Obama plans European, Middle East trip
NEW YORK, July 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hits the road next week with a five-country European and Middle East tour that should have plenty of up-front media coverage.
The presumptive Democratic candidate for president will be accompanied on his 12,000-mile trip by a planeload of reporters, trailed by three television network anchors, USA Today said Thursday.
It shaped up as a vivid contrast to the low-key March trip of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the expected Republican candidate.
James Thurber, an American University political scientist and former teacher in Brussels, told USA Today that Obama is "going to be a rock star."
Obama lacks the foreign policy experience of McCain, a Navy veteran and the top-ranking GOP member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. However, a May poll of more than 6,000 Europeans for London's Daily Telegraph showed Obama favored by wide margins in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
Gunman wounds six, then self in Jordan
AMMAN, Jordan, July 17 (UPI) -- A gunman fired at people waiting to board a bus at a popular tourist spot in Amman, Jordan, injuring six before shooting himself, authorities said.
A government official said the injuries to the five women and the bus driver weren't life-threatening but the gunman was said to be in critical condition, CNN reported.
Nasser Judeh, Jordan's information minister, said the victims and the gunman were all Arabs and officials don't consider Wednesday's shooting an act of terrorism.
Authorities said the suspect acted alone and wasn't known to have ties to a terrorist group. A witness said the gunman yelled "Allahu Akbar," "God is great," before firing, CNN said.
The shooting took place near a Roman amphitheater, a major tourist destination in the old downtown section of the Jordanian capital.
Troops conduct raids on al-Qaida in Iraq
BAGHDAD, July 17 (UPI) -- A man suspected of helping to get "foreign terrorists" into Iraq has been captured by coalition forces, the U.S. military said Thursday.
The capture occurred during an operation in Anbar province, believed by officials to be a point where insurgents enter Iraq from Syria, CNN said.
The military said suspect worked with the predominantly Sunni al-Qaida in Iraq and was one of nine people detained at locations throughout the country in raids focusing on the group's terrorist and financial networks.
In another one raid in Tikrit, three people were detained. The military said the suspects "reportedly planning to conduct attacks with poisons," CNN reported.
N.Korea nuclear dismantling continues
PYONGYANG, North Korea, July 17 (UPI) -- North Korea's further disabling of its main nuclear reactor under the latest round of six-party talks effort seems to be proceeding well.
North Korean workers, as of last week, had removed 4,000 of the 8,000 nuclear fuel rods from its Yongbyon reactor near Pyongyang and placed them in an adjacent water pond, Kyodo news service reported Thursday, quoting sources close to the denuclearization effort by the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.
The removal of the fuel rods from the reactor is one of final steps remaining to prevent the restart of the facility.
The latest steps follow the six-party talks, which resumed last week in Beijing after an absence of nine months. Those talks restarted after North Korea submitted its declaration of nuclear programs.
In Beijing, North Korea agreed it will complete the process by October, Kyodo said. In return it is to get substantial aid from the other countries.
"If North Korea is to finish disablement by that time frame, it would have to speed up the rate of discharging the fuel rods," one of the sources told Kyodo.
Yongbyon's fuel fabrication facility and the spent fuel reprocessing plant have been fully disabled, Kyodo said.
Pope lauds apology to Aborigines
SYDNEY, July 17 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI Thursday called the Australian government courageous for apologizing for past injustices suffered by the nation's indigenous peoples.
The leader of the world's Roman Catholics, who is in Australia for the World Youth Day celebration, said the "courageous decision" by the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to apologize would help bring indigenous and non-indigenous Australians closer together, The Australian reported.
"This example of reconciliation offers hope to peoples all over the world who long to see their rights affirmed and their contributions to society acknowledged and promoted," Benedict said.
The pope made the comments at Sydney's Government House during the first official engagement of his visit. He was greeted by about 200 onlookers.
The pontiff also complimented Australia for its "serious commitment" to protect the environment.
In welcoming the pope, Rudd called him "the voice of hope at a time ... when hope is most needed."
Meanwhile, the pope also sent a message to a gathering of Anglican bishops, urging them to avoid schism, The Times Online reported. About a quarter of the Anglican Church's bishops are boycotting the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury because of disagreements over the ordination of gay clergy.
