its messy transition to democracy in 1998.

U.S. Military Team Arrives in Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia - A team of U.S. military experts arrived in Liberia on Monday to assess whether to deploy troops as part of a peacekeeping force that would restore order to a nation torn by civil war.

A blue and white wide-bodied helicopter brought the experts, wearing armor and some carrying assault weapons, to the U.S. Embassy compound in Liberia — a west African nation founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

Liberian President Charles Taylor, beset by rebels and indicted by a U.N.-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone, said Sunday he would step down and take exile in Nigeria, but urged the United States to send peacekeepers to ensure an orderly transition.

Taylor gave no timeframe for when he would quit and did not say the deployment of a peacekeeping force was a condition for his departure.

Navy Capt. Roger Coldiron, leader of the 32-person team, told reporters that his mission is to "assess the security environment" in the country as well as study the humanitarian needs of its 3 million people — suffering greatly from more than a decade of civil strife.

"There is a security component," Coldiron said. "We want to be sure that whomever comes in is safe on the ground."

A decision on whether U.S. soldiers will join an intervention force shouldn't be expected Monday, U.S. Ambassador John W. Blaney told reporters. Coldiron said the mission would take as long as needed before making any recommendation.

U.S. President George W. Bush   heads to Africa Monday for visits to five nations — including regional power Nigeria. Bush has asked Taylor to step down.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer   said Monday that Taylor's promise to leave "remains encouraging" but that he must act on his words "so that stability can be achieved."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell   had telephoned Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday, but details of their conversation were not released. Obasanjo has offered Taylor asylum.

As Bush awaited the team's report, American lawmakers and officials voiced deep reservations about committing U.S. troops to the West African country.

Both the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee   said Sunday they want Bush to get congressional approval before he sends any U.S. troops to Liberia.

At the same time, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said military leaders would prefer that West African armies take the lead in any effort to end the Liberian conflict and police the peace.

"We're always prepared, in case of U.S. citizens and our folks that are on official duty in the embassy and so forth, to do a noncombatant evacuation of those individuals," the chairman, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said in a television interview Sunday.

"Beyond that, I think we'd really like to see the states in the region help with this particular problem," he told Fox News.

The United Nations   and European leaders have sought U.S. troops to enforce an oft-violated cease-fire between forces loyal to Taylor and rebels fighting for three years to oust him. West African nations have offered 3,000 troops and have suggested that the United States contribute another 2,000.

After meeting Nigeria's President Obasanjo Sunday, Taylor said, "He has extended an invitation and we have accepted an invitation."

Obasanjo, whose nation led an intervention force in Liberia's 1989-96 civil war, has called for international support for a Liberian peacekeeping mission. There are fears violence could erupt if there is no smooth transition of power.

Taylor emerged from the last conflict as the strongest warlord and was elected president the following year.

He has been accused of supporting Sierra Leone's brutal Revolutionary United Front rebels, whose trademark atrocity was amputating the arms and facial features of their civilian victims with machetes.

Nigeria, like many countries, has no law allowing Taylor to be extradited to Sierra Leone to stand trial for war crimes trial, U.N. officials say.

Bush is scheduled to land Tuesday in Senegal, one largely peaceful West African nation that hasn't seen the ill effects of years of warring by Taylor — a former warlord long accused of sowing strife in the region by aiding rebel groups.

Nearly one third of Liberia's 3 million people have been forced from their homes by fighting since rebels took up arms against Taylor in 1999.

Thousands run with Pamplona bulls

PAMPLONA, Spain -- Thousands of daredevils sprinted with the bulls through Pamplona as the first run of the annual San Fermin festival passed off largely without injury.

The cobblestone streets of Pamplona were slick with morning dew as six fighting bulls and six steers set out from a corral along the 825-meter course through the city's old quarter to the bull ring.

Monday's run was the first of seven runs in Spain's best-known summer festival.

Spanish television said no-one was gored, with only minor injuries reported from people who fell or were stepped on by animals or humans.

The run took just over two-and-a-half minutes, which is about average.

At two sharp turns, several bulls slipped and went down with a heavy thud.

And a pile-up of fallen runners formed at the tunnel leading into the bull ring. Bulls weighing 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) jumped or stepped over the runners.

Since record-keeping began in 1924, 13 people have been killed at the San Fermin festival, and hundreds have been injured.

The last fatality was a 22-year-old American, gored to death in 1995.

Despite the danger of being gored, anyone over 18 can take part.

Participants are allowed only a rolled-up newspaper to fend off the bulls.

Since records began, 13 people have been killed during the festival.

The official San Fermin press guide warns runners that if they get in the way of a charging bull, its horns could go through them "as cleanly as a knife cuts through butter."

Runners who fall are advised to stay on the ground and let the bulls run past.

The running of the bulls through the streets dates back to the 16th century when it was the most practical way to get the bulls from the outskirts to the bullring for the afternoon bullfight.

Local authorities tried for years to stamp out the practise before officially endorsing it in 1876.

The festival honouring Navarre's patron saint has exercised a powerful attraction over foreigners ever since Ernest Hemingway wrote about it in his 1920s novel "The Sun also Rises."

Thousands packed the historic square in front of Pamplona town hall on Sunday for the "chupinazo," the firing of the rocket that is the starting gun for a week of revelry. 

