French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin arrives in Cote d'Ivoire to help mediate the conflict.
Oil leakage from the sunken Tanker '' Prestige '' threatens the southwestern coast of France. The Prefect of Aquitaine reported a slick from the tanker is 50 kilometers (30 standard miles) from the coast. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin promised 50 million Euros for the cleanup. The ''Prestige'', which carried 77,000 Tonnes of crude oil, sunk in late November, 2002, off the coast of the Galician region of Spain.
The People's Republic Of China Foreign Ministry reacted to a report in the Israel i newspaper '' Ha'aretz '' which stated that Israel had complied with a U.S. request to suspend all contracts on the exports of arms and security equipment from the PRC to Israel. Israeli Defence Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron stated that Israel intends to "track down" all security ties with the PRC. An unnamed senior Israeli official stated that the Americans were using the pretext of protecting Taiwan to cover a proposed shift of American policy to allow direct arms sales to the PRC.
Clonaid Chief Executive Brigitte Boisselier told the FrenchTelevision station France 2 that the American parents of the supposed clone that Clonaid created are balking at providing DNA evidence to prove that their new-born baby "Eve" is really a clone. The claim is that the parents are afraid that Florida will try to take the baby away from them.
