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Former
German president accuses US of violating UN
Charter
The
US-led war against Iraq is a clear violation
of the UN Charter, former German President
Richard von Weizsaecker said Friday.
Interviewed on
Deutschland radio Berlin, he said that under
the UN Charter, only the UN had the right to
decide when force should be applied.
"There can
be no doubt that the opening of the Iraq war
breaks this law and that now power has been
put in place of law," von Weizsaecker
said.
According to
the results of a poll published Friday, most
Germans shared the view of von Weizsaecker,
who was German president from 1984 to 1994.
The poll by ZDF
TV channel showed that 62 percent of those
surveyed believe the US-led military strikes
against Iraq are a violation of international
law, while only 6 percent hold opposite
opinion.
The vast
majority of Germans -- 84 percent -- continue
to oppose the war, with only 13 percent in
support, the poll found.
Blix to step
down as chief UN inspector in June
Chief
United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix
said on Friday that he will step down from
current post when his contract expires in
June.
Blix, 72, was
named as chairman of UN Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission in
April 2000.
In an interview
with the Cable News Network (CNN), Blix said
when his contract expires on June 30, "it
is right time for me to go home."
Blix also
reaffirmed that the inspectors have no
confirmation that Iraq has prohibited missiles
or weapons of mass destruction.
Earlier, his
spokesman Ewen Buchanan said that Blix will
not look to renew its contract. "He was
not a volunteer and frankly speaking he hoped
to be out of here one year ago," the
spokesman added.
Blix, who
served as Sweden's foreign minister in
1976-1978 and 1979-1981, led the International
Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997.
53 people
killed in bombings on Baghdad market
Two
more bodies were pulled out from debris in a
local market which was hit by coalition's air
strikes on Friday, bringing the death toll to
53, a reporter said.
Forty nine
others were injured in the attack on al-Nasr
market in northwestern Baghdad, Jamal Ahmed
added.
Baghdad, home
to 5 million people, has been under
devastating bombings daily over the past nine
days since the outbreak of the US-led war on
Iraq on March 20.
Earlier in the
day, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said
al-Sahaf accused the US-led coalition of using
cluster bombs on Iraqi civilians. A total of
26 Iraqis were killed and 60 others injured
during the overnight bombings on the central
city of Najaf, and seven were killed and 92
others injured overnight in Baghdad, Sahaf
told reporters.
Some 116 people
have been killed and 695 injured in the
southern city of Basra since the beginning of
the war, he said. And in the southern province
of Thi Qar, 230 people have been killed and
800 injured. Defying international opposition,
the United States and Britain launched the war
in a bid to topple Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein.
Iraq has
denounced the invaders as
"criminals" and
"villains," while urging the
international community to stop the
"aggression" unconditionally.
Family of
dead British soldier refute Blair's execution
claim
Grieving
relatives of a British soldier killed in Iraq
denied British Prime Minister Tony Blair's
claim that he had been executed by Iraqi
forces, a British newspaper reported on
Friday.
Nina Allsopp,
sister of Sapper Luke Allsopp, was quoted by
The Daily Mirror as saying that the British
Army had told her that her brother had died
instantly in combat.
"The
Colonel from his barracks came around to our
house to tell us he was not executed,"
Nina Allsopp was quoted as saying. We can't
understand why people are lying about what
happened. It must be a mistake," Nina
Allsopp added.
"It's
important to us that people know the truth,
that people know what really happened,"
she said.
Allsopp, 24, is
one of the two soldiers whose bodies were
shown Wednesday by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera
television, according to the Ministry of
Defense.
Allsopp and
Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, both bomb
disposal experts with the Royal Engineers,
disappeared after their Land Rover was
attacked Sunday at Az Zubayr, near Basra in
southern Iraq.
Blair, speaking
in the United States at a joint news
conference with US President George W. Bush on
Thursday, said the two soldiers had been
"executed" by Iraqi forces and
called their treatment "an act of cruelty
beyond comprehension."
Blair's
official spokesman later said the government
"cannot be absolutely sure" the men
had been executed, but said the evidence
pointed to that conclusion.
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