Briefly

London

BBC journalist killed in northern Iraq

A land mine explosion killed one British Broadcasting Corp. journalist and injured another in northern Iraq on Wednesday.

Kaveh Golestan, 52, an Iranian freelance cameraman for the BBC, died instantly when he stepped on the mine as he climbed out of his car in the town of Kifrey, the company said.

Producer Stuart Hughes, 31, was injured in the foot by the explosion, while correspondent Jim Muir and their translator were unhurt, the BBC said. Hughes was being treated in a nearby American military medical facility.

The explosion brought to four the number of foreign journalists who have died while in Iraq to cover the war. The others were Gaby Rado of Britain’s Channel 4 News, Terry Lloyd of Independent Television News in Britain, and Paul Moran of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Two of Lloyd’s co-workers are missing.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Democrats want to add billions to war bill

The Senate rejected a Democratic effort Wednesday to boost security spending for ports as it began debating a nearly $80 billion bill financing the first costs of the war with Iraq, the fight against terrorism and aid to struggling airlines.

A Democratic drive to add $4.8 billion for domestic safety — which Republicans opposed — came as Congress moved toward complying with President Bush’s call to provide the war funds by April 11. The House was expected to approve its $77.9 billion version of the bill today.

In an early show of compromise, the Senate used a voice vote to approve an amendment by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., giving modest salary increases to thousands of troops in the field.

The provision, retroactive to last Oct. 1, would boost monthly combat pay from $150 to $225, and monthly payments to soldiers separated from their families from $100 to $250. Durbin had initially proposed a more expensive version than the estimated $600 million one that passed.

Washington, D.C.

FBI warns of threat to food supplies

Improvised chemical or biological weapons could be concocted by terrorists using common household items and then might be hidden in food, the FBI warned Wednesday.

Using materials available at stores, on the Internet or through mail-order firms, terrorists could make cyanide compounds, grow salmonella bacteria and botulinum toxin, or distill the poison ricin from castor beans, the FBI said in its weekly bulletin.

The memo, sent to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies, said there was no specific threat or indication that an attack was imminent.

Officials at the National Institutes of Health are also worried about the threat from botulinum toxin, which occurs naturally.

War with Iraq has underscored those fears because of past acknowledgment by President Saddam Hussein that Iraq had made 5,000 gallons of the toxin and loaded it onto bombs and missiles.

Hungary

Iraqi liaison program falls short of goal

A U.S. project that was supposed to train 3,000 Iraqi dissidents to be liaisons between American troops and Iraqi civilians has been shut down indefinitely.

After months of preparation and publicity, the $90 million program at an air base in southwest Hungary effort managed to draw just 82 recruits.

U.S. military officials at the base near Taszar nevertheless said the effort was successful and that Iraqi exiles who went through the program were helping U.S. troops deliver humanitarian aid to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

A top official in the Hungarian government who spoke on condition of anonymity said Wednesday that only 82 Iraqi dissidents participated.