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Show 2 Friday, March 28,2008 BULLETIN www.dailyutahchronide.com All stories and photos from The Associated Press AI-Maliki refuses to relent in Basra as protests demand his resignation BAGHDAD—Prime Minister Nouri alMalilci pledged "no retreat" Thursday in the fight against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, as thousands of protesters demanded he resign over the crackdown and extremists fired rockets into the U.S.protected Green Zone. Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr called Thursday for a political solution to the burgeoning crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." But the statement, released by a close aide, stopped short of ordering his Mahdi Army militia to halt attacks on the Green Zone or stop fighting in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. In ta sign of the deteriorating security, gunmen in Baghdad seized a high-profile government spokesman from his home in a Shiite neighborhood, killing three of his bodyguards and torching his house. In a bid to curb the violence, Iraq's military ordered vehicles and pedestrians off the streets of the capital until Sunday morning. As Americans and Iraqis scrambled to cope with a newly violent Iraq, the State Department ordered all personnel at the U.S. Embassy not to leave reinforced structures because of continued incoming rocket or mortar fire from suspected Shiite extremists angry over the Basra crackdown. The campaign to rid Basra of lawless gangs and Shiite militias—some believed tied to nearby Iran—is a major test for alMaliki, a Shiite, and for the Iraqi military. The ability of Iraqi leaders and security forces to control situations like this one is key to U.S. hopes of withdrawing its forces from the country. The prime minister put his credibility on the line, by flying down to Basra and issuing a weekend deadline for the surrender of Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to al-Sadr. But the militiamen were still controlling Basra's streets Thursday, and the security operation has triggered a violent response among alSadr*s followers in Baghdad and cities throughout the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq. In the Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah, thousands of al-Sadr's followers denounced al-Maliki as a "new dictator" as they carried a coffin bearing a crossed-out picture of the U.S.-backed prime minister. Thousands more also rallied in Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shiite district. However, al-Maliki showed no sign of wavering. "We have made up our minds to enter this battle, and we will continue until the end. No retreat," al-Maliki told Basra area tribal leaders in a speech broadcast nationwide on Iraqi state TV. Al-Maiiki said Iraq had become a "nation of gangs, militias and outlaws" and he was Mahdi Army fighters drive through Basra, Iraq, on Thursday. Iraqi undertaking a "historic mis- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki defiantly vowed Thursday to keep up the sion" in Basra to restore "the fight against Shiite militias in Basra, despite protests of followers of a law of the land." radical cleric and deadly clashes across Baghdad and the oil-rich south. But the Sadrists have been angry over recent raids and detentions, rests to prevent them from mounting an saying U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken ad- effective campaign for provincial elections vantage of their 7-month-old cease-fire to expected this fall. The Sadrists expect to crack down on the movement. They have make major electoral gains at the expense accused rival Shiite parties, which control of rival parties, including those that mainIraqi security forces, of engineering the ar- tain close ties to the United States. Baghdad's Green Zone is red hot again BAGHDAD—Warning sirens wail and within seconds rockets and mortars strike—sometimes one or two, other times 10 or more. The Green Zone is again a prime target as American and British diplomats, Iraqi politicians, contractors and others struggle to go about their busir ness—always aware that any time they are outside the most fortified buildings there is a chance to be injured or killed. The danger has temporarily reshaped life: Green Zone traffic is minimal, few people venture out on the streets and security precautions—always high—have been boosted. Many diplomats and others prefer to bunk on cots in the stone and marble grandeur of the former Saddam Hussein palace that now holds U.S. Embassy offices. On Thursday, the^State Department instructed all Embassy personnel not to leave reinforced structures. A memo sent to embassy staff says employees are required to wear helmets and other protective gear if they must venture outside and strongly advises them to sleep in blast-resistant locations instead of trailers. For the fourth day this week. suspected Shiite militiamen sent rockets and mortars into the Green Zone in central Baghdad. The volleys on Thursday began in the morning and came in about once an hour well into nightfall. The attacks on the Green Zone are being carriecl, out in tandem with growing clashes between Iraqi government forces , and the Mahdi Army militia led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. By bombarding the Green Zone, the followers of al-Sadr are not only targeting the Iraqi government, but also the hub of the American political mission and its influence on the Iraqi government. At least one death was reported inside the Green Zone in the latest attacks. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said a U.S. government employee was killed, but would give no further details until, relatives are notified. Another American, a financial analyst wha audited contracts ;iaJrac>;. was killed Sunday in the zone, the embassy and relatives said earlier this week. One explosion Thursday ignited a fire in the central area of the zone that sent a massive column of thick, black smoke drifting over the Tigris River. 