Iraq

Car bombing kills at least one outside recruitment center

A car bomb exploded today outside an Iraqi National Guard headquarters in a city south of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding 22, hospital officials said.

Ambulances raced to the scene and police cordoned off the area in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad.

The explosion occurred at about 7:45 a.m. while prospective recruits were waiting to get into the headquarters, said Dr. Dawoud Jassim Taie, director of the Mahmudiyah Hospital. Six of those wounded were National Guard troops while the rest were prospective recruits, he said.

National Guard troops became suspicious of a parked car near the first checkpoint and opened fire, said one officer. The bomb went off about 30 feet away from the first checkpoint.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

FBI: Al-Qaida may recruit non-Arabs for attacks in U.S.

Al-Qaida may be recruiting non-Arabs less likely to attract the notice of security personnel to carry out attacks inside the United States, the FBI warned on Friday.

The terror network especially seeks operatives who have U.S. citizenship or legal residency status, the FBI’s counterterrorism division said in its weekly bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

“Finding operatives with U.S. status would greatly facilitate al-Qaida’s ability to carry out an attack within the United States,” said the bulletin, obtained by The Associated Press.

The new warning comes amid a continuous stream of intelligence indicating that al-Qaida is determined to strike the United States in the summer or fall.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

U.S. will withhold aid to U.N. fund because of abortion link

The Bush administration will withhold $34 million in congressionally approved assistance to the U.N. Population Fund because of the fund’s connection to China and forced abortions, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday.

The State Department said it was convinced the fund helped China manage programs that involved forced abortions.

Powell said in a letter to Congress that the administration would continue to help women and children around the world through other programs.

Netherlands

Milosevic war crimes trial postponed because of health

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s defense case against war crimes has been postponed until Aug. 31 because of his ill health, the U.N. tribunal said Friday.

The trial had been scheduled to resume Monday, after four previous delays, but a new medical report indicated Milosevic’s blood pressure was still too high, court spokesman Jim Landale said.

“On the basis of the blood pressure values of the accused, (the doctor) advises he should not attend the hearing scheduled for Monday,” Landale said. No additional details of the medical report were released.

Milosevic, 62, has been on trial since February 2002. He faces 66 counts of war crimes for the Balkan wars of the 1990s.