At Sunday's opening, festival-goers drenched each other with champagne, threw eggs at each other or watched foreigners throw themselves from a fountain into the arms of their friends.

There are dozens of other events during the week, including bullfights, street theater, fireworks, and music concerts.

JUNE 2003

UK troops 'killed by civilians'

It was unclear who fired the first shot at the police station

Six UK soldiers killed in Iraq were shot by civilians after weapons searches in homes turned into a bloody showdown, according to local residents.

And Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Commons tension between British troops and Iraqis reluctant to disarm could have led to the killings.

The soldiers' deaths could lead to the deployment of thousands of extra troops to Iraq as an urgent review of troop numbers, tactics and equipment gets under way.

British commanders in Iraq described the deaths as "unprovoked murder".

Mr Blair paid tribute to the dead soldiers, saying they had been doing "an extraordinary and heroic job trying to provide a normal and decent life for people in Iraq".

BRITISH TROOPS UNDER FIRE

Tuesday 0730 BST: Two British vehicles attacked on patrol in Majar al-Kabir by Iraqi gunmen who injure one soldier. A Chinook arrives in support and a further seven paratroopers are injured

1200 BST: Six military policemen found dead at police station in the same town

All of the dead belonged to 156 Provost Company, part of the 16th Air Assault Brigade, based in Colchester.

British forces are hunting the killers of the soldiers, whose bodies were found at a police station in a village near Amara, about 100 miles north of Basra.

Mr Blair said more details should become clear in the next 24 hours, but a "background" of problems in the province could have contributed to the deaths.

"There is a background to do with the attempts by British forces to make sure that the local population who regularly carry machineguns and small firearms were disarmed of those weapons.

Iraqis were angry at the way soldiers were searching their houses for weapons, said BBC correspondent Clive Myrie.

British troops and local leaders had agreed a contract for searching houses that outlined how troops could search homes once they had given a set amount of notice, he said.

"There had been problems in relation to that ."

While locals said the contract had been broken as no notice was given, defence officials have denied the claims.

After following the soldiers to the police station, the Iraqis say the British fired the first shots on a peaceful demonstration. This provoked the Iraqis to fire back and storm the police station in anger, Clive Myrie said.

"Scores of people attacked the police station, not just four or five, not just a dozen, so it may be difficult to point the finger of blame," he added.

Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt told Reuters news agency: "This attack was unprovoked. It was murder."

Tactics examined

British forces in southern Iraq were on a heightened state of alert following the incident, he added.

The Iraqi National Congress condemned the attacks and said the "overwhelming" majority of Iraqis were grateful to the coalition for removing Saddam Hussein.

"We give our deepest sympathies to the families of those soldiers who have died giving hope to a nation that has suffered for so long," said the congress's Ahmad Chalabi.

The biggest organisation in Iraq representing Shia Muslims also condemned the killings, but said the presence and behaviour of foreign forces was provocative.

The deputy leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Abdulaziz al Hakim, told the BBC people objected in particular to troops searching houses and women.

In a separate attack in the same area, seven British soldiers were injured when their helicopter came under fire. Two of the casualties were seriously injured.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there were "many thousands" of troops which could be sent to Iraq if deemed necessary.

He stressed that the 19,000 troops used as cover for the firefighters' strikes were no longer needed for that role back in the UK.

Despite the attacks, the minister said it was important not to suggest southern Iraq was now a problem as there had been "remarkable successes" in the British occupied zone.

The review is likely to reassess the British decision not to wear helmets or flak jackets and to maintain high-profile patrols in an effort to win friends in the local communities.

The incidents mark the heaviest losses to enemy action suffered in a single day by US-led coalition forces since the war in Iraq was declared largely over on 1 May.

It is also the heaviest loss of British life in a single hostile incident since UK forces entered Iraq at the start of the war in March.

U.S. Announces Creation of New Iraq Army

RAMADI, Iraq - U.S.-led civil administrators announced the creation of a new Iraqi army Monday, hoping to contain anger among soldiers jobless since Saddam Hussein military was disbanded and to curb a rash of anti-U.S. attacks.

The insurgents' latest attacks included rocket propelled grenades fired at U.S. Army patrols in the western towns of Khaldiyah and Habaniyah, and an ambush in Ramadi that involved a 12-year-old girl, the military said Monday. No one was injured.

Meanwhile, U.S. experts were trying to identify the remains of those killed when coalition air and ground forces attacked a convoy of Iraqi leaders believed trying to escape to Syria, officials in Washington said.

Officials said they had no reason yet to believe that ousted leader Saddam or his sons Odai or Qusai were among the fugitives.

DNA tests are being conducted on the remains found at the site in western Iraq  , near the Syrian border, as first reported in The Observer of London. Special operations forces attacked the three-vehicle convoy last Wednesday, working on information from previously captured leaders, the officials said.

A Pentagon   official said on condition of anonymity that American forces traded fire with Syrian border guards during the strike, hitting several. It wasn't clear who shot first or if any of the Syrians were killed.

Saddam and his sons are the top three on the U.S. list of most-wanted officials in Iraq, and coalition officials say the lack of evidence about their fate is fueling resistance to the occupation within Iraq.

