WORLD NEWS
Monthly Herald Staff Writer, Allan Bloom
Air Force transport plane at Toussaint Louverture International Airport on Monday and ran to make a secure perimeter around the aircraft before the other marines disembarked. Western diplomats and a U.S. Defence Department official said the goal for the 50 marines would be to protect the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and its staff. Guy Philippe, the rebel leader, had said on Sunday that Port-au-Prince would be his next target. Cap-Haitien is just 145 kilometres north of Port-au-Prince, but is a gruelling seven-hour drive over potholed roads sometimes reduced to bedrock. "I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti," Philippe said. Sunday's victory means more than half of Haiti now is beyond the control of the central government. The takeover of Cap-Haitien by only some 200 fighters was the most significant victory since the uprising began on Feb. 5. At least 17 were killed in Sunday's fighting, raising the toll to about 70 dead and dozens wounded in the revolt. In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of armed Aristide supporters set up more than a dozen barricades on the road leading north, near the international airport. Their tension was evident as they banged on a car with rifle butts and waved shotguns and pistols at vehicles to force them to stop. "We are ready to resist, with anything we have - rocks, machetes," said a teacher guarding one roadblock, who gave his name only as Rincher.
Bin Laden deputy criticizes French law banning Islamic headscarves in schools
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - An audiotape purported to be from Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and aired on an Arabic television channel Tuesday criticized France's decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools as proof of the West's hostility toward Islam. "The decision of the French president to issue a law to prevent Muslim girls from covering their eads in schools is another example of the crusader envy that the westerners have against Muslims," the voice said in the tape aired on the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya satellite channel. ...They brag of freedoms and democracy and human rights," the voice said. "This envy that boils in their hearts and overflows in their chests and they pass it on to the generations." The French government has moved to enact a law that aims to keep religion out of its schools. Parliament's lower house overwhelmingly passed a bill this month banning Islamic headscarves as well as other visible religious signs in secular schools. The bill is expected to go before the French Senate early next month, where little opposition exists. The French decision has sparked protests across the world. CP