Military

NATO

¨         Laurence Jolidon, a veteran war correspondent and author who covered the Persian Gulf War and U.S. forces in Somalia, has died in Sarajevo where he was serving as media spokesman for the NATO peacekeeping force. He was 64. Jolidon suffered a heart attack Tuesday after his morning jog, according to Don North, a journalist friend in Washington, D.C., and a sister, Mimi Schmergel. He had served as spokesman for the NATO Peace Stabilization Force, known as SFOR, for most of the past year.(AP 210041 Aug 02 GMT)

NATO-ACCESSION

¨         Slovakia's election campaign, critical to its ambition to join both the EU and NATO, formally kicks off on Wednesday with political parties wooing voters fed up with post-communist graft and economic woes. Analysts and pollsters say Vladimir  Meciar will not be in government. In an interview with Reuters on Monday, however, Meciar gave himself a better than 50 percent chance of being in the next cabinet, despite opinion polls showing a drop in support for his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). Polls show seven parties, all at under 20 percent, would have a good chance of making it into parliament.(AP 1345 200802Aug 02 GMT)

BALKANS

¨         Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic accused EU officials on Tuesday of trying to rewrite a deal to revamp the Yugoslav federation and raised the specter of fresh civil strife in the Balkans.  In an article for the Washington Post, Djukanovic said anti-reform politicians in Yugoslavia were trying to force Montenegro into closer ties with its larger neighbor Serbia instead of honoring an agreement struck in March to create a looser union. "If the Montenegrin majority, which favors independence, and the republic's national minorities are deprived of their political voice, then the stage may be set for civil strife on a scale that could destabilize both Montenegro and its neighbors," he wrote. "To avert a descent into conflict, urgent action is needed by Washington and Brussels," he said. He called on the EU to stop helping his opponents in Montenegro and indicated he wanted a more active U.S. role in the creation of the new union. "Without Washington's direct and impartial involvement, the EU's attempts at state-building could provoke a serious new crisis in the Balkans in coming months," he said.(Reuters 1944 200802 Aug 02 GMT)

IRAQ

¨         German commandos ended a five-hour siege of the Iraqi Embassy claimed by a previously unknown group opposed to Saddam Hussein without firing a shot, freeing two senior diplomats bound and barricaded inside by five armed men. Investigators said they had no information about the group calling itself Democratic Iraqi Opposition of Germany, which issued a statement claiming responsibility. A statement by the group indicated they wanted Saddam's ouster. Speaking to reporters in Texas, a White House spokesman said as much as President Bush wants to see Saddam toppled, the United States does not condone hostage-taking in pursuit of that goal.(AP 210131 Aug 02 GMT)

¨         The Canadian government said on Tuesday it would not engage in U.S.-led military action against Baghdad unless it had stronger evidence of imminent Iraqi aggression. Defense Minister John McCallum said the Canadian government did not have clear evidence that military action should be undertaken. "Based on the information that we have now, everyone in this government has been saying it is unlikely that we would join an attack against Iraq," he told Reuters at a meeting of the governing Liberal Party in Chicoutimi, Quebec.  Foreign Minister Bill Graham told Reuters separately that the government was not looking at taking part in military action now. "If there was a clear danger that Iraq was going to attack its neighbors, that it has the capacity to use weapons of mass destruction and was about to use it, clearly we would reevaluate our policy," Graham said. "We have not been asked to take part in military action and we are certainly not contemplating that."  The minister said that it was important to work through the United Nations and to be "aggressive" in pursuing Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.(Reuters 0125 210802 Aug 02 GMT)