A group of journalists who disappeared from a Baghdad hotel and spent about a week in an Iraqi jail said yesterday they were not physically harmed but had heard the sounds of other prisoners being beaten.
"We could hear screams, especially at night," Matthew McAllester (33), a British-born correspondent for the US newspaper Newsday, said in the Jordanian capital.
Peruvian-born Newsday photographer Moises Saman (29) and freelance photographers Molly Bingham (34), of Louisville, Kentucky, and Johan Spanner, a Dane, arrived in Amman yesterday after their release from Iraq.
"We were in a cell block that had a corridor going down the centre, on either side were cells . . . opposite us were Iraqi prisoners," McAllester said. - (Reuters)
Food packs said to look like bombs
THE US: The UN children's fund UNICEF has expressed concern that Iraqi children might mistake yellow food packets being handed out by US-led forces with small bombs with identical colouring. "Confusing unexploded ordnance with food places children at huge risk of injury or death," UNICEF said, calling on the military to change the colour of the food packets. - (Reuters)
Saddam is shown on Iraqi TV
BAGHDAD: Iraqi domestic television yesterday showed footage of President Saddam Hussein smiling and laughing with members of his cabinet. A Reuters correspondent in the capital said that Saddam was wearing military uniform in the footage.
Iraqi television earlier reported that Saddam had chaired a meeting of top officials, including his two sons, Uday and Qusay. No footage of that meeting was shown - (Reuters)
Photographer sacked by paper
LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Times has dismissed an award-winning staff photographer after he admitted combining two photos of a British soldier and a crowd of people outside the Iraqi city of Basra to make the scene more dramatic.
The paper said that a picture by photographer Brian Walski was produced by Walski on his computer from two photos he had taken moments apart. - (Reuters)
BBC cameraman killed by mine
BRITAIN: A cameraman working for the BBC was killed in Iraq on Wednesday when he stepped on a landmine as he climbed out of his car, the BBC said. Kaveh Golestan (52), an Iranian freelance cameraman, was part of a four-man team filming at Kifri. Producer Stuart Hughes (31), was caught in the blast and injured his foot, while correspondent Jim Muir and their local translator were unhurt.
Golestan was believed to be the fourth Western journalist killed in the war. - (Reuters)
Call for surrender of satellite phones
BAGHDAD: Iraq yesterday asked its citizens to hand over any portable satellite telephones, saying that the equipment was being used by "agents" to guide US and British bombs and missiles. - (Reuters)
Protest from Arab TV network
DOHA: The Qatar-based satellite television channel al-Jazeera urged the United States on Wednesday to ensure the safety of its correspondents in Iraq after US artillery hit a hotel where one of its offices is located. In a statement faxed to Reuters, al-Jazeera said that at least four shells struck the Sheraton Hotel in Basra. The satellite channel is the only international network with reporters in the southern Iraqi city, which is besieged by US and British troops. - (Reuters)