| Rice: |
| “Thousands” of
errors in Iraq |
agencies
U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted
on Friday the United States had probably made
thousands of errors in Iraq but defended the
overall strategy of removing Saddam Hussein.
Local Muslims and anti-war activists told Rice
to "Go Home" when British counterpart
Jack Straw earlier led her on a tour of his home
town of Blackburn in the industrial northwest,
an area which rarely plays host to overseas politicians.
"
Yes, I know we have made tactical errors, thousands
of them," she said in answer to a question
over whether lessons had been learned since the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"
I believe strongly that it was the right strategic
decision, that Saddam had been a threat to the
international community long enough," she
added.
Earlier, about 250 protesters gathered outside
a school which Rice visited, waving placards
urging her to go home and shouting as her
motorcade arrived.
Many of them were locals from Straw's constituency
of Blackburn, a former cotton town with a
20 percent Muslim population. Straw invited
Rice
to the area after he toured her home state
of Alabama last year.
Protesters had already persuaded a mosque
in the town to withdraw its invitation to
her.
"
The Muslim population is very angry. She's not
welcome in Blackburn," said Suliman, one
of the demonstrators outside Pleckgate school,
where Rice met young pupils.
"
How many lives per gallon?" asked one of
the placards held aloft, in reference to the
U.S. invasion of oil-rich Iraq which many Britons
opposed.
During a visit to a Student Council meeting
at the school, Rice was asked whether
she was upset
by the demonstrators.
"
Oh, it's OK, people have a right to protest and
a right to make their views known," Rice
told the teenage student.
"
Each individual all over the world has the God-given
right to express themselves. I'm not just going
to visit places where people agree with me. That
would be really unfortunate."
SYMPATHY FOR EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS
Rice delivered her speech alongside
Straw in the somewhat incongruous
setting of
Blackburn Rovers' soccer stadium,
where she was given
a Number 10 jersey from one of England's
teams.
She arrived in Britain late on Thursday
from Paris and, before that, Berlin,
where she
discussed the next steps in dealing
with Iran's nuclear
program with officials from Germany,
France, Britain, Russia and China.
Rice said she supported Straw's view
that sanctions should be considered
against Iran if it does
not comply with calls to abandon
its nuclear
ambitions.
"
Iran is going to have to make a choice... accept
a way to the development of civil nuclear power...
or face deeper isolation," said Rice.
While Rice and Straw both had tough
words to say about Iran, they expressed
sympathy
for
the victims of an earthquake which
killed at least
66 people in the west of the country.
"
(It's) very shocking, with what seems to be a
large loss of life," Straw said during a
visit to a Britain Aerospace factory where the
United States and Britain are involved in a joint
project for fighter aircraft.
Rice's trip is expected to be
heavy on photo opportunities
and light
on discussion,
as
was Straw's trip to the American
south in October.
It will give Rice a chance
to indulge her passion for
The Beatles.
She
was due later
to travel
to Liverpool where she will
attend a concert and visit
a performing
arts center
founded
by former Beatle Paul McCartney.
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| More
than 1,200 people injured |
| Iran earthquake
kills 70 |
agencies
A
strong earthquake hit western Iran on Friday,
killing at least 70 people and devastating villages,
a provincial official said.
More than 1,200 people were injured in an area
around the cities of Doroud and Boroujerd in
the province of Lorestan, said Ali Barani, head
of the provincial emergency team for disasters.
Some survivors were dug out of the rubble of
buildings alive, rescue officials said. In the
worst hit areas, brick buildings collapsed into
piles of masonry and mud homes were reduced to
mounds of dust.
Barani said 330 village in the area were severely
damaged but the death toll was unlikely to rise
much further.
"
If there are any changes, it will be very few," he
said by phone from Lorestan.
Strong tremors on Thursday night helped keep
the toll down because they drove many to leave
their homes and take to the streets well before
the big quake hit on Friday morning.
Moussa Shaban, 42, in the quake-hit village of
Garaj, said the earlier shocks had prompted his
wife and six children to sleep outside but his
aging mother had refused. She was killed when
the main magnitude 6.0 quake hit.
"
I told her to come out, I said 'Don't stay inside
tonight, it's dangerous'. But she said 'No, the
earthquake is over'," he said, standing
next to his shattered home in Garaj, 30 km (20
miles) southwest of Boroujerd.
Nearby, a group of women in long black Islamic
dress wailed in mourning for Shaban's mother
and another man killed.
Families in other villages had similar tales
about how they had managed to escape being
buried under their homes.
Hospitals were full in Doroud and Boroujerd,
state radio reported. Lorestan Governor-General
Mohammad Reza Mohseni-Sani appealed for aid
from neighbouring areas.
U.S. AID OFFER
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered emergency
relief sent to the quake zone, IRNA said. It
included sniffer dogs to search for survivors
and two helicopters, state television said.
The United States, which has had no diplomatic
ties with Iran since U.S. diplomats were held
hostage in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution,
also offered humanitarian assistance.
"
I do want to offer my country's assistance to
the people affected by the recent earthquakes
in Iran," U.S. President George W. Bush
told a news conference during a visit to Mexico.
"
We obviously have our differences with the Iranian
government but we do care about the suffering
of Iranian people," Bush said.
The United States sent aid for a 2003 quake
in Bam, 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast
of Tehran which killed about 31,000.
In Geneva, the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,
using
information
from the Iranian Red Crescent, said rescue
teams had been mobilised.
The United Nations said it was sending
a team to assess the damage. It said reports
had confirmed
66 dead and 1,200 injured, but "the number
of affected persons is expected to rise."
"
According to provincial authorities, the most
urgent needs include blankets, tents, heaters
and food," the U.N. office said, adding
that the Iranian government has not at this point
requested international assistance.
There are no major oil facilities in
the area. Iran is crisscrossed with
seismic faultlines. The worst recorded earthquake
was in 1990,
when a 7.7 quake in the northeast killed
35,000
people.
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