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| Saturday, 01 February 2003 |
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Iraqi civilians woefully unprepared for war NEW YORK, Friday (Reuters) - Iraq's already fragile public health system would collapse in any U.S.-led war and the United Nations, relief agencies and the Baghdad government are "woefully unprepared" for dealing with civilian casualties, a U.S.-based humanitarian group said. The Center for Economic and Social Rights, a civic group opposed to war in Iraq, said after a 10-day visit to the oil-rich Gulf country that most hospitals lack basic equipment, there is a shortage of medicine including antibiotics, and damage to electrical and water systems would cripple medical services. US will have access to 21 countries WASHINGTON, Friday (AFP) - The United States will have access to 21 countries should Washington go to war against Iraq, while 20 countries are committed to allow overflights, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said. The United States, Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations panel, would have "full access to 21 countries" and additional countries were "under discussion". "Twenty countries are fully committed, and three partially committed to overflights," he added. He declined to give any further details of the level of international cooperation the United States would have if it decided to use military force to disarm Iraq. Nearly half million leaflets dropped over southern Iraq WASHINGTON, Friday (AFP) - Aircraft on Thursday dropped nearly 500,000 leaflets over populated areas of southern Iraq, bearing threats of more air strikes on fiber optic communications sites and warnings to civilians to avoid military areas, the US military said. The leaflets were dropped over the southern towns of An Nasiriyah, As Samaway, Qal At Sukkar, Basra, and Um Qasr. It said leaflets contained a variety of messages, including warnings that the fiber optic sites have been targeted for destruction and that repairing them will place Iraqi lives at risk. Other messages were that US and British forces can strike any time any place, that they enforce the no-fly zone to protect the Iraqi people, and that coalition forces do not wish to hurt the Iraqi people so they should avoid areas occupied by the military. US, UK labour leaders caution Bush on Iraq invasion WASHINGTON, Friday (Reuters) - Top U.S. and British labour officials urged their countries' leaders to invade Iraq only as a last resort and warned that a war without broad support could provoke retaliatory terrorist attacks. The plea for caution from the leaders of labor movements that historically have supported their governments in wartime, comes as U.S. President George W. Bush ratchets up his efforts to convince reluctant allies and much of the American public that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat. In a letter to Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Trades Union Congress General Secretary John Monks agreed that Iraq needed to be stripped of weapons of mass destruction and that working people were ready to go to war if necessary. World poets see no rhyme or reason for Iraq war MONTREAL, Friday (Reuters) - A group of more than 100 English-language poets who banded together to produce a electronic book of poems speaking out against a war on Iraq hopes to expand the project, its editor said on Thursday. Todd Swift, a 36-year-old published Montreal poet who lives part of the year in Paris, edited poems sent in by writers from around the world over just one week. They were published in an electronic anthology coinciding with the report earlier this week by U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix. Entitled "100 Poets against the War," the 95-page electronic book can be download free at "www.nthposition.com," a London-based online magazine. |
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