In Baghdad, visiting U.S. senators cautioned that Americans should expect their forces to remain in Iraq for as long as five years.

"I don't think the American people fully appreciate just how long we are going to be committed here and what the overall cost will be," said Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., after meeting the head of the civil administration, L. Paul Bremer.

On Sunday, Iraq made its first foray back into the international oil market since the war, with the shipment of oil that has been stored for months at the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

But sabotage and looting of the 600-mile pipeline from the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk to Ceyhan delayed the flow of freshly pumped oil — the key to reconstructing an economy devastated by sanctions and war. Pumping was supposed to have begun Sunday.

Sabotage was blamed for a massive fire in a gas pipeline about 94 miles west of Baghdad on Saturday, and the al-Jazeera satellite television station reported another pipeline explosion near the Syrian border on Sunday.

In another key step toward reconstruction, U.S. officials announced early plans to bring back Iraq's army, once one of the Arab world's largest and most experienced.

Recruitment for the new force is to begin next week. An initial division of 12,000 men will be ready within a year and will grow to 40,000 within three years, said Walter Slocombe, a senior adviser for security and defense for the administration.

That would still be a fraction of the Saddam's military force of 400,000.

Slocombe also promised support payments of $50 to $150 per month to up to 250,000 ex-soldiers.

The moved is aimed at stemming anger among former Iraqi army soldiers who lost their livelihood when the U.S.-led administration disbanded the army May 23. Ex-servicemen have since staged several protests, and U.S. troops killed two last Wednesday when one such demonstration turned violent.

"I am pleased to announce this first step in creating an armed force that will be professional, nonpolitical, militarily effective and truly representative of the country," Slocombe said.

No payments would be made to the top four ranks of members of the now-banned Baath party. Anyone receiving funds must renounce Baathism, the political ideology that guided Iraq for more than three decades, even before Saddam came to power in the 1970s.

In Ramadi, a U.S. patrol came under small-arms fire on Sunday, and the patrol saw a young girl running away with an AK-47 assault rifle, said Capt. Burris Wollsieffer, of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The bullets landed harmlessly in the dirt around the vehicles, he told The Associated Press on Monday.

The troops followed the girl home and found the rifle wrapped in a red dress propped in a corner. Three men in the household were taken for interrogation, but the troops allowed the girl to remain at home when they learned her age. They also seized $1,500 in cash and $1,000 in Iraqi dinars, the officer said.

"It's just weird. It's totally unconventional," said Wollsieffer, when asked about the rising number of ambushes on his forces in Ramadi. "It's guerrilla warfare."

Two senior army officers met Monday with a prominent Islamic cleric, Abdullah al-Annay, who preaches in two Ramadi mosques, to ask him to tone down his anti-American sermons, Wollsieffer said.

"If he keeps this kind of speech going, they are just going to attack us more and more," he said. Wollsieffer's regiment has lost 10 men — more than half the 18 men reported killed in combat — since May 1 when major fighting was declared over.

The latest casualty came Sunday, when a grenade exploded into a military vehicle south of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding another from the 1st Armored Division.

U.S. Welcomes Nuclear Watchdog's Reprimand to Iran

VIENNA  - The U.N. atomic watchdog rapped Iran on Thursday for failing to comply with nuclear safeguards, issuing a statement Washington said underlined international opposition to Tehran developing any banned weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) report fell short of the damning resolution the United States had hoped for, but Washington quickly backed it and issued a fresh demand to Iran to comply with the watchdog.

After a two-day debate on an internal report, the IAEA's governors criticized Iran's failure to comply with agreements designed to prevent the use of civilian nuclear resources to make atomic weapons.

"The board shared the concern expressed by (IAEA chief) Mohamed ElBaradei in his report at the number of Iran's past failures to report material, facilities and activities as required by its safeguards obligations," the IAEA said.

The board urged Iran to remain "transparent" and accept without delay or conditions more intrusive, short-notice inspections to dispel U.S. suspicions Iran is using its nuclear power program as a cover to develop atomic weapons.

The board also urged Iran not to introduce uranium to its enrichment facilities at Natanz, which has centrifuges that experts believe could produce weapons-grade material.

President Bush, who has accused Iran of planning to make nuclear weapons -- a charge Tehran denies -- welcomed the IAEA statement, U.S. officials said.

"Iran needs to comply. Otherwise the world will conclude that Iran may be producing nuclear weapons," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer   told reporters.

"It is international reinforcement of the president's message yesterday that the world, broadly speaking, joins together in fighting proliferation and making certain that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons," said Fleischer.

The United States originally wanted the IAEA to condemn Iran's failings in the strongest possible terms and warn Tehran that the world would never allow it to build nuclear weapons.

Diplomats said the United States had wanted a resolution -- the strongest type of statement by the board -- condemning Iran's failures to comply, but had shelved the idea due to insufficient support.

"The statement by the board was a reprimand, not a condemnation. But it was more than I expected," one diplomat said.

Another said Iran had remained silent during the heated closed-door debate on the wording of the statement and permitted the stronger-than-expected reprimand to be passed by consensus.

"But as soon as the statement had been approved, the Iranian envoy stood up and dissociated himself from the statement," the diplomat said, adding it was the "best result Iran could have expected."

Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Salehi, told reporters later: "We are happy that the board did not go with the pressure to come up with a resolution."

