World

US warplanes bombed Iraqi command and control sites in the southern no-fly zone in what was being called the first action of the war. A senior American commander said the planes had been fired on. Otherwise, Iraqi members of parliament, meeting in emergency session, vowed to "sacrifice our blood and souls" for Saddam Hussein. And noncombatants were making last-minute preparations for the expected US-led attack as the time remaining for Hussein and his sons to leave the country fell to within eight hours. They have refused to go.

A new vote is expected in Turkey's parliament Thursday on cooperating with the US in the war with Iraq. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the legislators would be asked only to approve the use of Turkish airspace. American troops would not be allowed to use on Turkey's soil, and US warplanes would be denied access to airfields, even for refueling. US and British jets have used the Incirlik base for patrols of the no-fly zone in northern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf war. The lower level of cooperation would not qualify Turkey for the billions of dollars in US aid attached to the original proposal.

Two of the three men who shot Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic to death last week have been identified, the Belgrade government said. But all three remain at large, it added. Newspapers published a photograph of the third suspect, with police asking the public for help in establishing his identity as well. The interior ministry said the first two are members of a crime network with ties to loyalists to deposed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Another death was attributed to the so-called mystery disease traced to Asia, bringing the count to 10. Confirmation was awaited on three other deaths in Hong Kong, and new suspected cases were reported in Singapore, Japan, Romania, and France. Hundreds of other people are hospitalized around the world with symptoms identical to those linked to the disease. The latest victim was a medical doctor in Vietnam.

An investigation was under way at European Union headquarters in Brussels after a recent security check found the telephones of several of its 15 delegations were tapped. Only those of France and Germany were identified. A French newspaper, Le Figaro, said Belgian police had identified the bugs as American-made, but senior EU officials declined to confirm that report.