27 killed as car bomb destroys hotel in Baghdad
Baghdad: A car bomb has destroyed a hotel in central Baghdad on Wednesday night, killing at least 27 people and injuring 41. Mainly Iraqis and Arabs apparently used the five-storey Hotel Jabal Lebanon, though many foreigners too were staying there. The blast shook the nearby Palestine Hotel, where many foreign contractors and journalists are based.
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U.S. scrambles to keep military coalition intact
Washington/Madrid: President, George Bush has said that "Al-Qaeda wants us out of Iraq because Al-Qaeda wants to use Iraq as an example of defeating freedom and democracy.'' The statement, commentators are suggesting, has come as US and Britain are scrambling to keep their military coalition together after the Madrid bombings, and the threat of the incoming government there to pull the Spanish troops out of Iraq. The US and Britain are now coming out with an offer to support a new U.N. mandate for keeping foreign troops in Iraq.

The UK Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, was quoted as saying that, " The prospect of a new U.N. resolution is something that we would strongly support and are working towards''. "I hope that we can engage the new Spanish Government in discussion about what kind of U.N. resolution they require.'' Previous U.N. resolutions have given a form of sanction to the presence of the troops, even though they have stated that such forces are not subject to U.N. military or political authority. Britain, the U.S. and the other coalition military forces have long said they will not quit the country after June 30, and would be seeking some form of renewed U.N. cover for the continued coalition presence.
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