The diplomat said Iran and 14 IAEA board members belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) did not agree with the call for unconditional acceptance of stricter IAEA inspections.

Tehran has made clear it will only sign the Additional Protocol introducing such inspections if a ban on the import of civilian Western nuclear technology is lifted.

U.S. Captures No. 4 Iraqi Official

WASHINGTON - American forces have captured Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein   presidential secretary and No. 4 on the U.S. most-wanted list of Iraqi leaders, the U.S. military said Wednesday

U.S. forces captured Mahmud on Monday in Iraq  , a statement from U.S. Central Command said. It did not say where in Iraq he was captured.

Third in power only to the former Iraqi president and his younger son, Qusai, Mahmud controlled access to Saddam and was one of the few people he is said to have trusted completely, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

A distant cousin of Saddam, Mahmud is also the ace of diamonds on the U.S. deck of cards portraying leaders of Saddam's regime. The U.S. military calls him Saddam's national security adviser and senior body guard.

Intelligence reports indicated that Mahmud managed access to Saddam by diplomats, media and even doctors, a U.S. defense official said. Only Saddam's sons, Odai and Qusai, could see the Iraqi president without going through Mahmud, said the official, who described the intelligence information on the condition of anonymity.

Qusai, in particular, avoided befriending Mahmud so Saddam would not think they were conspiring against him, the official said.

In the 1990s, Mahmud was put in charge of several security portfolios, including responsibility over places Iraq has been accused of hiding weapons programs. He started his career as a non-commissioned officer in Saddam's bodyguard, eventually being promoted to lieutenant general.

Mahmud may have information on the fate of Saddam and his sons, and he is thought to have details of Iraq's alleged weapons programs. U.S. officials have said they want to try Mahmud for war crimes or crimes against humanity for activities associated with his senior position in the Iraqi regime.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer   called it a "significant capture" but provided no details. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to discuss the capture at a press conference.

It is unclear whether his capture was related to Wednesday raids near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.

American troops raided two farmhouses and found $8.5 million in American cash, 300 million to 400 million Iraqi dinars and an undetermined amount of British pounds and Euros, said Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division. The troops also found more than $1 million worth of gems and jewels, he said.

The troops captured one of Saddam's bodyguards and up to 50 other people believed to be tied to Saddam's security or intelligence forces or paramilitary groups, Odierno told Pentagon   reporters in a video news conference from his headquarters in Tikrit.

"I believe over the next three to four days, you will hear much more about the number of senior Iraqi individuals we have detained here over the last couple of days," Odierno said. He did not mention Mahmud by name.

The U.S. troops also found Russian-made night-vision goggles and other military equipment, as well as various Saddam paraphernalia.

Odierno said he did not know whether the cash was intended to pay bounties for attacks on American troops or to provide the Saddam loyalists with luxuries while they were in hiding.

Iran rejects tougher nuclear checks

Iran has confirmed that it will not sign up to tougher, short-notice inspections of suspected nuclear sites.

The European Union joined growing international pressure on Iran on Monday, saying Tehran should comply with the measures "urgently and unconditionally".

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also urged Iran to agree to strengthened inspections under an additional protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

But Iran said a ban on the country's access to nuclear technology would have to be lifted before it can agree to such a move.

The head of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, said Iran had failed to report some of its nuclear activities - an accusation Tehran rejects.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, for his part, urged Iran to meet its non-proliferation obligations, as it continues trade negotiations with the European Union.

So far EU foreign ministers have stopped short of backing US accusations that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons programme.

Iran has repeatedly said the aim of its programme was to generate electricity.

Conditions

An Iranian representative at the IAEA in Vienna said the nuclear issue had been "politically motivated and politically charged", but would be resolved.

In Tehran, a spokesman for the country's Atomic Energy Organisation said Iran was studying the call to sign an additional protocol "with a positive view".

He said Tehran might agree to sign it, but reiterated Iran's demand for access to nuclear technology in exchange.

However analysts say this has already been ruled out by the US and other countries.

Mr ElBaradei urged the Iranians to sign the protocols unconditionally.

He said Tehran's co-operation would enable the IAEA "to provide credible assurances regarding the peaceful nature" of the country's nuclear programme.

Some EU countries want trade talks with Iran halted, but a majority believe the EU should keep the door open to dialogue, as a means of obtaining greater transparency on nuclear issues and more progress on human rights and political reforms in Iran.

Concerns

The EU meeting came a few days after an IAEA report on Iran was leaked.

It says Tehran has failed to:

Account for nuclear material

Provide documentation for imports of nuclear material

Report its subsequent processing and use

Declare facilities where the material is stored and processed

Mr ElBaradei visited Iran in February, and toured a nuclear plant under construction at Natanz, 320 kilometres (200 miles) south of Tehran.

The site is crucial, because it is where Iran is developing a series of centrifuges, which could be used to produce enriched uranium - the material used for making a nuclear bomb.

The IAEA reports says that Iran's failure to provide information in a timely manner has become "a matter for concern".

US Puts Priority on Iraq's Power, Port and Airport

WASHINGTON  - Despite persistent security problems, the United States aims by the end of next month to have reliable power in Baghdad, open the city's airport and have Iraq   main port ready to handle bulk cargo, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

In a public briefing on progress so far in rebuilding Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it was working hard to deliver on promises made to rebuild Iraq but the country was still a dangerous place to work in.

