U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, right, chats with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at a two-day conference of Sri Lanka donors in Tokyo Monday, June 10, 2003. The conference on rebuilding Sri Lanka wrapped up with pledges of aid worth more than $4.5 billion.
U.S. Urges Japan to Get Involved in Iraq
TOKYO - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage urged Japan on Tuesday to get "onto the playing field" in Iraq, a show of support for controversial talk in Tokyo of sending troops to help rebuild the country.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi wants to submit legislation allowing the military to aid reconstruction. But critics say it would violate Japan's constitution.
"I'm hoping the nation will decide to get out of the stands and onto the playing field," Armitage told reporters at a Tokyo conference to raise money for Sri Lankan civil war reconstruction.
Did you get my ping?It's a stinging critique of the media and everyone who believed the Iraqi museum employees.
German soldiers of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) pray near the coffins of soldiers killed in Afghanistan during a memorial service, at a military base in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, June 10, 2003. Hundreds of peacekeepers paid tribute to four German peacekeepering soldiers killed over the weekend.
German Victims Remembered in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan - Hundreds of peacekeepers held a solemn service in Afghanistan 's capital Tuesday to honor four German soldiers killed over the weekend in the deadliest terror attack on the multinational force.
The bodies left Kabul on a military flight headed for Termez, Uzbekistan, and then Cologne, Germany, where official funeral ceremonies will be attended by German government ministers, said German Lt. Col. Thomas Lobbering, spokesman for the 29-nation peacekeeping force.
In Kabul, peacekeepers in flak jackets stood at attention as four military trucks draped in black sheets, each bearing a wooden coffin covered with the German flag, drove out of the military base toward the airport under tight security.