Portal:Current events/2003 January 2

January 2, 2003 (Thursday)

The first 49 of a promised 1,264 West African peacekeepers arrive at Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to help supervise the cease-fire between the government of President Laurent Gbagbo and the main rebel group, the Patriotic Movement of the Ivory Coast. Rebellion against the Gbagbo government began September 19, 2002. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed to send peacekeepers on September 29. The EECOWAS peacekeepers will join 2,500 French forces. Rebel groups occupy the northern half of Ivory Coast.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrives in Ivory Coast to help mediate the conflict.
Oil leakage from the sunken tanker Prestige threatens the southwestern coast of France. The prefect of Aquitaine reported a slick from the tanker is 50 kilometers (30 standard miles) from the coast. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin promised 50 million euros for the cleanup. The Prestige, which carried 77,000 tonnes of crude oil, sunk in late November 2002, off the coast of the Galician region of Spain.
The People's Republic of China Foreign Ministry reacted to a report in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz which stated that Israel had complied with a U.S. request to suspend all contracts on the exports of arms and security equipment from the PRC to Israel. Israeli Defence Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron stated that Israel intends to "track down" all security ties with the PRC. An unnamed senior Israeli official stated that the Americans were using the pretext of protecting Taiwan to cover a proposed shift of American policy to allow direct arms sales to the PRC.
United States Army division commanders are beginning a war game at US V Corps headquarters at Heidelberg, Germany, called VICTORY SCRIMMAGE. The exercise is under the command of Lieutenant General William S. Wallace, who is expected to command American ground forces in a planned U.S. war against Iraq.
Clonaid Chief Executive Brigitte Boisselier told the French television station France 2 that the American parents of the supposed clone that Clonaid created are balking at providing DNA evidence to prove that their new-born baby "Eve" is really a clone. The claim is that the parents are afraid that Florida will try to take the baby away from them.