A fierce gun battle broke out after a joint U.S.-Iraqi force arrested a rogue Shiite militia leader in Karbala on Friday, leading to an airstrike and the deaths of some 17 militants, the military said. U.S. troops also captured four militants suspected of links to networks that smuggle weapons and fighters from Iran. The military announced separately that a U.S. soldier was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Diyala, where an operation is under way against a volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite extremists.
Switzerland: Aid sought for Iraqis
The United Nations asked Friday for $129 million to educate tens of thousands of Iraqi children who fled to neighboring countries to escape Iraq’s violence. Syria and Jordan need money to expand overcrowded schools, train teachers, cover school fees and provide books and other material for more than 150,000 children who are not in school, two U.N. bodies said. About 500,000 school-age Iraqis live in the region as refugees, a U.N. refugee agency official said.
Brazil: Sao Paulo runway reopens
Authorities reopened the main runway at the country’s busiest airport on Friday for the first time since a TAM jetliner crashed there 10 days ago, killing 199 people in Brazil’s deadliest air accident. A TAM airlines jet was the first to touch down on the 6,362-foot main runway, but the airline has imposed new restrictions since the crash, saying it will use Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport only when it is not raining. The airport had been restricted to a backup runway since the crash while investigators tried to determine whether the main runway’s condition played a role in the accident.
China: Everest highway on hold
Tibet has put on hold plans to build a highway on the side of Mount Everest aimed at easing the Olympic torch’s journey to its peak, a government official said Friday. The $20 million project was to have turned a 67-mile rough path into a blacktop highway that snaked from the foot of the mountain to a base camp at 17,060 feet. “The paved road project is on hold,” the director of Tibet’s Foreign Affairs Department said. He refused to give a reason or any other details.
From Herald news services
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