Iraqi leaders meet, trying to restore calm
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Iraq's political leaders met Saturday night in a show of unity aimed at restoring calm following violent reaction to the bombing at a Shiite shrine.
Parts of the meeting at the home of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari were broadcast on television, the New York Times reported. Jaafari said after the meeting ended that the leaders agreed to hurry efforts to form a new government.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who attended the meeting, told reporters beforehand he believes the danger of civil war between Sunnis and Shiites is receding.
Saturday was a bloody day with at least 46 deaths.
More than 12 members of a Shiite family were killed in Baghdad, the latest in the retaliatory killings between Shiites and Sunnis following the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra. A bombing in Karbala killed five people and injured 35.
In Baghdad, three people were injured when gunmen shot at the funeral of Atwar Bahjat, a well-known newswoman for Al-Arabia, who was killed in Samarra with her crew after the Golden Mosque bombing.
Some stolen cash from depot found in van
TONBRIDGE, England, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Police in England arrested two more suspects Saturday in connection with one of the largest robberies in the country's history.
A white van believed to have been used in the robbery has been found in a parking lot at a hotel in Kent near the Channel Tunnel, The Independent reported. Two large wrapped packages of bills were discovered in the van.
Investigators believe the robbers who made off with 50 million pounds ($87 million) from a Securitas depot in Kent divided up their haul in the van and went their separate ways. Given the location, they may have left the country.
Police said one of the two men arrested is 55 and the other 33. Both are from Maidstone in Kent.
Two women and a man arrested earlier have been released on bail. One woman was arrested when she attempted to open an account with a building society with a bundle of bills still wrapped in paper with the name of the depot that was robbed on it.
Investigators say at least six men were involved in Wednesday's heist. The robbers kidnapped Colin Dixon, the manager of the Securitas warehouse, as he was driving to work -- and abducted his wife and son from their home.
H5N1 bird flu found in French poultry
PARIS, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- France has become the first country in the European Union to confirm the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in domestic poultry.
The virus was found in two wild ducks at a turkey farm near a lake, the BBC reported.
President Jacques Chirac demonstrated his confidence in the safety of French poultry by eating chicken at an agricultural fair in Paris. Sales of chicken and other poultry have dropped about 30 percent.
The scare could be a major economic blow, the BBC reported. France is the largest poultry producer in Europe with annual sales of about $8 billion.
Japan has already banned French birds.
Schwarzenegger declares Delta emergency
SACRAMENTO, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared that the levees protecting California's Sacramento Delta are in a state of emergency.
Friday's announcement could speed up $100 million for repairs and allows the state to ignore some environmental regulations and contracting requirements, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The governor invited members of the California congressional delegation on a helicopter flight over the Delta last week to look at the levees, which protect many fast-growing communities as well as acres of valuable farmland.
Schwarzenegger told reporters at the state Republican Party convention he does not want to wait for federal aid.
"We are not going to get the money as quickly as we deserve because they just don't have it," he said. "This is why we have to make quick moves, because I don't want to be in a situation, as people were in New Orleans, where you talk and talk and talk, then all of a sudden something happens and you wipe out an entire city."
Actor Don Knotts dead at age 81
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Three's Company" star Don Knotts has died of lung cancer in Los Angeles at age 81.
Knotts -- best known for playing deputy Barney Fife in the 1960s and Ralph Furley in the 1970s -- died at Cedars Sinai Medical Center Friday, the Los Angeles Times said Saturday.
His longtime friend and co-star, Andy Griffith, was one of the last people to see him Friday night. Knotts won five Emmys for his work on "The Andy Griffith Show."
Knotts most recently voiced the part of Turkey Major in Walt Disney's "Chicken Little." He appeared as a guest on NBC's "Las Vegas" and Fox TV's "That '70s Show" last year.
His many film credits include "The Apple Dumpling Gang," "Pleasantville," "Cat's Don't Dance," "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" and "The Reluctant Astronaut."
Knotts told the Times in a 1976 interview that he turned to comedy as a way to help ease the memories of an unhappy childhood.
"I felt like a loser," he said. "I was unhappy, I think, most of the time. We were terribly poor and I hated my size."
He was born Jesse Donald Knotts in Morgantown, W.Va., on July 21, 1924, the youngest of four brothers.
