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Saturday, 21 December 2024
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Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 03-04-09Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation at <http://www.cybc.com.cy/>CONTENTS
[01] HeadlinesSporadic shooting and tank fire sounded across Baghdad as U.S. Marines combed through a teeming Muslim Shi'ite district in the northeast and Army infantry prepared to push in from the west of the city,Looters today attacked major sites in the Iraqi capital, including U.N. headquarters and around the Olympic Committee building, as police and other officials were absent from major streets, and It is a historic day for Cyprus and nine other European Union candidate countries. The European parliament is holding a meeting in Strasburg and is expected to approve the accession of the new members. [02] Baghdad wrapSporadic shooting and tank fire sounded across Baghdad as U.S. Marines combed through a teeming Muslim Shi'ite district in the northeast and Army infantry prepared to push in from the west of the city.After one of the quietest nights since the U.S.-led war to topple President Saddam Hussein began on March 20, thousands of Marines moved block by block through the urban sprawl of Saddam City, squeezing out resistance. Across the capital, parts of the 1st Brigade of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division prepared to thrust into the centre of the city from their base at the international airport in the southwest. The infantry's 3rd Brigade in the northwest was sweeping down to the west of the Tigris river which divides the Iraqi capital and armoured units of the 2nd Brigade, which hold a presidential palace compound in the heart of Baghdad, were slowly expanding their operations. Iraqi Information Ministry officials who have shadowed foreign reporters through nearly three weeks of war were nowhere to be seen at the Palestine hotel early today. A Reuters correspondent, travelling with a unit of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, saw them encounter very little opposition, getting a largely warm reception as they swept the poor residential district of Saddam City. The district is home to around two million Iraqis, mainly from the Shi'ite Muslim majority, who have traditionally been marginalised by the Sunni ruling elite, most lately by Saddam's Sunni-dominated government. The few local residents on the streets cheered and clapped the U.S. troops. U.S. planes flew low overhead and Marines laid down a long barrage of U.S. artillery which appeared to be "prep" fire, aimed at clearing a space free of Iraqi soldiers or paramilitary fighters for the advancing American troops. But despite their success in seizing key buildings in the centre of Baghdad, U.S. officials have stressed the continued dangers facing their forces as they tighten their grip on the city of five million. [03] US victoryA U.S. military spokesman said it was too early to talk of the battle for Baghdad and the war to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein being over.Captain Frank Thorp told Reuters at Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar said that it is premature to talk about the end of this operation yet," There may be many more fierce fighting days, he added, as coalition forces continue to move within Baghdad and within the country. [04] Looters BaghdadLooters today attacked major sites in Baghdad, including U.N. headquarters and around the Olympic Committee building, as police and other officials were absent from major streets.Reuters Television crews watched cheering crowds sack the U.N. headquarters in the Canal Hotel to the east of the centre and drive off in U.N. cars. Another eyewitness saw looters raid sports shops around the bombed Iraqi Olympic Committee building, the effective headquarters of President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday. Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis said authority appeared to have broken down in the capital as U.S. troops moved in. He could see no police in the main central thoroughfares. [05] Cyprus journalistsThe Cyprus Union of Journalists is organising a protest march tomorrow, over the killing of foreign journalists in Baghdad. Members of the press will march from the House of Representatives building to the American embassy, where they will hand over a resolution as well as an announcement by the International Journalists Federation, condemning the attacks. Meanwhile, the board of the Cyprus Union of Journalists has condemned the bombing of the Palestine hotel in Baghdad and the offices of the Arab television stations Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi, as a brutal crime of war and a barbaric act against the freedom of the press and the right to information.[06] Northern frontU.S. and Kurdish forces took a key mountain from which Iraqis were defending the northern city of Mosul, removing the last of the city's defences.Hoshiyar Zebari, political adviser to Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani, said that U.S. forces, allied with local Kurdish fighters, took the Maqloub mountain, some 15 kilometers, northeast of Mosul, early today. Asked if there was any likely Iraqi resistance between the mountain and Mosul, Zebari said: "No, basically the city has fallen." Asked if the U.S. forces and Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters would now march on Iraq's third largest city, some 390 kilometers, north of Baghdad, he said: "I believe so." But he stressed that the peshmerga would not do so alone. This is a sensitive issue for Kurds, who want to retake the two historically Kurdish cities, while avoiding antagonising neighbouring Turkey, which has a large Kurdish minority of its own and fears Iraqi Kurds may attempt to set up a Kurdish state. Turkey had threatened to send in its own troops to northern Iraq, and has come under U.S. pressure not to do so, but Iraqi Kurds still see a possible Turkish incursion as a major concern. It was not immediately clear how many U.S. forces and Kurdish fighters were involved in the assault on the mountain. [07] Israel pipelineIsrael and Jordan will hold meetings about the possibility of restarting an oil pipeline from Iraq to Israel via Jordan that was closed 55 years ago.An Israeli infrastructure ministry source told Reuters minister Joseph Paritzky will meet Jordanian officials about restarting the pipeline, which sent Iraqi oil from Mosul to the northern Israeli port of Haifa during the British mandate period, on the assumption a pro-Western government will be set up following the U.S.-led war. The source said Paritzky believes restarting the pipeline could reduce Israel's fuel costs by 25 percent and turn Haifa into "the Rotterdam of the Middle East". The flow of Iraqi oil to Haifa stopped in 1948 with the end of the British mandate and the Israeli War of Independence that followed and the establishment of Israel. [08] EuroparliamentIt is a historic day for Cyprus and nine other European Union candidate countries. The European parliament is holding a meeting in Strasburg and is expected to approve the accession of the new members. The 626 euro mps will make their own separate arguments on the candidacy of each of the ten countries, with their approval being a precondition for the signing of the accession Treaty in Athens, in exactly a week, on the 16th of April.[09] Hit and runA freak hit and run accident has shocked people in Limassol. An eight year old boy, riding a bike, was hit by a car, whose driver fled the scene. The boy, suffered light injuries and is being treated at a private clinic. Police have launched a manhunt for the driver, with the only known detail being that his/her car was white.[10] Pneumonia wrapMalaysia today became the first country to bar tourists from mainland China where a doctor accused the health minister of covering up the SARS virus that has killed more than 100 people worldwide.An official in Kuala Lumpur, capital of the Southeast Asian country, said Malaysian missions in China would no longer issue tourist visas in a bid to halt the spread of the disease. Chinese travelling for government or business reasons were still welcome so long as they carried health certificates declaring that they had no symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. A Chinese military doctor accused the health minister of covering up the number of people in the teeming capital of Beijing infected by SARS. The flu-like disease has infected more than two thousand eight hundred people in about 20 countries with nearly half the cases in China, followed by Hong Kong. Although the epidemic is small, it concerns doctors because the virus is new and has a death rate of nearly four percent. Canada is one of the countries hardest hit by SARS, with some 226 people infected and 10 reported deaths. The virus was carried to Canada by air passengers from Asia. The virus is deepening the malaise in the key tourism industry, already hurt by the war in Iraq and the Bali bombings last year. Hotels and regional airlines go empty as travellers avoid Asia. [11] WeatherIt will be mainly fine this afternoon. Winds will be moderate southwesterly to northwesterly, force four to five over slight seas. Temperatures will reach 22 degrees inland and on the coasts and 14 on the mountains. Tonight, fine weather will continue. Winds will be light westerly to northwesterly, force three, over slight seas. Temperatures will fall to nine degrees inland and on the southeastern coasts, 12 on the western and southern coasts and five on the mountains. The depth of snow on mount Olympus is 20 centimetres.Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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