IRAQ WRAPUP 2-Gunmen kill 11 police recruits in Iraq

Reuters: [2008-05-19 23:29:00]

* Eleven police recruits killed in attack in northern Iraq

* Iraqi and U.S. forces arrest 100 key suspects

* Head of al Qaeda's military organisation in Mosul held

(Updates with attack on police recruits)

By Tim Cocks

BAGHDAD, May 19 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed 11 police recruits on Monday in an attack on a minibus in an area of northern Iraq where the army has launched an offensive against al Qaeda, a local official said.

The 11 were leaving the small town of Ba'aj in a minibus after signing up to join the police when the gunmen opened fire, Ba'aj Mayor Abdul Rahim al-Shameri told Reuters.

Ba'aj lies 130 km (80 miles) west of the city of Mosul in Nineveh province, the focus of an Iraqi army push against al Qaeda.

Sunni insurgents have carried out frequent attacks on police recruits, killing hundreds.

The commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq said Iraqi and U.S. forces had arrested about 100 suspects thought to be crucial to the operations of militant groups in their offensive in the region.

Gunmen from Sunni Islamist al Qaeda regrouped in Nineveh after being pushed out of other parts of Iraq. The U.S. military says Mosul is its last major urban stronghold, from where its fighters still stage suicide bomb attacks and assassinations.

"They have arrested upward of about 1,250 individuals, of which about 100 are critical targets," Major-General Mark Hertling told Reuters in a telephone interview from Mosul.

"In the last several weeks, we have either captured or killed several AQI (al Qaeda in Iraq) emirs (commanders), some suicide cell leaders, some military cell leaders," he said, adding some were from other groups with loose links to al Qaeda.

"Some of them are very senior. I'm talking about military emirs, battalion level commanders in al Qaeda," he said.

Two senior police officers were killed and several others wounded in a rash of attacks around Iraq in the last 24 hours.

A local Iraqi police chief in the southern town of Suq al-Shiyukh died on Monday when a bomb placed under his bed exploded while he slept, police said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed al-Nori, head of police intelligence in the Rusafa area of northern Baghdad, was killed by gunmen who attacked his car on Sunday in Baghdad's Sadr City area, police said. His driver was wounded in the attack in the slum district, a stronghold of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The head of a police station in the Qouds area of Baghdad, a police captain based in the Ministry of Interior, and three other police officers were wounded in three separate attacks on Monday in or near the capital.

Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman for Iraq's Defence Ministry, said Iraqi forces had captured one of the Mosul leaders of al Qaeda on Sunday.

Abdul Khaleq al-Sabawi, head of al Qaeda's military organisation in Mosul, was arrested near Tikrit, half-way between Mosul and Baghdad, in Salahuddin province and taken back to Mosul, he said.

Eight other suspected al Qaeda members were arrested in the same raid on a house near Tikrit, according to Ahmed al-Fahal, head of the police anti-terrorism unit in Salahuddin province.

U.S. officials blame al Qaeda for most big bombings in Iraq, including an attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that set off a wave of sectarian killings that nearly tipped Iraq into all-out civil war.

An influx of U.S. troops last year and a decision by Sunni Arab tribes to turn against al Qaeda enabled U.S. and Iraqi forces to push the militants out of Baghdad and the western province of Anbar, their former strongholds.

Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, called on the U.S. military on Monday to make an example of an American soldier who used a copy of the Koran for target practice, demanding he receive the "most severe punishment".

The soldier was disciplined and removed from Iraq after a copy of the Muslim holy book was found pocked with bullet holes at a shooting range, the U.S. military said on Sunday. (Additional reporting by Michael Georgy, Wisam Mohammed, Aseel Kami and Adrian Croft in Baghdad) ((tim.cocks@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: tim.cocks.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: IRAQ/

Fox News mounts "assault" on GE -Washington Post

Reuters: [2008-05-19 23:14:00]

NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - Bill O'Reilly, who hosts a show on U.S. news channel Fox News, is mounting an "extraordinary televised assault" on Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric, the Washington Post reported on its Web site on Monday.