"You still hear gunfire at night in the cities. There are carjackings that happen daily, people are assaulted for things as simple as a truckload of water," Ross Wherry, USAID's senior reconstruction advisor for Asia and the Near East, told reporters after the briefing.

Wherry said USAID, the leading U.S. agency handing out contracts to rebuild Iraq, had been surprised by the level of violence and looting following the toppling of Saddam Hussein   in April and that the difficult security situation was increasing operating costs in Iraq.

He said USAID hoped to have the southern port of Umm Qasr ready for big cargo vessels by the end of this month when a 40,000 ton bulk grain vessel was set to unload its goods.

He said he hoped there would be a more reliable power source by the end of July in Baghdad, which is stiflingly hot during the summer and where electricity has been rationed most days to three hours on and three hours off.

Other goals were to reopen Baghdad's airport by July 15 and to ensure that Iraq's children were back in class at the beginning of the new school year in October, an important symbol for Iraqis that life was returning to normal.

He said a grant had been awarded to UNESCO   for 5 million new math and science textbooks and discussions were continuing among Iraqis to rewrite the curriculum and to deal with history and other more politically sensitive text books.

He foresaw USAID would be involved in Iraq until 2005. "I don't see us cutting and running on this one," he said.

Israeli Missiles Kill Nine in Gaza City

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - In the third Israeli airstrike in 24 hours, Israeli helicopters fired several missiles at the car of a Hamas fugitive Thursday, killing seven people, including the wanted man, his wife and 2-year-old daughter.

The latest spike in violence — 35 Israelis and Palestinians killed and more than 130 wounded in two days — suggested a new stage in the 32-month-old conflict, with Israel and Hamas threatening to fight each other to the finish.

Another rocket attack killed two low-level Hamas activists earlier Thursday.

The Islamic militant group said it would unleash multiple attacks and urged foreigners to leave Israel for their safety. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon   said that despite a new U.S.-backed peace plan, he would hunt Palestinian militants "to the bitter end."

The intensity of Israel's strikes in recent days comes as expectations fade that the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, can rein in militants.

Secretary of State Colin Powell   was preparing to meet in Jordan with leaders of Russia, the European Union   and the United Nations   in an effort to repair the tattered road map for Mideast peace, according to U.S. officials and diplomatic sources.

The meeting, tentatively set for June 22, will be held in Aqaba, where President Bush   reached agreement last week with Sharon and Abbas to proceed with the peacemaking blueprint.

In 24 hours beginning Wednesday afternoon, a Hamas suicide bomber killed 16 people in a Jerusalem bus attack and Israel carried out three airstrikes that killed 18 Palestinians, about half of them civilians.

In the latest rocket attack Thursday, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car belonging to Yasser Taha, a Hamas fugitive from the group's military wing.

Seven people were killed, including Taha, his wife Fatima, 25, and their 2-year-old daughter, Asnan, doctors said. A baby bottle and baby shoes were pulled from the burning car. The strike injured 29 people.

Israel targeted the car in Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighborhood, near a cemetery, where relatives earlier buried 11 dead from Wednesday's airstrikes. At least one missile landed as bystanders surrounded Taha's car, witnesses said.

Abbas has said he will not force a showdown, but will try to persuade Hamas and other groups to halt attacks on Israelis.

Hamas walked away from truce talks last week and threatened revenge after Israel's botched attempt to kill a Hamas founder, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, on Tuesday. The group issued a statement, urging its military cells to "blow up the Zionist entity and tear it to pieces."

Hamas has often fulfilled its threats since it carried out its first suicide bombings in the mid-1990s.

Sharon said Wednesday that he remains committed to negotiating a peace deal, but will continue to pursue Palestinian groups "to the bitter end."

In a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Sharon ridiculed Palestinian leaders as "crybabies" for saying they can't dismantle militias by force, according to a Cabinet official who briefed reporters. Israel said it cannot stand by until Abbas — described by Sharon Thursday as a "chick that hasn't grown its feathers yet" — persuades armed groups to halt attacks, the official said.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Sharon's intention was to derail the latest peace plan.

Referring to Sharon's comments on Palestinian leaders, Abed Rabbo said: "His aim is to discredit the Palestinian government and to assassinate his real enemy, which is the road map."

Difficulties in implementing the peace plan had been expected, but many were surprised by such a rapid return to bloodshed amid the hope of Bush's personal involvement with the road map.

"Bush, too, cannot compel Hamas to stop terror," Israeli commentator Sever Plotzker wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily. "And the all-powerful Bush cannot compel Sharon to stop the assassinations (of Palestinian militants). The cause and effect, the effect and cause, it's all jumbled. Who remembers who started?"

Bush angrily condemned the bus bombing and urged all nations to cut financial assistance to terrorists and "isolate those who hate so much that they are willing to kill." Earlier, Bush rebuked Sharon for the attempted killing of Rantisi.

The first retaliation for the botched attack on Rantisi came Wednesday afternoon, during evening rush hour on Jaffa Street, Jerusalem's main thoroughfare. An 18-year-old high school student from Hebron, Abdel Madi Shabneh, disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, detonated explosives strapped to his body on board bus No. 14 just after it left the central station.

