Judge among dead in U.S. raid on Tikrit
TIKRIT, Iraq, March 26 (UPI) -- An Iraqi judge was among five people killed Wednesday in a U.S. airstrike in Tikrit, police reported.
Thirteen people were injured in the strike that killed Munaf Mahdi al-Azawi, a judge with Tikrit Central Court, CNN reported.
The U.S. military said the raid was targeting a person "associated with al-Qaida in Iraq and suspected of organizing car bombings for the terrorist group."
In Baghdad, three people were seriously injured Wednesday when four mortar shells were lobbed at the Green Zone, a fortified area where U.S. officials have offices, reported KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency.
A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said the three injured were U.S. government officials.
Iraqi police said one of the shells landed outside the Green Zone near the Iranian Embassy, damaging a residential building.
Foreign media taken to Tibet
BEIJING, March 26 (UPI) -- China, facing mounting criticism of its crackdown on protesters and clampdown on information in Tibet, Wednesday let a foreign media team visit the region.
The group of news reporters left Beijing Wednesday for Tibet, Xinhua reported.
In recent days, foreign reporters have been barred from going to the region where Tibetan protesters have been demonstrating against Chinese rule of their homeland.
The three-day trip for the foreign media team arranged by the Information Office of China's State Council comes after days of attacks by China against what it claimed to be biased reporting of the events in Tibet by Western media.
The group is comprised of 26 journalists from 19 media organizations, including The Associated Press, Britain's Financial Times, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post and Taiwan's Central News Agency, Xinhua reported.
Others in the group were not mentioned. The BBC reported earlier it was not among those invited.
Xinhua also reported Lhasa, Tibet's capital, was returning to normal after the unrest that "was believed to have been organized, premeditated and masterminded by the Dalai Lama clique."
Guatemala: Nine killed in shootout
GUATEMALA CITY, March 26 (UPI) -- Nine people were killed and seven wounded in a shootout between armed groups in Guatemala believed to be linked to the drug trade, authorities said.
The firefight took place in Zacapa province, about 60 miles east of the capital, Guatemala City, said local authorities, Prensa Libre reported online.
The area is a well-known transit point for drug shipments from Colombia to the United States.
Three Guatemalan and three Mexican suspects were arrested after the melee Tuesday.
Landslide consumes apartment building
ALESUND , Norway, March 26 (UPI) -- Five people were missing after landslides smashed into a residential complex in Alesund, Norway, tearing one building off its foundation, officials said.
Rescue crews were prevented from entering the building because it was unstable after the first landslide crashed into the complex and moved it, Aftenposten reported. Several floors in the building collapsed, causing gas lines to rupture, sparking several fires.
A second landslide crashed into the rubble, prompting officials to evacuate the area.
Police said 15 people were rescued from the building and at least five were unaccounted for.
Firefighters, police, ambulance crews, helicopters and specially trained dogs were at the scene to search for the missing, the newspaper reported.
One person described the scene as "incomprehensible," telling Norwegian Broadcasting it appeared the building was moved about 18 feet and parts of the first two floors were reduced to nothing.
Affirmative action foes busy in 5 states
WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- Affirmative action opponents in five states are pushing to have the question on the ballot in November, when the United States chooses its next president.
Anti-affirmative action activists in Colorado presented 128,744 signatures to state authorities to include the initiative on the ballot and petition drives are under way in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
The initiatives are spearheaded by Ward Connerly, a prominent affirmative action foe, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Connerly, claiming he's raised about $1.5 million for the campaigns, said he sees the initiatives as the next step in his drive to end preferences.
"Without any doubt, we have to understand that race preferences are on the way out," said Connerly, a conservative black Republican who cites campaigns of presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., as examples of why preference plans aren't needed.
Opponents are using legal challenges and grass-roots organizing to keep the measures off the ballot or defeat them in November.
"We know that most Americans support equal opportunity," Wade Henderson, president of Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Washington, told the Post. "They know that diversity is good for business, good for the classroom and ultimately good for the country."