On the surface, O'Reilly's charges revolve around GE's <GE.N> history of doing business with Iran, the newspaper reported.

But the attacks grow out of "an increasingly bitter feud between O'Reilly and the company's high-profile subsidiary, NBC," it said.

A spokeswoman for Fox News, a unit of News Corp <NWSa.N>, declined comment.

GE said it put out a statement on its Web site in April saying that GE and its board decided in 2005 that it would no longer do business in Iran because of developing conditions in that country and concerns expressed by shareholders.

"The exceptions were to run down existing contracts and humanitarian activity authorized by U.S. Government licenses," GE said. "Since then, GE has done everything it said it would do in 2005. Today, GE has very little business left in Iran and will have completed all business in Iran by the end of June."

The statement said at all times GE's policy was "fully compliant with U.S. and all applicable laws".

"Recently, a Fox News personality in the U.S. has been attacking GE for this work and has been misleading viewers about our company," the GE statement said. "GE employees should know the facts -- GE has met every pledge it made about this issue. These attacks from Fox arise from its ratings battle with MSNBC."

O'Reilly and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann have engaged in an increasingly nasty battle in the past few years, with O'Reilly often appearing in Olbermann's nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment.

While O'Reilly continues to have higher ratings than Olbermann, the MSNBC host has started to cut into his lead during the Presidential campaign. (Reporting by Megan Davies; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

((megan.davies@reuters.com ; +1 646 223 6112; Reuters Messaging: megan.davies.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: GENERALELECTRIC/FOXNEWS

UPDATE 3-Accused Nazi guard Demjanjuk loses US court appeal

Reuters: [2008-05-19 23:05:00]

(Adds Justice Department reaction, paragraph 5)

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - Accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk on Monday lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal that sought to block his deportation to his native Ukraine.

Without comment, the high court refused to hear an appeal by the 88-year-old retired Ohio auto worker that argued the nation's chief immigration judge lacked the authority to order his deportation.

The rejection of the appeal marked the latest development in a battle between Demjanjuk and the U.S. Justice Department that began in 1977.

The deportation order, issued in 2005, says that Demjanjuk can be sent to Germany or Poland, as an alternative, if Ukraine refuses to accept him.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said Demjanjuk has exhausted all legal avenues for reversing his deportation order and that the department remains committed to deporting him.

But it appears that no country is willing to take Demjanjuk, either by granting him a visa or to prosecute him for war crimes, according to a former prosecutor in the case.

"I haven't heard any indication that any country ... is willing to accept a war criminal of John Demjanjuk's notoriety," Jonathan Drimmer, who is now in private practice, said in a telephone interview.

"He will remain free, pending whatever removal occurs," Drimmer said. "At this point, any country can accept him."

'IVAN THE TERRIBLE'

Demjanjuk was once convicted of being the sadistic guard "Ivan the Terrible" and sentenced to death in Israel. But the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the conviction when new evidence showed another man was probably "Ivan" at the Treblinka camp in Poland where 870,000 people died.

Demjanjuk was twice stripped of his U.S. citizenship, the second time in 2002, when a federal judge ruled he had been a guard at three other Nazi death camps in Poland and Germany.

Demjanjuk has argued that Chief U.S. Immigration Judge Michael Creppy did not have the authority to order his deportation. Creppy can only do administrative duties, Demjanjuk's lawyers said.

But a Board of Immigration Appeals and a U.S. appeals court based in Cincinnati rejected his arguments, prompting his appeal to the Supreme Court.

Demjanjuk's lawyers have said he could be prosecuted and face harsh prison conditions or even torture if he is sent back to Ukraine. But Creppy and then the Board of Immigration Appeals said there was no evidence to support those claims.