The blast lifted the bus off the pavement and tore up the roof and sides, hurling several passengers outside.

The bomber killed 16 people, including Alan Beer, 47, an immigrant to Israel from Cleveland, Ohio. More than 100 people were injured, including Sarri Singer, 30, a daughter of New Jersey State Sen. Robert Singer.

Less than an hour after the blast, a missile attack on a car killed nine Palestinians, including two senior Hamas fugitives.

The Israeli strikes make it increasingly difficult for Abbas to negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas and other militant groups.

Abbas' position has been shaky and Israel's renewed campaign against militants further undermines it. Palestinian officials have said Bush backed the Palestinians' proposal to try to persuade Hamas to lay down arms, instead of using force against the group.

The road map asks Israel to refrain from actions that could undermine trust, but does not specifically veto targeted killings of suspected militants or Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat  , shunted aside in recent weeks in the peace effort, returned to center stage, summoning reporters and reading a statement calling on all Palestinian factions to cease fire.

Abbas also appealed for "a full commitment from all parties to a cease-fire, to stop violence and to immediately move into a serious implementation of road map."

Jerusalem Blast Kills 16; 7 Die in Gaza

JERUSALEM - A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding nearly 70. An hour later, an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing two Hamas officials and at least five other people and wounding 30.

A visibly angry President Bush   condemned the Jerusalem bombing and urged all nations to cut off financial aid to terror groups and "isolate those who hate so much that they are willing to kill."

The Jerusalem bombing came after Hamas vowed revenge for a failed Israeli attempt Tuesday to assassinate one of the Islamic militant group's senior political leaders. The increasing cycle of violence threatens to overwhelm a U.S.-backed peace plan launched by Bush and agreed to by the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers only a week ago.

The bus blast "is a message to all the Zionist criminals that they are not safe and that the Palestinian fighters are capable of reaching them everywhere," said Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar. In Lebanon, the Hezbollah militia's Al-Manar TV reported that Hamas' military wing claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing.

The attack on bus No. 14 was carried out by a man dressed as a religious Jew, who stood up in the aisle and detonated explosives on his body, police said. The explosion went off during afternoon rush hour on Jaffa Street, Jerusalem's main thoroughfare, near Mahane Yehuda, an outdoor market that had been repeatedly targeted by Palestinian militants.

Police said 16 people were killed in the blast. Sixty-eight people were wounded, including eight who were in critical condition, paramedics said.

The blast blew out windows and tore a large hole into the left side of the red-and-white bus, peeling back its roof and blackening the inside. Passengers were hurled out by the force of the blast.

Hagid Stein, who works at a shoe store down the street, said she had just gotten off the bus. "I didn't know where to go, where to run," she said, shaking and crying. "I don't believe I'm so lucky."

Chen Knafo, a security guard at a nearby bank, said he saw a teenage girl blown out of the bus. "I took her aside and gave her first aid until a medic came," said Knafo, whose white shirt was soaked with blood.

Israel struck in Gaza about an hour later.

Witnesses said an Apache helicopter fired two missiles at a car stuck in a traffic jam in a crowded Gaza City neighborhood and then fired again after a group of people gathered around the vehicle.

Two bodies were taken from the car, one decapitated. The dead included members of Hamas' military wing, Tito Massoud, 35, and Soffil Abu Nahez, 29. Five other people also were killed, and 30 people were wounded, doctors said.

Jamil Hamdia cried as he carried his 11-year-old wounded cousin through Shifa Hospital and denounced Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who has called for Palestinians to stop attacking Israelis.

"Where is Abu Mazen to come and see?" wailed Hamdia. "Are we cheap, to be killed like this? If that makes him a good leader I think his place is not among us."

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat   condemned the Jerusalem bombing as a "terrorist" attack and called for an end to all violence. "This empty circle must stop immediately," he said. Israel and the United States have tried to squeeze Arafat out of the peace process, accusing him of backing terrorism.

Abbas, who was installed as prime minister in April, joined Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon   and Bush at a summit last week in Jordan to formally launch the "road map," a U.S.-backed plan for peace and Palestinian statehood by 2005. Since then, violence has grown bloodier.

Sharon said Israel was committed to carrying on with the peace process and to safeguarding its people.

"The state of Israel will continue to pursue until the end the terrorists and those that send them," he said. "I will take all measures to protect the citizens of Israel."

Sharon spokesman Ranaan Gissin said the breakdown in the peace effort was "definitely not by any fault of ours."

"We have gone beyond anything that the other side has done in order to show our goodwill," he told CNN. "But we don't see any real response on the other side of taking even the smallest steps to stop terrorist activity."

Palestinian Cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called on the Americans to intervene to stop "this cycle of violence."

The Israelis "want to drown the road map in a sea of blood." he told CNN.

Bush upbraided Israel on Tuesday for its attack on Hamas political leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Israel tried to kill Rantisi with a missile strike in Gaza, but he escaped with wounds, and two other Palestinians were killed. Bush and the Palestinians said Tuesday's attack made it harder for Abbas to persuade militants to cease fire.

