 U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by attack helicopters fought gunmen in Baghdad on Tuesday, witnesses said, in the heaviest battle in the capital since a major security crackdown was launched in February. Police said a total of 10 people had been killed and 13 wounded in the fighting. Gunmen hit two helicopters with ground fire but both returned to base, the U.S. military said. Northeast of Baghdad, a female suicide bomber strapped with explosives under an Islamic gown killed 17 recruits outside a police station in the town of Muqdadiya, police officials said. Two witnesses including a local journalist said Apache attack helicopters hovering low over the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fadhil in Baghdad repeatedly fired rockets at buildings where gunmen had holed up. The witnesses said they saw several bodies lying in a street, with residents too afraid to move them. Other bodies had been moved to a local mosque, said the local journalist, Abu Omar, who is a resident of Fadhil....
http://today.reuters.com
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Editor - 23:17:00 04-10-07
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 A Mosque Raid Sets Off Sunnis in Iraq’s Capital |
Sunni militants and residents of the Baghdad neighborhood of Fadhil fought a fierce daylong battle with the Iraqi Army and American soldiers on Tuesday in what appeared to be the most sustained confrontation since the start of the security plan to calm violence in the capital. The battle left seven people dead, three insurgents and four Iraqi soldiers, and wounded 16 United States soldiers, according to a statement from the American military. Two Iraqi Army soldiers and one child were also wounded, the statement said. But neighborhood residents reported far higher fatalities and said local gunmen had destroyed five Iraqi Army Humvees. The fighting damaged an Apache helicopter, the United States military said. The fighting started after the Iraqi Army raided a mosque and killed two men, according to residents contacted by phone and a Sunni religious group. Residents said the gun battle began near the mosque in an area with many warehouses and continued in a residential neighborhood....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?ex=1333944000&en=01f171869cad8a4c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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Editor - 23:14:00 04-10-07
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| 6 Die in Happy Valley, Calif., House Fire; Authorities Suspect Arsonist Is to Blame |
A family of six was killed Tuesday in a pre-dawn house fire, and authorities suspected it was arson. Firefighters were called to the single-story, four-bedroom home just before dawn and found bodies throughout the residence, authorities said. Sheriff's Capt. Dave Compomizzo said investigators believe the fire may have been deliberately set because of "how fast it started, the potential of flammable liquids, as well as the condition of the victims." A seventh resident of the home was being questioned, but was not a suspect and had not been charged, authorities said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3028561
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Editor - 23:12:00 04-10-07
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| Senior volunteer Moral Police enforce social manners |
At the respectable age of 74, most pensioners are enjoying hobbies or perhaps a trip on a cruise liner. But in communist China, it's a time to embark on a moral crusade and join the police. Hundreds of retired Beijing residents are lining up to join a government-approved Moral Police constabulary to rid the streets of the four "new pests" -- spitting, swearing, smoking and line-jumping. Wearing armbands and red caps, they appear as an elderly throwback to the 1960s Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong's Red Guards, who roamed the countryside and ousted closet capitalists, often violently. The youthful hysteria of that turbulent era, however, has been tempered with the passage of time. The new Red Guards possess pension books and publicly name and shame the bad-mannered. Retired factory worker Ma Runtian, 74, is among hundreds to sign up to walk the beat and reprimand fellow citizens for unruly behavior. ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070410-111409-5912r.htm
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Editor - 23:04:00 04-10-07
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| Panel Said to Alter Finding on Voter Fraud |
A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times. Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate. The revised version echoes complaints made by Republican politicians, who have long suggested that voter fraud is widespread and justifies the voter identification laws that have been passed in at least two dozen states. Democrats say the threat is overstated and have opposed voter identification laws, which they say disenfranchise the poor, members of minority groups and the elderly, who are less likely to have photo IDs and are more likely to be Democrats....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/washington/11voters.html?ex=1333944000&en=fdeb2bb80fd0b00f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
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Editor - 22:53:00 04-10-07
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| In cutting taxes, liberal Sweden takes right turn |
Traditionally a European champion when it comes to high taxes, Sweden has been getting a dose of economic liberalization over the past six months from its new conservative government. In just a matter of weeks, the new government of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has announced it is abolishing the property tax, and very symbolically, the wealth tax. The moves signal an easing of control by the state and a move away from the lavish welfare system that has been held up as a model of social democracy by a large part of Europe's left-wing for decades. "This is a step in a more liberal direction, but it's not a very big step, it's not a very radical change," said Stefan Lundgren, the director of the Swedish Center of Political Studies. ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070410-111408-6379r.htm
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Editor - 22:43:00 04-10-07
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