Demjanjuk was first stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 1981 and extradited to Israel, where he was sentenced to death in 1988 on eyewitness testimony from Holocaust survivors that he was Ivan of the Treblinka camp.

The Israeli Supreme Court overturned his death sentence in 1993 and freed him after newly released records from the former Soviet Union showed Ivan Marchenko was probably the Treblinka guard.

'WE BELIEVE IN HIS INNOCENCE'

The United States restored Demjanjuk's citizenship in 1998, but the following year the U.S. Justice Department refiled its case against him on the grounds that he had been a Nazi guard at three other death camps.

Demjanjuk, said by his former son-in-law to be in ill health, lives in the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills. He immigrated to the United States in 1952 and became a naturalized citizen in 1958.

Demjanjuk has said he was drafted into the Soviet army and was captured by the Germans. He has denied that he ever helped the Nazis.

He still has support in the Ukrainian community, including the Rev. John Nakonachny of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Church, in Parma, Ohio, where Demjanjuk is a parishioner.

"We believe in his innocence. It doesn't matter what the Supreme Court says -- they can't overturn history. Jews and Ukrainians suffered at the hands of the Nazis," Nakonachny said. (Additional reporting by Andrew Stern in Chicago) (Editing by Xavier Briand)

((jim.vicini@thomsonreuters.com; 202-898-8397; Reuters Messaging: jim.vicini.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: USA DEMJANJUK/COURT

WRAPUP 2-Clinton to Obama: Not so fast

Reuters: [2008-05-19 23:02:00]

(Adds Obama quotes, Oregon poll, details)

By Ellen Wulfhorst

MAYSVILLE, Ky., May 19 (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton had a warning on Monday for rival Barack Obama, who is on the verge of claiming the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination: Not so fast.

"This is nowhere near over," Clinton said at a rally in Maysville, Kentucky, pressing ahead with her long shot bid for the White House even as Obama focuses on November's general election match-up with Republican John McCain.

Despite Obama's almost unassailable lead in delegates who will select the nominee at the August Democratic convention, Clinton repeatedly has shrugged off calls to quit the race before the last of the voting concludes on June 3.

She warned the Illinois senator against premature victory celebrations one day before Kentucky and Oregon cast ballots in the lengthy Democratic White House fight.

"None of us is going to have the number of delegates we're going to need to get to the nomination, although I understand my opponent and his supporters are going to claim that," Clinton, a New York senator, said in Maysville.

Obama expects to claim a majority of pledged delegates won in state-by-state races after Tuesday's returns, but he will still be about 75 short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination without further help from superdelegates -- party officials who are free to back any candidate.

Obama contends the remaining undecided superdelegates, who have been trending his way heavily in recent weeks, should back him since he won the most delegates in state voting.

Clinton says superdelegates should consider her argument that she will make a stronger general election foe for McCain, and her victories in big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio give her a better base than Obama has managed.

Obama will mark Tuesday's voting with a rally in Iowa, a general election battleground where he made his breakthrough with a big win in the first Democratic contest on Jan. 3. He told reporters in Oregon on Sunday, however, that he did not plan to declare victory on Tuesday.

NO VICTORY DECLARATION

"It doesn't mean we declare victory because I won't be the nominee until we have enough -- combination of pledged delegates and super delegates to hit the mark," Obama said.

Obama continued to focus on the general election fight with McCain, stepping up attacks on the influence of lobbyists in the Arizona senator's campaign.

"John McCain's campaign is being run by Washington lobbyists and paid for with their money," Obama said in Billings, Montana, a state with a June 3 primary.

McCain's national finance co-chairman, former Texas Rep. Thomas Loeffler, quit on Sunday because of his lobbying ties, becoming the fifth person to leave his campaign because of links to lobbying. McCain's campaign manager last week asked staff to either resign or cut their ties with lobbying groups.