'It's all lies,' monks shout to China's media tour LHASA, China—The stagemanaged tour of Tibet's holiest temple was going according to the government script. Sudden- ly, 30 young Buddhist monks pushed their way in, slammed the door, and began shouting and crying to the foreign re- Chinese paramilitary police patrol on a street in Lhasa, capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Thursday. A government-managed visit by foreign reporters to Tibet's capital backfired Thursday when Buddhist monks disrupted the tour, screaming that there was no religious freedom and that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for Lhasa's recent violence. porters that there is no freedom in the riot-torn region. "What the government is saying is not true," a monk shouted as a wellspring of grievances poured out, first in Tibetan and then in Chinese after the confused reporters asked them to switch. Finally, government officials abruptly ended the session and told the journalists it was "time to go." The emotional, 15-minute outburst by the red-robed monks decrying their lack of religious freedom was the only spontaneous moment Thursday in an otherwise tightly controlled government trip to the Tibetan capital for foreign reporters following this month's deadly riots. On the second day of the tour, officials hewed to the government line—that the most violent anti-Chinese protests in nearly two decades was plot- ted by the exiled Dalai Lama and his supporters. Officials escorted two dozen reporters to shops, clinics, a school and a jail to interview victims and rioters, many of them already widely interviewed by state media. Those who tried to break away from the pack were followed by car and on foot, making all but the most fleeting of contact with ordinary Tibetans risky. Only the monks at the Jokhang Temple, Tibet's holiest site, managed to upend the official stage-managed event. As reporters were ushered toward the temple's inner shrine by a senior monk and administrator, the 30 young monks began shouting to them. The monks said the believers then in the shrine were fake— members of China's ruling Communist Party. WORLD Zimbabwe's Mugabe faces difficult election battle HARARE, Zimbabwe—Daily scenes of struggle with the world's highest inflation are the dark backdrop to an election Saturday in which Robert Mugabe is fighting to prolong his 28-year-old presidency, outpolled by his main opponent and accused of laying elaborate plans to rig the vote. On 84-year-old Mugabe's watch, the country has collapsed from food exporter to being dependent on international food handouts and money sent home by many of the 5 million people—more than a third of the population—who have fled Zimbabwe. Bush an advocate for Croatian NATO membership ZAGREB, Croatia—President Bush says he "strongly supports" Croatian membership in NATO, but has declined to say if the former Yugoslav country will be invited to join the alliance at a summit next week. In an interview with the state-run Croatian television broadcast Thursday, Bush said the decision will be made by all NATO members. Bush has said that Croatia is in a "very good position" to be invited to join. Membership in NATO and European Union are among the country's priorities. Colombian military investigates uranium discovery BOGOTA—The Defense Ministry said Thursday it was investigating whether 66 pounds of uranium found buried by a roadside in southern Bogota was material being sought by leftist rebels. Colombian authorities said earlier this month that they were worried by a document found in the laptop of a slain rebel that indicated the guerrillas were trying to obtain uranium- U.S. Man shoots employees in Georgia hospital tirade COLUMBUS, Ga.—A retired teacher bearing a grudge over his mother's treatment at the hospital where she died fatally shot one of her nurses, another employee and a man outside Thursday before police shot him, authorities said. Charles Johnston, 63, is being charged with murder and will be turned over to police after an overnight stay in another hospital, where he was treated for a shoulder wound, Police Chief Ricky Boren said. The chief said the gunman arrived at Doctors Hospital with three pistols, including a 9mm automatic and a .38-caliber revolver, and went to the fifth-floor intensive care unit where his mother had been in 2004. "He blamed a male nurse. He didn't think his mother had been properly cared for," Boren said. Security agents forced removal of nipple piercings LOS ANGELES—A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation. Mandi Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems. The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said. Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom demanded that she remove the jewelry, Hamlin said. UTAH Middle school evacuated after report of armed man WEST JORDAN—A middle school was evacuated after an anonymous caller claimed to have heard reports of a man with a gun in the parking lot Officials say West Jordan Middle School's 1,000 students were sent home early Thursday afternoon as a precaution. Jordan School District spokesman Michael Kelley says officials were working with police to determine whether the story was a hoax, which seemed more likely after nothing was found during a thorough search. West Jordan Police Sgt. Greg Butler said officers and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the building and campus. This day in U history... March 28,2001: The Chronicle was burglarized, reporting "(Editor-inChief Shane) McCammon estimated $20,000 in equipment was stolen. 'We were lucky—very lucky—that the janitor spoooked them,1 McCammon said." 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Fremont Ave. ' . •A Fragile Empire: Rome and • Her Glass: Utah Museum of Fine-: Arts , ' "._] 50/32 Partly Cloudy •Softball vs. Utah Valley State: ' 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. @Ute Softball Field . •A Fragile Empire: Rome and ;'Her Glass: Utah Museum of Fine Arts '•Baseball vs. Air Force: 1 p.m. @ Franklin Covey Field . •Forgotten Splendor: Utah's Echo and Weber Canyons Utah Museum of Fine Arts ;. •America's Wildest Places: Our National Wildlife Ref- ; uges: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ,@ Utah Museum of Natural '-'*••*.• History . ., • • ' • • *?? . V - ^ • • 3 1 * ' • " ' • • •'•'••• • - • " - . • • - . - •-.-.." • . . . - ; ' •'•'••• V |