French troops open fire after attack by militia in Congo
The shooting lasted 20 minutes; there were no French casualties reported. Ruth Dudley Edwards, facing page
Czechs give thumbs up to EU club CZECHS voted overwhelmingly to join the European Union in a binding nationwide referendum, according to preliminary results yesterday.
With 88 per cent of the votes counted, 77 per cent of the voters affirmed the measure, according to the state statistical office. Turnout was at 55 per cent. The move opens the way for the former communist state to join the EU along with nine other states next May. "This is a victory for the Czech people," said Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla.
US forces begin Iraq clampdown US forces today begin a new phase in their three-month occupation of Iraq: a counterinsurgency war that military officials suggest will intensify as a two-week amnesty on weapons possession expires Starting today, any Iraqi with a weapon outside their home can be attacked.
The impetus for the counterinsurgency has been increasingly bold - albeit disorganised - guerrilla attacks in recent weeks, particularly in the Sunni Muslim strongholds of Saddam supporters north and west of Baghdad. US military officials say a tough crackdown is on the way, perhaps similar to operations that killed several Iraqis and rounded up 400 others in recent days near Balad and Duluiyah, two towns north of Baghdad.
Nine anglers die as boat capsizes A CHARTER fishing boat carrying 19 people capsized off the Oregon coast yesterday, killing at least nine.
Eight survivors - a female and seven males ages 13 to 48 - were brought to Tillamook County General Hospital suffering from hypothermia and needing oxygen because of near drowning; all but one was released, hospital officials said."They hit a wave wrong and the boat capsized," nursing supervisor Heather Scovell said. "They're cold and in shock."
Third of US children facing diabetes ONE-in-three US children born in 2000 will become diabetic unless many more people start eating less and exercising more, a scientist with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warns.
The odds are worse for black and Hispanic children: nearly half of them are likely to develop the disease, said Dr KM Venkat Narayan, a diabetes epidemiologist at the CDC.
Teenage kidnapper gets life in US A TEENAGER who was 14 when he kidnapped a businessman and shot at police has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, becoming one of the youngest defendants in California history to receive the penalty. Antonio Nunez, now 16, also received four additional life terms and 121 years for being found guilty of six counts of attempted murder of a police officer, assault and street terrorism.
