Here is the itar-tass version discussing asylum...
Russia to refrain from supporting use of force in Iraq
04.03.2003
LONDON, March 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russia will refrain from supporting any decisions that may envision, directly or tentatively, a use of force against Iraq, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told a news conference at the BBC headquarters Tuesday.
"We may use our veto power on the UN Security Council if need be," he said.
"Russia is working to achieve unity at the Council, and this is only way to attain a solution to the Iraqi problem," he said.
"Iraq made instrumental the lack of unity at the UN to escape from responding to the tasks set before it in previous years," Ivanov said. "Now we are trying to convince our partners that the inspections must continue and the issue should be settled through political and diplomatic means".
He also told, that Russia "did not, does not and will not offer asylum to Saddam Hussein or the chief of another state". "An offer of asylum is interference in internal affairs," Ivanov stressed. "I will work 20 hours a day in order to prevent military operations and to attain peace settlement. It is not economic, but political interests in Iraq, to be exact, the regional peace, that make Russia to campaign for diplomatic settlement," he noted.
03/04/2003 5:40:37 AM PST
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This just in...
One American Dies After Philippine Blast Tue March 4, 2003 08:33 AM ET MANILA (Reuters) - The U.S. Embassy in Manila said on Tuesday one American had died after being severely wounded by a powerful bomb blast at an airport in the southern Philippines.
At least 18 people were killed and more than 100 wounded, including three other Americans, in the blast that ripped through a shelter outside the airport in Davao, the second-biggest city after the capital, Manila.
"One of the Americans has died," a spokesman for the embassy told Reuters. But he did not know the exact condition of the three injured Americans.
The attack came amid heightened security against attacks by Muslim separatist rebels in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.
U.S. special forces are now on the southern island of Mindanao, training Philippine units in counter-terrorism tactics in the city of Zamboanga, 350 km (220 miles) west of Davao.