Thai hotel bans Americans

Thai hotel bans Americans

BANGKOK - A hotel on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui has banned American tourists in a protest against the U.S.-led war in Iraq, its owner said.

Virach Pongchababnapa, owner of the 62-room Pavilion Resort on the island, 550 miles (880 km) south of Bangkok, said U.S. visitors were not welcome because he was against the U.S. campaign to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

He said he had already turned away two American tourists, provoking protest letters and emails from other U.S. citizens.

"I have politely told them that I am opposed to the policies of their government, and Americans are not welcome here," he told Reuters. "My resort is against war mongers."

;Reuters; ANPAi..r.. Odd-war-animal War must avoid animal casualties JP/2/ODD

War must avoid animal casualties

LONDON: A British Member of Parliament has asked military leaders in Iraq to think about some of the forgotten casualties of war -- animals.

Tony Banks, a former minister in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government, welcomed promises from London and Washington that troops would do their best to avoid hitting ordinary Iraqis in bombing raids, but said they also needed to think about the creatures in Baghdad's El-Zawra Zoo.

"In war, countless numbers of animals are killed and injured," the former sports minister, who voted against war on Iraq, said in an statement put before parliament on Friday. -- Reuters