Pierre Salinger dies at 79 in France
LE THOR, France, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Pierre Salinger, President John F. Kennedy's press secretary and later ABC's European correspondent, has died of heart failure in France at the age of 79.
Salinger, who had been in declining health for four years, died in a hospital near his home in Le Thor, France, according to a longtime associate, Elizabeth Bagley.
Bagley, an ambassador to Portugal under President Bill Clinton, said she learned of Salinger's death from his wife, Nicole, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Salinger, a native of San Francisco, worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and as a contributing editor for Collier's magazine. In 1956, he worked for Robert F. Kennedy, who was investigating organized crime. Salinger then became press secretary to then Sen. John F. Kennedy and continued to work for him during his 1960 presidential campaign and when he took office.
After spending a short time in the Lyndon Johnson White House following Kennedy's assassination, Salinger ran for the U.S. Senate in California, but after winning the primary, lost to Republican George Murphy.
He moved to France and returned to journalism, becoming a correspondent for L'Express, the French magazine. He later became the Paris bureau chief for ABC News.
Fighting escalates in Fallujah
BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Fighting escalated on the eastern edge of the Iraqi city of Fallujah Sunday between U.S. forces and Iraqi insurgents, the BBC reported.
Witnesses said U.S tanks pounded rebel positions as the insurgents responded with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the fresh fighting, although area hospital officials said three people were killed in overnight American air strikes on Fallujah, which has been surrounded since Thursday.
The U.S. forces, which have been carrying out almost daily air strikes on the city, said the overnight strikes targeted supporters of al-Qaida's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Military officials said U.S. warplanes were on a mission to destroy an illegal checkpoint operated by "heavily armed terrorists using the blockade to disrupt traffic, intimidate and harass local citizens, and interrogate and detain local civilians."
Fallujah residents said they saw American tanks trying to enter the city, but they retrieved "after fierce resistance."
Residents said they expected the escalation in confrontations was a prelude to a wide scale invasion of the city by the U.S.-Iraqi forces to subdue the Sunni insurgents after ceasefire negotiations collapsed last week when the interim Iraqi government insisted on handing over al-Zarqawi.
Brazil to begin shooting down drug planes
BRASILIA, Brazil, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Brazil's began Sunday its new controversial practice of allowing its air force to shoot down planes suspected of smuggling drugs.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva approved the new law in July after six years of debate in the Congress.
Brazil is frequently used as a transition point for Colombian drug smugglers flying shipments to the United States and Europe. Smugglers have been known to taunt Brazil Air Force pilots in mid-air with obscene gestures, knowing they could not retaliate. According to Brazilian defense officials, pilots must follow an 8-point protocol before opening fire on a plane suspected of smuggling drugs.
The law also stipulates Brazil cannot destroy military aircraft from other countries that enter Brazilian air space unless in self-defense, part of its effort to reduce the human error factor.
Neighboring Colombia has a similar policy.
Critics say the margin for error is still too great to warrant the policy's implementation. They say no matter how regulated drug-plane eradication is, there will always be a chance that innocents are killed in the process.
Opponents cite the 2001 incident when Peruvian pilots accidentally shot down a plane carrying an American missionary and her child believing they were drug smugglers. The missionary and her child were killed.
U.S. Army's 1st Corps may go to Japan
TOKYO, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Japanese officials are considering accepting the U.S. Army's 1st Corps from Washington State at Camp Zama, in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Government sources told the Mainichi Daily News the proposed transfer could prompt cooperation between Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Army in handling terrorism.
The U.S. military proposed the transfer of 800 members of the 1st Corps to Zama as part of its global military transformation to help U.S. troops operate more effectively from the Middle East to Northeastern Asia, what the United States calls the "arc of instability."
The Mainichi newspaper said Japanese officials have been reluctant to approve the transfer the 1st Corps to Zama because they said the Japan-U.S. security alliance was intended to secure peace in Japan and the Far East. But they changed their minds after learning of the U.S. military's plan to transform military troops based in Japan.
