Wednesday, July 2, 2008
PARIS, France (CNN) -- The chief of the French army resigned Tuesday after an accidental shooting at a military open house that left 17 people wounded.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has accepted the resignation of Gen. Bruno Cuche, the Elysee said in a statement on its Web site.
"The president ... as he has already stated, is closely following the various investigations now under way," the statement from Sarkozy's office said.
Seventeen people, including some children, were wounded by live bullets Sunday as a commando parachute infantry regiment demonstrated a hostage extraction exercise at a military open house in Carcassonne, France, in the country's southwest, according to the French military's Web site.
The soldiers in the demonstration were supposed to be using blanks, but one soldier shot live rounds that remained in his weapon after shooting drills, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.
That soldier was suspended Tuesday and will appear before a judge later in the day, the newspaper said.
Defense Minister Herve Morin has called for a probe scrutinizing the procedures and rules governing the use of ammunition and the security provisions taken during public demonstrations of military exercises, a statement on his Web site said.
He also called for an immediate suspension of the use of blanks in any public military demonstration.
Brice Robin, prosecutor for Montpellier, said the shooting seemed unintended and that the soldier appeared to "have made a mistake while loading his gun," The associated Press reported.
"This act was absolutely not premeditated; I want to be clear about this point," the agency reported Robin as saying.
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ruled out further increases in crude production following its June 23 announcement that it would pump an extra half-million barrels a day.
In an interview with CNN, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said he was troubled by the current high levels of petroleum prices, but added, "We have nothing to do with prices where they are today."
He denied the problem is one of immediate oil supply.
Asked whether Saudi Arabia, OPEC's leading producer, would open its taps to its reported maximum capacity of 11 million barrels a day, al-Naimi did not dispute the figure but asked rhetorically, "Where is the buyer?"
Al-Naimi was speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the four-day World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, Spain, where leaders of the oil industry from around the world are meeting. They include government ministers, national oil company leaders, and international oil company bosses.
Al-Naimi ruled out an option advanced by some oil-watchers: to make more Saudi Arabia heavy crude available, but at a discount in order to bring prices down.
Video Watch Charles Hodson's interview with Ali al-Naimi »
"That is not the way the market works," he told CNN.
Pressed on the issue of market perceptions that foresee future crude supply falling behind the expected growth in global demand, the minister said such perceptions were "wishful thinking."
Al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia will be investing $129 billion over the next few years on expanding its production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day in the interests of remaining "the pre-eminent supplier" of the world's petroleum.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A military judge will hold separate hearings for five men accused in the September 11 terrorist attacks to determine if they were intimidated into asking to represent themselves.
Defense lawyers say Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, the judge in the case, scheduled individual appearances for the detainees on July 9 and 10 in response to claims that one of the defendants may have influenced the others to join him in rejecting lawyers.
Last month, all five detainees made their first appearance together before Kohlmann and told him that they wished to represent themselves on charges stemming from the September 11 attacks.
At the June 5 hearing, Kohlmann agreed to let Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali represent themselves. He reserved judgment on Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ramzi bin al-Shibh.
Immediately after the hearing, al-Hawsawi's lawyer said that Mohammed had intimidated his client into asking to represent himself.
"It was clear that Mr. Mohammed was attempting to intimidate Mr. al-Hawsawi into not accepting me as counsel," said Army Maj. Jon Jackson, whose client is accused of helping finance the attacks.
Jackson noted that Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the plot, had exchanged words with his co-defendants during the hours-long hearing, where he said he wanted a death sentence so he could become a martyr.
"Al-Hawsawi never said he wanted to plead guilty or martyr himself," Jackson told CNN.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, bin al-Shibh's attorney, said her client may not be fit to decide on his representation because he is being medicated.
Lachelier said the information she has received limited information about bin al-Shibh's medical condition, including a list of drugs but no information about why the drugs were prescribed.
According to Lachelier, Kohlmann has ordered a medical report on bin al-Shibh, who is accused of coordinating the attacks, by August 8 and a hearing on his mental status on August 15.
"I think that's a reasonable reading of the rules," she said, adding that it ignores a separate issue of whether bin al-Shibh is competent to act as his own lawyer.
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During the June hearing, bin al-Shibh was the only defendant who was shackled.
"I have been seeking martyrdom for five years," he said. "I tried for 9/11 to get a visa, and I could not."
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- An attorney says Venezuela's military has detained a dissident army general who opposes the socialist ideology espoused by President Hugo Chavez.
Jose Zaa is the attorney for Army Gen. Angel Vivas Perdomo. He says his client was being held Tuesday by agents belonging to the Military Intelligence Directorate.
Vivas Perdomo has asked Venezuela's Supreme Court to toss out Chavez's order for troops to salute with the motto "fatherland, socialism or death -- we will triumph." The general claims the motto is unconstitutional and that it violates the military's apolitical tradition.
Vivas Perdomo was engineering director at the Defense Ministry until January 2007, when he left after complaining that Chavez was imposing the socialist motto.
President of Mongolia Nambaryn Enkhbayar has declared a state of emergency in the capital after a post-election political rally descended into violence.
President Nambaryn Enkhbayar
Police were blocking major arteries into the capital Wednesday after the president suspended most television broadcasts and imposed an overnight curfew in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, said William Infante, Mongolia director for The Asia Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to bolster democratic institutions.
The demonstrators were upset about the prospect of a victory in last Sunday's parliamentary elections by the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, Infante said.
"I think Mongolians are shocked. This was completely unexpected," he said. "The sentiment is one of profound disappointment."
Five people were killed, several hundred were hurt and another few hundred were detained, Infante cited local news reports as saying. State television in Mongolia showed the prime minister viewing bodies in a morgue, he added. Video Watch as protesters mob the ruling party headquarters »
The U.S. Embassy said Wednesday it was "deeply concerned about the violence" that prompted the state of emergency.
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Enkhbayar acted after several thousand demonstrators at an opposition political rally broke into and burned the offices of another party, said Infante, who said he saw the smoke and flames from his nearby office.
The violence was unusual for Mongolia, which made the transition from communism to democracy in the early 1990s. Four previous parliamentary elections were free and fair, and they passed without incident, Infante said.
