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EU to challenge Iraq U.S. contract policy

LONDON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The European Union will examine the legality of a U.S. decision to exclude several nations from multi-billion reconstruction contracts in Iraq, the BBC reported.

The ban, announced Tuesday, includes France, Canada, Russia and Germany, which stand to lose lucrative deals because they opposed the U.S.-led war.

The EU's executive arm said it would examine if the ban was in line with U.S. obligations under world trade rules.

The U.S. has defended its decision, describing it as "appropriate."

"Prime contracts for reconstruction funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars should go to the Iraqi people and those countries who are working with the United States on the difficult task of helping to build a free Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

He said that other nations that wanted to be eligible for a slice of the reconstruction money -- approved by the U.S. Congress -- could do so by participating militarily.

During a photo opportunity at the White House where he praised visiting Iraqi musicians, President Bush refused to answer questions shouted by reporters regarding the Iraq contract policy.

U.S. troops strike back at Fedayeen

MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The 101st Airborne Division captured numerous Fedayeen, Saddam and other former regime elements Wednesday in two raids across northern Iraq.

U.S. Central Command said the division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team conducted simultaneous cordon-and-knock operations against 34 targets across Mosul. Fifty-two individuals were detained, including a former Fedayeen brigadier general, other former Fedayeen officers, and Ba'ath Party loyalists.

During a second operation, elements of the 2nd team entered the village of Salamiyah, east of Mosul, where they searched 110 houses and confiscated weapons and munitions.

Additionally, the brigade detained 11 persons in Mosul on Tuesday for suspicion of illegal weapons sales.

There were no casualties reported.

U.S. plans massive troop rotation

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The Pentagon is reportedly preparing to rotate a quarter of a million troops into and out of Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan early next year.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday the Pentagon plans to replace virtually all of the United States' battle-hardened forces with new fighters. The rotation would substitute about 118,000 troops for 130,000 outgoing soldiers in Iraq alone.

The Times said the plan combines two controversial Pentagon decisions: to send troops home after serving 12 months in Iraq and to deploy fighting units together, rather than substituting new soldiers on an individual basis -- a so-called "spare parts" policy that proved disastrous in Vietnam.

Lawrence Korb, assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, told the Los Angeles Times: "They're driven by the fact that though they claim this was a war of necessity, it's really a war of choice.

"Because it's a war of choice, if they don't get those troops out of there they are going to cause long-term problems for the U.S. military, because they will have horrible reenlistment rates."

Control of Internet to stay in U.S.

NEW YORK, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- European and U.S. officials hailed the World Summit on the Information Society Wednesday for delaying until 2005 considering who should run the Internet.

Society members, who began their first formal meeting Wednesday in New York, agreed during the weekend simply to create a working group of industry, government and public sector experts to discuss the issue and make recommendations at the next society meeting in 2005.

For now, key decisions about Internet standards, technology and regulation will continue to be made by an array of U.S. private sector organizations.

The most visible of these is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which has operated the global domain name system since 1988, under an agreement with the U.S. government.

While some nations have called for control of the Internet to be handed to an international body, European, U.S. and Japanese officials oppose such moves.

"We welcome the development of a preliminary consensus," U.S. State Department spokesman John Finn said.

"And that no changes to the current governance structure associated with the internet should be made by the summit."