Cuba Restricts Movements of US Diplomats and Arrests Suspected US Agents Havana, Mar 19 (RHC)-The Government of Cuba has announced the restriction of movement of US diplomats on the island and the arrest of a number of people suspected as operating as agents for the USA in Cuba. In an official note read over Cuban television Tuesday night, Havana criticized what it called the continuing shameful attitude of the head of the US Interests Section in Cuba, James Cason, who has constantly conspired to destabilize the government since his arrival on the island last September. The Government also announced the arrest of suspected agents associated with Cason's actions. After a full investigation they will be brought to trial. Limitations on the movement of Cuban diplomats in the United States, reads the official note, as well as recent sanctions taken against five Cuban political prisoners incarcerated in the United States - all of whom have been put into solitary confinement for no reason - is an indication of the stepped up hostility aimed at Cuba by the current administration of George W Bush. Cuba has declared that it guarantees the safety of all US diplomatic personnel on the island but finds itself obliged to limit their movements on the island in response to Washington's clear enmity. The official statement read during the nightly news commented that no country has the right to organize, finance and serve as a general headquarters forces designed to destroy the independence of another country and threaten its internal security. It is obvious, said the statement, that the US is using diplomatic immunity to subvert the government of Cuba and damage relations between the two countries. Cuba values the friendship of its people with that of the United States and will continue to seek a closer people-to- people relationship in spite of Washington's attempts to asphyxiate the island with its continued economic blockade and support of the Cuban American right wing in Miami. **** Widespread and Angry Condemnation in Europe of US Decision to Wage War Against Iraq March 18 (RHC) - Europe's leading anti-war nations have lashed out against the decision by the US and UK to invade Iraq unless Saddam Hussein quits. France, Germany and Russia angrily accused the US of going to war without necessity or legitimacy. French President Jacques Chirac said that to act without the legitimacy of the United Nations, to favor the use of force over law, is to take a serious responsibility, adding that Iraq does not represent today an immediate threat that would justify an immediate war. Chirac said the action "jeopardizes future methods of peaceful disarmament in crises linked to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the scale of the threat from Saddam Hussein does not justify launching a war that will certainly bring death to thousands of innocent men, women and children. Schroeder said he is deeply moved by the fact that he knows his attitude is shared by the overwhelming majority of the German people, and also by the majority of the UN Security Council and the world's peoples. Russian President Vladimir Putin said war would be a mistake with the most serious consequences, leading to casualties and the destabilization of the international situation as a whole. Pope John Paul II's spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said those who decide that all peaceful means are exhausted assume a grave responsibility before God, their conscience and history. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel also joined the chorus of criticism, stating that "after all the efforts that we made, not only Belgium but also France, Germany, and above all after the huge mobilization of millions of people across the world, it's disappointing to see that now, war is more than likely." Michel said the international community could have avoided this war, as the weapons inspections were going well. Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik called President Bush's ultimatum "the all too familiar rhetoric" of painting the United States as "the great liberator," terming as "worrisome" that the conflict is assuming the characteristics of a religious war. **** Third British Cabinet Minister Resigns in Protest Over Looming Iraq War London, March 18 (RHC) - A mid-ranking British interior minister, John Denham, resigned from government on Tuesday, becoming the third minister to quit in protest over Prime Minister Tony Blair's hawkish Iraq policy. Denham, a Home Office minister who has also served in the department of health, said in a statement he could not support the government in a vote later on Tuesday about whether to wage war on Iraq, when Blair will face a major rebellion from within his ruling Labor party. Denham's decision follows the resignation on Monday of the high profile former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as the government's leader in parliament. Junior Health Minister Lord Hunt also quit on Tuesday, but International Development Secretary Clare Short - who issued a scathing criticism of Blair's Iraq policy a little over a week ago - surprisingly decided to stay with the government. The prime minister, meanwhile, was working furiously Tuesday to win the backing of a majority of his party for military action against Iraq. But rebels in Blair's governing party were backing an amendment declaring that the case for war "has not yet been established." In a similar parliamentary showdown last month, almost a third of Labor lawmakers - 122 - voted against the government. That number is expected to rise to 160 Tuesday evening. Blair does not need parliamentary approval to take Britain into war, and he's confident of winning the support of a majority of Parliament with the votes of the opposition Conservatives. But observers say another rebellion within his ranks would be a major embarrassment for Blair at a time when many Britons oppose a war without UN backing. **** Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Accused of Turning Occupied Palestinian Territories Into Huge Prison Jerusalem, March 18 (RHC) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been accused of turning occupied Palestinian territories into a huge prison after he told his cabinet that he plans to extend the "security fence" Israel is building along the length of the West Bank so that it entirely encircles any Palestinian state. The revelation follows the Israeli government's decision to oppose full independence for Palestine in favor of a state with "certain attributes of sovereignty". Sharon dropped what is being called a political bombshell on Sunday while taking his cabinet on a secret tour of the fence, which is a 20 foot high wall topped with barbed wire and lined with guard towers. The 230-mile wall and fence already under construction will extend the length of the West Bank, creeping deep inside Palestinian territory for long stretches. It will almost surround at least one, and probably two, cities. Now Sharon is proposing to link the two ends of the fence already under construction with an additional section along the length of the Jordan valley, which critics say is intended to define the borders of a Palestinian state ahead of the implementation of US President George Bush's so-called "road map" to Middle East peace. Palestinians say it would effectively turn any future state into a prison, a reservation, with the Israelis controlling access, and will give Israel control of Palestine's border with Jordan as well as what remains of the best agricultural land they have. The wall has already taken much of the Palestinians' best farm land. Pointing to the wall through the Jordan Valley, where there are no targets for a terrorist attack, critics say the construction would create a de facto border that reduces the West Bank to the 45 or 50 percent of truncated land that Sharon is willing to give up.