CAMERAMANS DEATH AN ACCIDENT

The National Court in Madrid has overruled an international arrest warrant issued by judge Santiago Pedraz on April 27th for the capture of three US soldiers in connection with the death of Spanish cameraman José Bouso in Baghdad in April 2003. Sr Couso was killed when American troops opened fire on the hotel where he and many other foreign journalists were staying. Judge Pedraz said the soldiers knew that the hotel was mainly inhabited by the foreign press but a US Army spokesman said they thought a sniper was firing on them from the hotel roof. The National Court decided last week that the shooting had not been an "accident of war". Couso and a Reuters journalist died in hospital a few hours after attack, in which several other journalists were wounded.