Portal:Current events/2003 March 10

March 10, 2003 (2003-03-10) (Monday)

• Iraq disarmament crisis: The White House press secretary, paraphrasing the President, stated "If the United Nations fails to act, that means the United Nations will not be the international body that disarms Saddam Hussein. Another international body will disarm Saddam Hussein."
• Iraq disarmament crisis: *Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, stated "If the US and others were to go outside the [Security] Council and take military action it would not be in conformity with the [UN] Charter".
• French president Jacques Chirac declares that France will veto a UN resolution sponsored by Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The resolution would authorise use of force against Iraq unless that country proves its disarmament by March 17.
• North Korea test-fires a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan. This is North Korea's second recent such launch.
• Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines said to a crowd in London: "We do not want this war, we do not want this violence, and we are ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.
• Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov announced that Russia would veto a UN resolution by the US and the UK authorising the use of force against Iraq.
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan is elected to the Turkish parliament and is expected to become prime minister shortly. Erdogan supports deployment of US troops in Turkey and is expected to call for a new vote on the issue as one of his first official acts.
• Deutsche Telekom discloses an annual loss of 24.6 billion euros.
• U.S. diplomat John Brown, who joined the State Department in 1981, resigned. He said that the Bush administration's Iraq policy was fomenting a massive rise in anti-US sentiment around the world and he could not support it.

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