In a development certain to strain the "coalition of the willing," the Italian Military Health Observatory has concluded 109 Italian soldiers have died after being exposed exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq, stressing 41 percent of active personnel casualties are disease-related.
"The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents," said Domenico Leggiero, an official at the body. "Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium."
Leggiero criticized the fact the Italian senate had not established a committee to investigate the effects of DU on the health of military personnel. "It is proof of a worrying lack of oversight on matters which are frankly dramatic," he said.
Leggiero and other staff have are petitioned the government to hold hearings "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death toll among our serving soldiers."
A 5-year, $6 million study, analyzed for the Italian Defense Department by Batelle Memorial Institute came to a diametrically opposite conclusion, however. It noted even in extreme cases, exposure to "aerosolized" DU did not pose a health risk.
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In a move certain to infuriate the Kremlin, Russia's Committees of Soldiers' Mothers will begin talks with breakaway Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's emissary Akhmed Zakayev to explore solutions to the Chechen conflict.
Committee Chairwoman Valentina Melnikova spoke to the London-based Zakayev, who offered to initiate negotiations. Melnikova agreed to a "meeting in a Western European capital in November." Maskhadov told Russian media he was ready for the talks. Melnikova's organization has not yet contacted any Russian officials on its initiative, "and no officials have contacted us regarding this issue," she said. "We must, after all, look for other approaches to finding a solution to the Chechen problem, including the use of popular diplomacy."
The Duma will shortly begin an investigation into the organization's finances in the wake of an incident in which a committee member was charged with accepting bribes. Duma deputies say the group is financed by unspecified organizations seeking to undermine the Russian army. The organization says more than 12,000 soldiers have been killed in Chechnya since September 1999.
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Despite the decapitation of two of three Macedonian workers abducted in Iraq, Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva said the country will "stay the course" and not reduce its presence.
A three-member Macedonian government team led by Deputy Foreign Minister Fuad Hasanovic flew to Qatar to verify the authenticity of a videotape showing the execution of the Macedonians. "Macedonian authorities didn't receive a political request or a ransom plea for the freedom of the three Macedonian citizens," he said.
Militants seized the three Macedonians, who worked for a U.S. building company, in August. Al-Jazeera TV station broadcasted segments of the videotape provided by the Islamic Army of Iraq, which announced that it had killed Zoran Naskovski and Dalibor Lazarevski because of their "espionage in favor of U.S. forces." Macedonia has 32 troops stationed north of Baghdad as well as hundreds of working in the country.
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In a small but telling symbol of Chile's movement away from the darker aspects of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship, the government and armed forces have reached an agreement to put out the "Llama Eterna de la Libertad" ("Eternal Flame of Liberty") lit by Pinochet in 1975 to mark the coup that brought him to power two years earlier.
Earlier in the month, it looked as though economics might succeed where politics had failed, as no one stepped forward to pay the $3,100 bill owed to the national gas company for the first half of 2003.
Fifteen years after end of Pinochet's dictatorship the wish of its victims' relatives has finally been answered.