WASHINGTON: Veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, who was instrumental in the US effort to remake Afghanistan, was nominated the new US ambassador to Iraq on Tuesday.
The blunt-speaking US ambassador to Kabul was named to replace John Negroponte, who was leaving the post in Baghdad to fill the newly created position of national intelligence director.
“I am pleased to announce the president’s intention to nominate Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to be our next ambassador to Iraq,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters.
She described Zalmay Khalilzad, a 54-year-old Afghan-American, as “one of our best diplomats” with “a proven record of building consensus and achieving results in very tough situations”.
Blair admits he has lost public trust
LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted on Wednesday that the invasion of Iraq had badly eroded public trust in him, tackling one of his most difficult obstacles ahead of a May 5 general election.
In an interview with the GMTV television station, Mr Blair, who announced the election date on Tuesday, was asked whether his backing for the invasion had done more to erode public trust in him than anything else.
“Yes, I would accept that,” he said.
“I think trust is also about the things we promised in 1997 (when he was first elected), but you are right, Iraq has been a difficult issue for me,” Mr Blair said.—AFP
Saddam watches election on TV
BAGHDAD:Saddam Hussein watched the election of Iraq’s new president on video on Wednesday and was shaken by what he saw, the country’s human rights minister said.
“He was clearly upset. He realised that it was over, that a democratic process had taken place and that there was a new, elected president,” Bakhtiar Amin said.
“It was not just the fact that there was a new president, but that the president was a Kurd. And the previous interim president became a vice-president. What’s more, it all happened without bloodshed,” he said.
Saddam Hussein watched a video recording of Jalal Talabani’s election, broadcast live on television, in his prison cell at Camp Cropper, a US-run high security facility on the outskirts of Baghdad.—Reuters
Employ 40 per cent women, firms told
OSLO: Norway will shut companies that refuse to recruit at least 40 per cent women to their boards by 2007 under an unprecedented equality drive, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.
“Companies have been dragging their feet. They really have to recruit more women,” Children and Family Affairs Minister Laila Daavoey told Reuters. “In the very worst case, they will face closure.”
Norway’s parliament told firms in 2002 to ensure at least 40 per cent of each sex in boardrooms by mid-2005.—Reuters
7 killed in BD
stampede
By Our Correspondent
DHAKA: At least seven people were killed in a stampede on Wednesday, as pilgrims rushed for a holy bathing during a Hindu festival in Bangladesh’s southwest district of Gopalganj, some 230 kilometres from Dhaka.
The incident took place in the morning as thousands of people gathered at Orakandi, the birthplace of Sri Sri Harichand Thakur, to attend the weeklong Baruni Fair — a bathing festival.
A police official said the festival was opened to people in the morning and thousands of people started gathering at the site with the sunrise.
Darfur trials
By Masood Haider
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday handed over to the International Criminal Court a sealed list of 51 names of people blamed for war crimes in the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Thursday to refer alleged cases of rape, mass killings, village burnings and other atrocities to the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal.
