From correspondents in Basra, Iraq
05mar04
IRAQI police arrested five people today travelling in a car packed with explosives in the British-controlled southern city of Basra, a local official said.
"The police arrested five Iraqis who were driving in a car with a bomb in it and who have admitted being supporters of the former regime," of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, Majed al-Tamimi said.
"They wanted to blow it up in the centre of the city," which lies 500km south of Baghdad, he said, but gave no further details.
Basra is under the control of British coalition forces and has been relatively calm since Saddam's ouster in April, as attacks have increased in northern Iraq.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Libya has destroyed 3,300 bombs capable of delivering chemical payloads and is set to give a full account of its stockpiles, the chief watchdog organization said Thursday.
Bulldozers crushed the bombs after each was disarmed and inventoried "under stringent international verification," the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said.
The week-long project was completed Wednesday, the OPCW said.
On Friday, a Libyan envoy will hand over to OPCW Director-General Rogelio Pfirter a full declaration of the country's chemical weapons, its production capacity and any industrial activity that could be involved with making outlawed weapons, as well as a plan for destroying the banned material, the organization said.
It was not clear how much of Libya's declaration will be made public.
Libya agreed in December to scrap its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction under U.S., British and United Nations supervision in return for a restoration of diplomatic ties with Washington. Last week, Washington lifted a 23-year restriction on travel to the north African state, which it had branded a terrorist state.
Pfirter said Libya was running ahead of the schedule outlined in the Chemical Weapons Convention, and praised the country's "cooperative spirit of compliance."
They should be allowed to have their wish come true - take them to some deserted location and let that bomb rip that car apart - just like they wanted. Another day innocent lives have been spared thanks to the Iraqi police - great work they did today!