UPI NewsTrack TopNews

Apr 08, 05:04 PM

Current Headlines: Vehicles banned in Baghdad BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 8 (UPI) -- No vehicles will be allowed on Baghdad's streets Monday, the fourth anniversary of when U.S. forces captured the city as they toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.

The 24-hour ban imposed by the Iraqi military followed an explosion that claimed at least 15 lives and wounded 30 people, Sky News reported. The blast, caused either by a rocket or a truck bomb, destroyed shops and a multi-story residential building near Mahmudiya where several bodies were believed to be still buried.

The explosion was one of three Sunday that killed at least 29 people, including four U.S. soldiers, and left at least 57 wounded.

Five people died and six were injured when a car bomb detonated in Ilam, while four U.S. soldiers died and a fifth was injured in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala province north of Baghdad. Bombs also were reported in Baghdad, killing four civilians and wounding 16 near an outdoor market, according to the BBC. A roadside bomb also killed one Baghdad police officer and wounded four more.

Meanwhile, the bodies of six shepherds were found south of Karbala. Authorities said they were among 18 believed to have been abducted by al-Qaida members Wednesday.

Levin: Democrats will fund troops, period WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- The chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee says Democrats will not cut funds for U.S. troops even if President Bush vetoes an Iraq war funding bill.

We're not going to vote to cut funding, period, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Levin appeared with Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

Levin said after a threatened veto of a Democratic bill that calls for substantial troop withdrawal, the congressional majority would bring up a bill that just sets benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet.

If that doesn't work and the president vetoes because of that -- and he will -- then that part of it is removed because we're going to fund the troops, Levin said, and what we will leave ... (is language that) would require the president to certify to the American people if the Iraqis are meeting the benchmarks for political settlement which they, the Iraqi leaders, have set for themselves.

Kyle said even that final language would be unacceptable, and the additional troops sent to Iraq were making an impact. First of all, (benchmark language is) premised on the notion that the Iraqis aren't listening to us, he said. ... They are cooperating with us, so that's old news that they're not cooperating. That's one of the reasons this new surge strategy is working.

Schumer: After veto should come compromise WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- A senior senator says Democrats will not leave U.S. troops high and dry if President Bush vetoes an Iraq war funding bill, but will try to reach a compromise.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., appeared on Fox News Sunday along with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should step down.

Schumer said after a threatened veto the Democratic congressional majority will try to come up with a way ... to compromise with the White House that both supports the troops and yet changes the strategy in Iraq, which we feel is misguided.

Even the Reid-Feingold bill doesn't call for a pullout of all the troops, he added, but calls for continued funding after March 2008 and a change of mission to counter-terrorism, protecting U.S. forces and Iraqi retraining.

We are not going to leave the troops high and dry, plain and simple, Schumer said.

Gingrich indicated that Gonzales should step down for mishandling the controversy following the firing of five U.S. attorneys, not for the firing itself, which he said was the president's prerogative.

This is the most mishandled, artificial, self-created mess that I can remember in the years ... I've been active in public life, Gingrich said, and ... you know, the buck has to stop somewhere.

Senator wants pet food hearing WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- At least one U.S. senator wants to hold hearings in the wake of the nationwide tainted pet food recall.

Saying the system is broken-down, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said he would like to see the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have the authority to issue pet food recalls rather than rely on manufacturers to act voluntarily, the Los Angeles Times said Sunday. Durbin also wants the FDA to set national standards and inspection rules for pet food makers.

The FDA is like a fire department that is only called after the house has burned, Durbin said Saturday.

The Illinois Democrat has called for an agriculture appropriations subcommittee hearing as soon as Thursday to question FDA officials about their response to the contamination that has killed about 15 pets and may have sickened thousands more across the nation.

More than 100 brands of pet food have been recalled. The FDA has concluded that melamine, a chemical used in plastic products, had tainted wheat gluten from China that was used in in the food manufacturing process.