After the bus bombing, Rantisi told The Associated Press from his hospital bed: "The Zionists will pay an expensive price for all of their crimes." The bus attack "took place at a time when the Zionists were on utmost alert, more evidence that our people will not be defeated," he said.

Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide bomb attacks in Israel, killing more than 300 people.

Abbas opposes a crackdown on Hamas and other militias, warning it could spark civil war, and is trying to persuade them to stop attacks.

Those attempts continued Wednesday. Egypt's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, met with Arafat and Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah, carrying a message from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak   that he is willing to host cease-fire talks between Palestinian leaders and militia groups. Suleiman renewed an earlier Egyptian proposal that Hamas and the other militants agree to a one-year truce. The armed groups have rebuffed the offer in the past.

U.N. Nuclear Experts in Iraq to Check on Looting

BAGHDAD  - United Nations   nuclear experts returned to Iraq   on Friday for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion to check on looting at a research facility.

Brian Rens, leader of the seven-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team that flew in from Kuwait, said their mission was to verify nuclear material at the Tuwaitha site, not to look for any weapons of mass destruction.

"That is not our objective. It is to establish what materials have been removed from the site and what remains and to secure that material and to place it under seal, an agency seal," he told reporters at the Rasheed hotel in Baghdad.

Rens said the team would visit the site at the sprawling Tuwaitha compound, Iraq's main nuclear facility, 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Baghdad, on Saturday or Sunday.

U.S. forces say they have recovered about 100 barrels and five radiological devices possibly looted from the site.

Some locals who unwittingly washed clothes or stored food in the barrels say children are falling ill.

Rens said he doubted there was a serious radiological problem at the site, a three-building storage facility.

"The type of materials that are there are more of a contamination risk than a radiation risk," he said. "Obviously this material is not to be ingested or inhaled. It is toxic by nature, so there is a health risk."

U.S. Army Colonel Mickey Freeland, heading a military liaison team that will escort the IAEA mission, said the U.S.- led civil administration had launched a separate effort to check for environmental and health damage in the area.

The IAEA team, operating under tight U.S. restrictions, is barred from the rest of the Tuwaitha complex and will have no access to six other nuclear sites that may have been looted.

More than 500 tonnes of natural uranium and 1.8 tonnes of low-enriched uranium were stored at Tuwaitha, plus smaller amounts of highly radioactive caesium, cobalt and strontium.

WEAPONS MYSTERY

The United States wants to draw a clear line between the team's mission and pre-war inspections carried out under U.N. Security Council resolutions on disarmament.

Council members, including Britain, have urged Washington to allow the return of U.N. nuclear and other arms inspectors withdrawn just before the war, but have made no headway.

Instead, a team of experts from the United States and its allies is expanding the hunt for ousted president Saddam Hussein  's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

No such weapons have been discovered since the United States and Britain invaded Iraq on March 20 to topple him.

The failure to find the arms, cited by the two powers as the main justification for the war, has fueled controversy over whether they misled the world over the threat posed by Iraq, or acted on faulty, or slanted, intelligence.

A U.S. defense official said on Friday that a Defense Intelligence Agency report written in September 2002, when the Bush administration was pushing for war, made clear it did not have enough "reliable information" Iraq was amassing chemical weapons.

The 80-plus page classified report said intelligence indicated Iraq probably did have chemical and other weapons but that there was just not enough reliable intelligence to fully back up this claim.

"The way it's briefed is in the category of 'hey, we think this is going on' (but we don't have absolute proof)," he said.

Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix said on Friday banned arms might eventually be found. If not, the question arose as to why the Iraqis had failed to prove their innocence by cooperating fully with the inspectors, which might have averted war.

He told BBC radio possible explanations included the pride of the Iraqis and the megalomania of their leader. "I think that Saddam probably figured himself as Emperor of Mesopotamia and they regarded all inspections as intrusions."

Bush Says Terror 'Must Be Defeated'

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - Arab leaders, meeting with President Bush   as he plunged into the labyrinth of Mideast peace talks, pledged on Tuesday to fight terror and violence and called on Israel to "rebuild trust and restore normal Palestinian life

"We will continue to fight the scourge of terrorism against humanity and reject the culture of extremism and violence in any form or shape — from whatever source or place, regardless of justifications or motives," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak   said, reading a statement on behalf of the leaders of Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia — all U.S. allies — and the Palestinian Authority  .

"We will use all the power of the law to prevent support reaching illegal organizations including terrorist groups," Mubarak said.

Bush, at the edge of the Red Sea, with Mubarak at his side, said: "We meet in Sinai at a moment of promise for the cause of peace in the Middle East."

Terror threatens the United States, Israel and the emergence of a Palestinian state, he said.

"Terror must be opposed and it must be defeated," Bush said.

But Bush, making his first major foray into Middle East peacemaking, made clear that both Arabs and Israelis bear responsibility for achieving peace. "Israel must deal with the settlements," he said. "Israel must make sure there's a continuous territory that the Palestinians can call home."

Tuesday's meeting served as a prelude to face-to-face talks Wednesday among Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon   and his counterpart, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, in Jordan.

The Arab leaders embraced the internationally crafted "road map" for peace, which calls for an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

"We support the determination of the Palestinian Authority to fulfill its responsibilities to end violence and to restore law and order," Mubarak said as Abbas looked on.

