IRAQ

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

IRAQ

Police Recruits Killed

Suspected Sunni insurgents ambushed a minibus carrying police recruits in northern Iraq near the Syrian border Monday, killing all 11 passengers, Iraqi officials said.

It was the first deadly attack in the region around Mosul since Iraqi forces launched a major sweep there against fighters from the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The attack near Baaj occurred hours after Iraqi officials said they had arrested a man suspected of being al-Qaeda in Iraq's chief leader in Mosul, the network's most prominent urban stronghold, about 80 miles from Baaj.

ISRAEL

Olmert Case Detailed

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is suspected of having taken envelopes full of cash from a U.S. businessman, the chief prosecutor said on Monday in his most graphic public account of a corruption case against Olmert.

Olmert has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which threatens to force him from office and disrupt his U.S.-brokered peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

State Prosecutor Moshe Lador, speaking at a Supreme Court hearing, said investigators suspected New York businessman Morris Talansky had given Olmert "dollars, in cash and in envelopes, during brief meetings from time to time."

Olmert's attorneys were petitioning the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision to hear preliminary testimony from Talansky, currently visiting Israel, before he returns to the United States.

VENEZUELA

U.S. Envoy Summoned

Venezuela wants the U.S. ambassador to explain a violation of its airspace by a U.S. Navy plane, the foreign minister said Monday.

The S-3 jet was detected in Venezuelan airspace on Saturday night near the Caribbean island of La Orchila and was questioned by the Caracas airport control tower, said the defense minister, Gen. Gustavo Rangel Brice¿o. Venezuela has a military base on La Orchila.

"This is just the latest step in a series of provocations," Rangel said.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the plane "may have strayed inadvertently into Venezuelan airspace" while conducting a counter-drug mission.

The jet identified itself and told the Venezuelan authorities that a possible navigation error had occurred, the Pentagon said.

From News Services