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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TGL WHAAAAAAAT! Alerts, thoughts, discussion. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Bishop who wrote (103499)	4/18/2002 9:22:56 AM
From: vds4	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 150070

wow... lamp is going to open like a rocket.

To: Jim Bishop who wrote (103499)	4/18/2002 9:28:47 AM
From: Taki	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 150070

Four Canadian Soldiers Dead in Afghan Bomb Accident Updated 7:13 AM ET April 18, 2002 By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - A U.S. F-16 warplane dropped one or two 500-pound laser-guided bombs on Canadian soldiers involved in a live-fire exercise in a clearly defined training zone in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing four and wounding eight others, Canadian Gen. Ray Henault said. The deaths early Thursday were the first Canadian casualties in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and the first casualties Canada has suffered in offensive combat operations since the 1950-53 Korean War. They came just three days after the most recent U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Jean Chretien promised a thorough investigation to determine how the incident, which took place at 5:25 p.m. EDT Wednesday, could have happened. ``(U.S.) President (George W.) Bush called me tonight to offer the sincerest condolences of the American people to the Canadian families. He also pledged complete cooperation with Canadian authorities, who will carry out a thorough and complete investigation,'' Chretien said. Henault said the U.S. plane clearly misidentified the Canadian forces, who were conducting a live-fire training exercise in the dark early hours of Thursday morning, Afghanistan time, in a recognized training zone south of Kandahar. ``We remain committed in our duty to this campaign and will certainly continue,'' said Henault, chief of the defense staff, at a midnight news conference in Ottawa. Henault said the F-16 would have been on a patrol of the skies above Afghanistan, on well-controlled routes, and was not connected with the training exercise. He said the plane would normally have had to get permission from the ground before attacking. He said the Canadian troops were only firing at ground targets during the nighttime exercise. ``My understanding is that there was no hostile activity in the area that would have created this incident,'' Henault said, adding however that details were still sketchy. ``How this sort of thing could happen is a mystery to us.'' Because the exercise was in the middle of the night, he said there was no way for the fighter flying at high altitude to visually identify the nationality of the Canadian troops before unleashing the 500-pound bomb or bombs. Henault said six of the injuries were serious, and the soldiers would be evacuated to a U.S. medical facility either in nearby Uzbekistan or at Ramstein in Germany. Two who were slightly injured will remain in Kandahar, base of the more than 800 Canadian troops serving with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The bodies of the four who were killed will be transferred to Ramstein on Thursday en route to Canada. Five hundred Canadians had led U.S. troops without casualties in an offensive in March in eastern Afghanistan, where they were flushing out caves thought to have harbored fighters of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. On Monday, four U.S. troops were killed and one was badly injured while blowing up unexploded ordnance near Kandahar. More than 30 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan or in the region since the United States began a campaign on Oct. 7 that toppled the ruling Taliban and routed the al Qaeda network in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Before Wednesday, non-U.S. military deaths among Western coalition forces had included an Australian, two Germans and three Danes. Chretien said the Canadian casualties were an awful blow. ``Yet is my hope that some comfort may be found in the knowledge that those who have been taken were serving their country with valor and gallantry in a great struggle for justice and freedom,'' he said.