At the same time, Mubarak added: "Israel must fulfill its own responsibilities to rebuild trust and restore normal Palestinian life, and carry out other obligations under the road map."

The Arab leaders' statement, however, contained few specifics in terms of what Arab leaders were willing to do to advance the peace plan. Mubarak did not expressly voice strong support for Abbas as the Palestinian leader and he did not say other Arab nations were willing to follow his nation's lead in recognizing Israel's right to exist — a key step of the peace plan.

"If all sides fulfill their obligations, we can make steady progress on the road towards Palestinian statehood, a secure Israel and a just and comprehensive peace," Bush said. "We seek true peace, not just a pause between more wars and intefadehs, but a permanent reconciliation among the peoples of the Middle East."

Mubarak said they would help the Palestinian Authority fight terrorists "to allow it to consolidate its authority in democratic and accountable institutions" and would make sure that all aid to Palestinians goes to solely to their official leadership.

Bush, who initiated the summit here, was in the driver's seat — literally. He took the wheel of a large golf cart to ferry the leaders to their joint appearance at podiums set up with the sea as their backdrop. Mubarak, his eyes hidden by sunglasses, was his co-pilot.

"Achieving these goals will require courage and moral vision from every side from every leader," Bush said. "America is committed and I am committed in helping all the parties to reach the hard and heroic decisions that will lead to peace."

Also attending were Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Jordan's King Abdullah II. Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel.

Eschewing a formal session on the schedule, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer   said Bush and the five Arab leaders gathered for 90 minutes in a "spontaneous" meeting without staff. Still, they went through the motions of marching into a meeting room, briefly took their seats around a large octagonal table in front of a stand of participating nations, then broke for lunch.

Sitting at the table, Bush said: "We must not allow a few people, a few killers, a few terrorists, to destroy the dreams and hopes of the many."

Pointing directly at Abbas, Bush said, "You, sir, have got a responsibility, and you've assumed it. I want to work with you and so do the other leaders here."

U.S. officials expect the Arab leaders to express support for Abbas, not longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat  , as the Palestinian representative in negotiations with Israel.

In briefings afterward, Secretary of State Colin Powell   sought to further sideline Arafat. He said that although the United States still recognizes Arafat as an elected president who has standing with the Palestinians, "his leadership has failed."

"We are on a path to create a state for the Palestinian people," Powell said. "For Mr. Arafat to serve as a spoiler or attempt to be a spoiler, I hope will be met by resistance from all of the Arab leaders who are here today."

While Mubarak stopped short of endorsing the new Palestinian leader by name, he expressed support for his call for ending violence and maintaining law and order.

"We will ensure that our assistance to the Palestinians goes solely to the Palestinian Authority and we will continue to support efforts to improve the quality of life of the Palestinian people," he said.

Syria on Tuesday slammed the Sharm El Sheik summit, accusing the United States of being one-sided in its desire to combat Mideast terrorism — paying more attention to Palestinian suicide bombers than to violence by Israeli troops.

It seems that the terrorism the United States wants to fight is "martyrdom operations against the Israeli occupation," the state-run Damascus Radio said. "In the meantime, Israeli occupation, crimes of mass punishment, killing women, children and youngsters and destroying houses, farms and crops come in the framework of self-defense."

The United States is promising to increase its presence in the region. Bush was expected to name John S. Wolf, assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation and a longtime Foreign Service veteran, to head a new U.S.-led monitoring team that will track whether Israeli and Palestinian officials keep their obligations.

President Bush Arrives in Middle East

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - President Bush   arrived in the Middle East today, stopping in Egypt ahead of a trip to Jordan for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

In his first personal foray into Middle East peace talks, President Bush pledged Monday to "put in as much time as necessary" to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians and help them live side by side.

Bush, on the eve of two days of talks with leaders in the region, said he knew it would not be an easy task to end years of hostility in the region. But he told reporters, "I think we'll make some progress. I know we're making progress."

After staying aloof from the Middle East for 18 months as violence between the two sides escalated, Bush became the first president specifically to endorse a Palestinian state. But he said it could come only with a more democratic Palestinian system and without Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat  , the longtime symbol of the Palestinian movement.

Bush cut short his attendance at an economic summit of world leaders in Evian, France, on Monday to come to this Egyptian resort town. He planned to press Arab leaders to do more to show open support for new Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. officials said.

On Wednesday, Bush planned to participate in a three-way summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon  .

Bush was seeking commitments from Middle East leaders on how to carry out a U.S.-backed peace plan that would lead to creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. He said steps forward would only come if "people assume their responsibilities."

Speaking from Rome, Secretary of State Colin Powell   said U.S. officials working on the text of final statements planned for after the Aqaba meetings were "encouraged by what they have been able to achieve so far."

"We expect that positive statements will be forthcoming," Powell said. "But you know, statement writing always goes down to the last minute as people try to present one position or another."

Recent statements by Sharon acknowledging that Israeli forces' "occupation" of Palestinian territories showed that "whichever interpretation you put on that ... it's a situation that is unsustainable over time," Powell said.

Asked if the United States would apply sanctions for countries that fail to comply, a senior administration official said, "The United States is going to be in a position to assess where progress is being made and where it isn't. And to assess where the roadblocks to progress are and where they are not."