AP News in Brief
'Cure worse than the disease': Experts say bombing chemical weapon sites may cause problems
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- You simply can't safely bomb a chemical weapon storehouse into oblivion, experts say. That's why they say the United States is probably targeting something other than Syria's nerve agents.
• But now there is concern that bombing other sites could accidentally release dangerous chemical weapons that the U.S. military didn't know were there because they've lost track of some of the suspected nerve agents.
• Bombing stockpiles of chemical weapons -- purposely or accidentally -- would likely kill nearby civilians in an accidental nerve agent release, create a long-lasting environmental catastrophe or both, five experts told The Associated Press. That's because under ideal conditions -- and conditions wouldn't be ideal in Syria -- explosives would leave at least 20 to 30 percent of the poison in lethal form.
• "If you drop a conventional munition on a storage facility containing unknown chemical agents -- and we don't know exactly what is where in the Syrian arsenal -- some of those agents will be neutralized and some will be spread," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonprofit that focuses on all types of weaponry. "You are not going to destroy all of them."
• "It's a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease," Kimball said. He said some of the suspected storage sites are in or near major Syrian cities like Damascus, Homs and Hama. Those cities have a combined population of well over 2 million people.
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French president says his country can strike Syria despite British failure to endorse action
• PARIS (AP) -- French President Francois Hollande says his country can go ahead with plans to strike Syria for allegedly using chemical weapons despite the British parliament's failure to endorse military action.
• "The chemical massacre of Damascus cannot and must not remain unpunished," Hollande said in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, published on Friday.
• The French president reiterated that France wants a "proportional and firm action" but said when asked about the type of intervention that "all options are on the table."
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