From n:News Briefs: April 28, 2005

Top stories: UK Attorney General raised legal doubts over Iraq invasion, New Italian goverment gets confidence from the House, European human rights body condemns U.S. "torture" at Guantanamo Bay, Munch's "The Scream" might have been burned.

This is Wikinews Audio News April 28, 2005 - this is Amgine recording

[theme music, still too loud]

News Bullets from Wikipedia's current events

• Death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash in Japan rises to 104. Rescuers find the body of the train's driver.
• The U.S. House of Representatives votes 406-20 to rescind controversial Republican ethics rules, in order to end a stalemate in the evenly-divided Ethics Committee since their introduction in January.
• In Nepal, the former Prime Minister is arrested for alleged corruption after refusing to appear in court.
• Two Palestinian teenagers are arrested in a checkpoint near Jenin after explosive charges were found on them.
• The new Airbus A380 performs its maiden flight in France. The A380 replaces the Boeing 747 as the world's largest passenger plane.
• In central Sri Lanka a passenger train crashes into a bus on a level crossing; 35–50 persons are feared to be dead.
• The date of the next elections in Lebanon is set for May 29.
• President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia sacks four top army generals for disagreeing with his army reforms.
• In Mexico, president Vicente Fox accepts resignation of his attorney general Rafael Macedo and orders review of the contempt of court case of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

n:UK Attorney General raised legal doubts over Iraq invasion

The Blair government in the United Kingdom concealed warnings it was given over the doubtful legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in which it played a pivotal part.

The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's 13-page, 7th of March 2003 letter expressed serious misgivings, according to both Channel 4 and The Guardian, but further refinements brought his advice to a short 300 word 'summary' giving his go-ahead for an invasion on the 17th.

In the original letter he warned that if war went ahead without a United Nations Resolution it would probably be deemed illegal if hard evidence on Saddam's alleged non-compliance and non-cooperation with weapons inspection teams was not uncovered.

A leaked summary of the original letter has led the Blair government to release the full 13 page document.

n:New Italian goverment gets confidence from the House

The new Italian government, led by Silvio Berlusconi, received a vote of confidence from the Italian House of Deputies on Wednesday. The tally was 334 pros, 240 cons and 2 abstentions.

The vote gives Berlusconi another year in office to gain support from skeptical voters if he is to win a second term.

n:European human rights body condemns U.S. "torture" at Guantanamo Bay

Europe's human rights body openly condemned the United States yesterday for using what it termed "torture" and asked European countries not to cooperate in interrogating Guantanamo detainees.

According to an AP report, the resolution adopted by the Council's Parliamentary Assembly said in part "the circumstances surrounding detentions by the USA at Guantanamo Bay show unlawfulness on grounds including the torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees."

A U.S. Pentagon spokesman said they were running "a safe, humane and professional detention operation at Guantanamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terror."

n:Munch's "The Scream" might have been burned

Edvard Munch's most famous painting, "The Scream," together with "The Madonna," might have been burned.

Both paintings were stolen in August 2004 from the Munch Museum. Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reports that both "The Scream" and "The Madonna" might have been burned in order to destroy evidence.

According to Dagbladet three persons have been arrested, but the two persons who did the actual robbery are still at large.

I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.