McCain strategist Charles Black, criticized by Democrats for his own lobbying activities, told reporters he had retired from his lobbying firm and he believed the McCain campaign had resolved the issue.

"I think everyone's complying right now," Black said.

In the Democratic race, Clinton said she had no intention of giving up the fight before the last two states, South Dakota and Montana, cast their votes.

"I'm going to make my case and I'm going to make it until we have a nominee, but we're not going to have one today and we're not going to have one tomorrow and we're not going to have one the next day," said Clinton, a former first lady.

"If Kentucky turns out tomorrow I will be closer to that nomination because of you," she said.

Obama is favored to win in Oregon, where his lead in new polls ranges from 4 percentage points to double digits, and Clinton is a big favorite in Kentucky. The two states have a combined 103 delegates at stake on Tuesday.

All voting ends in Kentucky at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) and Oregon at 8 p.m. PDT/11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT). Results are expected shortly after.

A delegate count by MSNBC gave Obama 1,901 delegates to Clinton's 1,724. He picked up five more superdelegates on Monday, including Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

Obama has been cautious about pushing Clinton too hard to leave the race. Both candidates have avoided criticizing each other since Obama's win in North Carolina two weeks ago moved him closer to claiming the nomination.

The Clinton campaign sent a memo to reporters saying any Obama effort to declare himself the nominee on Tuesday would be "a slap in the face" to Clinton supporters.

"Premature victory laps and false declarations of victory are unwarranted. Declaring mission accomplished does not make it so," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said. (Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland; writing by John Whitesides; Editing by David Wiessler) (To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http:/blogs.reuters.com/trail08/) ((For a TAKE A LOOK on the campaign [US/VOTE])) Keywords: USA POLITICS/

U.S. welcomes UN investigator's racism probe

Reuters: [2008-05-19 22:58:00]

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to the United Nations on Monday welcomed the visit of a special U.N. human rights investigator to probe racism but said the Human Rights Council should focus on "real problems" elsewhere.

The United Nations has said Doudou Diene will meet federal and local officials, lawmakers and judicial authorities during his visit, which runs from Monday to June 6. The focus of the visit is racism, which has become an issue in this year's U.S. presidential election campaign.

"We don't think (the visit) is needed but we welcome the visit," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters after a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

"I think it would be important for the Human Rights Council to spend its time on real problems and the problems of violations of human rights in countries that are notorious for their violations of human rights," Khalilzad said.

Among the notorious violators of human rights are North Korea, Iran and Belarus, he said.

Diene routinely visits countries to assess racism. Race has developed into a central issue in the United States ahead of November's presidential election because Sen. Barack Obama, the frontrunner in the Democratic nomination battle, could become the country's first black president.

His campaign has increased turnout among black voters but has also turned off some white voters in a country with a history of slavery and racial segregation.

Diene's three-week visit, officially sanctioned by the U.S. government, will cover eight cities -- Washington, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Diene, a Senegalese lawyer who has served in the independent post since 2002, will report his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council next year.

However, the United Nations has almost no clout when it comes to U.S. domestic affairs and is widely perceived by many as interfering. The United States is not among the 47 member states of the Geneva-based forum, but has observer status.

In a report last year Diene said Islamophobia had grown worldwide since the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on the United States, carried out by al-Qaeda militants.

A U.N. panel which examined the U.S. record on racial discrimination last March urged the United States to halt so-called racial profiling of Americans of Arab, Muslim and South Asian descent and to ensure immigrants and non-nationals are not mistreated. In racial profiling, a person's racial or ethnic background is taken into consideration when assessing the likelihood he or she will commit a crime.

The report also said America should impose a moratorium on the death penalty and stop sentencing young offenders to life in prison until it can root out racial bias from its justice system. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, editing by Cynthia Osterman) ((louis.charbonneau@reuters.com; +1 212 355 6053; Reuters Messaging: louis.charbonneau.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: UN USA/RACISM