Maliki adds time for militia to drop arms
BASRA, Iraq, March 28 (UPI) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki extended the deadline to April 8 for militias to surrender their weapons to security personnel, his office said.
The deadline had been Friday for militias fighting government troops in Basra to drop their arms in return for financial reward, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported Friday
Maliki set the deadline as a response to solving "illegal arming that threatens security and the lives and properties of citizens," his office said in a statement.
The fighting has left Basra's streets nearly deserted, KUNA reported. Oil exports from the city terminal was suspended Thursday after one of three pipelines was damaged.
The Iraqi parliament said it would meet to discuss the situation in Basra. The majority in the Iraqi parliament expressed support for Maliki's security campaign to oust outlaw militias in the southern city.
Since fighting began Tuesday, some 130 people have been killed and another 350 injured. Maliki and his defense and interior ministers traveled to Basra to oversee the campaign, begun when it seemed the city was falling under the control of militias, including followers of the cleric Moqtada Sadr, chief of Mehdi Army militia.
Gates orders probe in bomb parts mix-up
WASHINGTON, March 28 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered an inventory of the U.S. nuclear arsenal in the wake of the shipment mix-up with Taiwan.
The secretary had already ordered an investigation into how the four nose cone fuse assemblies for intercontinental ballistic missiles, instead of the requested helicopter batteries, were shipped to Taiwan, The Washington Post reported Friday. The mix-up wasn't noticed for more than 18 months.
Gates ordered the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency to inventory and assess control measures for all nuclear weapons and their associated components within 60 days "to verify positive control and accountability of all such materials," according to a memo released Thursday.
"This is about the trust and confidence of the American people and our stewardship of the most dangerous weapons in the world," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. "Getting to the bottom of this incident and ensuring our nuclear arsenal and associated components are properly safeguarded must be a top priority of this department. Secretary Gates believes this situation is totally and completely unacceptable."
Initial reports indicate the nose cones' outer packaging was mislabeled.
N. Korea test fires missiles
SEOUL, March 28 (UPI) -- North Korea on Friday reportedly test-fired several missiles, believed to be short-range Russian Styx missiles, into the Yellow Sea.
The missile tests, reported by the Yonhap news agency quoting sources, comes a day after North Korea, apparently responding to the polices of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's conservative government, expelled South Korean officials from the joint Kaesong industrial park located north of the two countries' heavily guarded border.
The South Korean government appeared unconcerned by the missile tests.
"The government regards North Korea's missile firing as merely a part of its ordinary military training," a presidential spokesman told Yonhap.
Recent report have said Lee plans to take a tougher stand than his predecessors on inter-Korean cooperation. That would include the North making progress in the stalled six-party denuclearization talks.
Close Gitmo, five secretaries of state say
ATHENS, Ga., March 28 (UPI) -- Closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would improve the United States' reputation worldwide, five former secretaries of state said.
The former secretaries -- Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell -- were part of a roundtable discussion at the University of Georgia, offering "bipartisan advice" to the next administration, The Journal-Constitution in Atlanta reported Friday.
"Our image abroad has dropped significantly," said Powell, secretary of state when the prison opened. "Perhaps this administration has spoken a little too harshly in a unilateral way."
The prison's closure would signal "we are now going to go back to our traditional, respected way of dealing with people who have potentially committed crimes," Powell said.
Presidential hopefuls -- Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican John McCain -- have called for Guantanamo's closure.
Kissinger said that not all of the criticism is because of U.S. actions.
"Some of it is also due to structural changes going on in other parts of the world," he said.
The five also agreed the United States should talk to its enemies, including Iran.
"We have to understand what diplomacy is really about," Albright said. "It's talking to your enemy."
Obama-Bloomberg ticket speculation appears
NEW YORK, March 28 (UPI) -- Introducing Sen. Barack Obama to a New York audience has renewed speculation about the political future of the city's Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In presenting Obama, D-Ill., Thursday, Bloomberg noted that he hadn't endorsed any candidate, saying voters need to listen to all ideas, CNN reported.
Nonetheless, political observers say the introduction, a previous meeting and Bloomberg's switch in party affiliations fuels speculations about the political future of the New York leader.
An aide to the mayor said Obama asked Bloomberg to speak and that the mayor agreed.
Bloomberg, who was once a Democrat but changed affiliation to Republican for his first run for mayor and has since taken the "independent" mantel, in February dismissed speculation about his being on a presidential ticket as vice president. He once considered a possible White House run as an independent.
Stu Loeser, Bloomberg's press secretary, sought to downplay the gossip, telling CNN, "He's trying to shape and influence the campaigns, he's not trying to join one."
Bloomberg and Obama joked about a much-covered breakfast meeting they had in November. Bloomberg said he was pleased to introduce Obama "and not just because he picked up the check." Obama said he paid for the breakfast "because I expected payback. ... There are some good steakhouses in this city."
