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GOSSIPS AND NEWS ON THE MAGIC CARPET. GOSSIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
US
mourns fallen football playerA former professional American football player who gave up a glittering career to join the US army has been killed in south-east Afghanistan.
Pat Tillman had been offered a $3.6m (£2m) contract to play for the American football team, the Arizona Cardinals. But, six months after the 11 September 2001 attacks, he enlisted in the army for an annual salary of $18,000. Tillman was killed in a gunfight in Khost province, south of Kabul, where US forces are hunting Osama Bin Laden. The 27-year-old football star made the decision to join the army after returning from his honeymoon with his wife, Marie. His brother Kevin - a former professional baseball player with the Cleveland Indians - also signed up. All-American hero: Since news of the football star's death on Thursday, tributes have been flooding in from the NFL community and beyond. The White House praised him as "an inspiration both on and off the football field". "His family is in the thoughts and prayers of President and Mrs Bush," said a White House spokesman. Senior Senator John McCain, who represents Arizona, said the death "will seem a heavy blow to our nation's morale". "Many American families have suffered the same terrible sacrifice that Pat's family must now bear," he said. "He is a hero," Cardinals Vice President Michael Bidwill said. "He was a brave man. There are very few people who have the courage to do what he did, the courage to walk away from a professional sports career and make the ultimate sacrifice." Since enlisting, Pat Tillman has stayed out of the media spotlight, refusing give interviews since leaving the Cardinals.
President Bush has spoken to his top general in the Middle East to discuss security in Iraq, particularly in the restive city of Falluja. General John Abizaid visited Falluja on Saturday to assess the situation. A ceasefire is in place, but the US military have threatened to resume their assault unless militia fighters give up their heavy weapons. Elsewhere, security is being stepped up around Iraq's offshore oil facilities after two terminals were targeted. General Abizaid and the chief US administrator Paul Bremer went to Falluja on Saturday as "part of our effort to reach a peaceful solution", said spokesman Dan Senor. A deal appeared to have been struck on Saturday to set up joint US-Iraqi patrols and ban firearms from the streets of the city. A BBC correspondent with the US Marines outside Falluja says the agreement seems to have averted another push by American forces, who have been preparing for a possible offensive. But she notes that it is similar to a previous deal which was not fully implemented.
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Falluja has been at the heart of the anti-US insurgency
The New York Times reported in its Sunday edition that Mr Bush and his senior aides were expected to decide this week whether to order a resumption of the offensive in Falluja. US marines launched their operations against the city on 5 April following the murder of four American security contractors there at the end of March. Saturday saw the first maritime attacks on Iraqi oil installations since the March 2003 US-led invasion of the country. Three boats exploded in apparently co-ordinated suicide attacks near two Iraqi oil terminals in the Gulf, off the southern city of Basra. Two American sailors were killed and five were injured when their vessel tried to intercept one of the boats. The oil terminals were reported to be undamaged. But the attacks capped a grim day of violence and explosions across Iraq that left more than 30 Iraqis dead and about 42 wounded. A series of rocket attacks in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday killed on at least four Iraqis and injured 12 others, Iraqi police said. The buildings hit included a hotel, a hospital, a police building and a local television station.