US warns of possible terror
against Panama Canal
A US diplomat in Panama has warned
of possible terrorist attack
against the Panama Canal, an
important inter-ocean waterway for
world ships, the local newspaper
El Panama America reported on
Tuesday.
Terrorists
could use vessels, which cross the
canal every day, loaded with
petroleum, gas or chemical
substances, as bombs, said Jean
Beathel, political affairs adviser
in the US embassy in Panama.
Beathel
said Washington remains concerned
about the safety of the canal
because the canal is a maritime
border of the United States with
global trade.
Although
there is no specific intelligence
about a possible attack against
the canal, Panamanian authorities
need to be ready to prevent it,
the diplomat stressed.
On
Dec. 31, 1999, the United States
turned over administration of the
canal to Panama.
Canada
to open embassy in Afghanistan
Canadian
Foreign Minister Bill Graham
announced on Tuesday that Canada
will officially open its embassy
in Kabul in January next year.
Graham
told reporters in Ottawa that
Canada has already had diplomatic
staff in place in Afghanistan, and
that he expects the embassy will
have a functional presence by July
this year.
Opening
the embassy itself will take
months because of security
problems there, he said.
Graham
said Canada has a significant role
to play in rebuilding Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan
is becoming an extremely important
foreign policy objective of
Canada, to reduce terrorism, to
bring back peace and
reconstruction in that troubled
and complicated country," he
said.
Part
of Canada's commitment includes
sending about 1,800 peacekeepers
to Afghanistan in August to help
maintain stability and order, he
said.
Canada
cut off diplomatic ties with
Afghanistan in 1979 after the
Soviet invasion of the country.
Relations were reestablished in
January 2002 following the ouster
of the Taliban regime.
Britain's
ruling Labor Party sees sharp fall
in membership
Membership
of Britain's ruling Labor Party
has fallen by 150,000 and for the
first time is even below the level
in July 1994 when Prime Minister
Tony Blair became the party's
leader, The Times newspaper
reported on Wednesday.
The
current number of Labor Party
members is slightly below 250,000,
the level Blair inherited from
John Smith three years before he
won the top seat in Downing Street
in 1997, the report quoted
governmental officials as saying.
Senior
Labor members denied that the Iraq
conflict was to blame because the
figure represented the position at
the end of 2002, before the war
which has divided the party, said
the report.
Instead,
officials pointed to the attrition
rate caused simply by the rigors
of office.
"When
Mr. Blair became leader, we had
not been in office for six
years," said Eddie Morgan,
Labor's assistant general
secretary.
"Being
in office for six years is a
different place from being in
Opposition... All we can do is
present the figures. Some people
will interpret it as fine, some as
bad, but I think it is unfair to
compare with 1994 or 1984,"
he said.
The
number of Labor members peaked at
405,000 in 1997 at the time of
Blair's first general election
victory. His leadership campaign
featured a pledge to make Labor a
"mass membership" party.
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