Protesting Kurd demands

Protesting Kurd demands

BAGHDAD — More than 1,000 Sunni Arabs and Turkomen rallied Saturday against Kurdish demands to incorporate the oil-rich area around Kirkuk into their autonomous region, on the eve of a special session of parliament aimed at defusing the crisis.

The dispute over Kirkuk and its vast oil wealth has blocked passage of legislation providing for provincial elections this year, a major U.S. goal aimed at reconciling Iraq’s rival ethnic and religious communities.

Protesters in the town of Hawija, west of Kirkuk, carried banners rejecting Kurdish demands for control of Kirkuk, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir of the Kirkuk police.

The rally ended without any violence, but residents said the atmosphere was tense in Kirkuk, where a suicide bomber killed 25 people Monday during a Kurdish protest.

Dad, abducted girl found

BALTIMORE — A man accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Boston last weekend was arrested Saturday in Baltimore and the girl was found safe, authorities said.

A “concerned citizen” tipped off authorities that the man known as Clark Rockefeller was living in a Baltimore apartment and had a 26-foot catamaran docked at a nearby marina, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said.

Rockefeller will be arraigned Monday to begin extradition proceedings. He is charged with felony custodial kidnapping, assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Davis said.

Investigators invented a ruse to get Rockefeller out of the apartment and away from the child. They called the suspect and told him that his boat was taking on water.

He was arrested when he left the apartment, Davis said. The girl, Reigh Boss, was found apparently unharmed inside.

Tape: Attacker ate flesh

TORONTO — A police officer at the scene of a fatal stabbing on a Canadian bus reported seeing the attacker hacking off pieces of the victim’s body and eating them, according to a police tape leaked on the Internet on Saturday.

In the tape of radio transmissions, officers referred to the attacker, who also beheaded the victim, as “Badger.” They said he was armed with a knife and scissors and was “defiling the body.”

“Badger’s at the back of the bus, hacking off pieces and eating it,” an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on the tape.

The RCMP described the tapes as “operational police communications and, as such, are not meant for public consumption.” The tape was posted on YouTube among other Web sites.

Defiant on ‘nuclear rights’

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will not give up “a single iota of its nuclear rights,” the country’s president said Saturday, rebuffing an informal deadline to stop expanding uranium enrichment or face more sanctions.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the remarks during discussions with Syrian President Beshar Assad, who arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a two-day visit, the Iranian president’s official Web site said.

Assad is in Tehran to discuss Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment after a request from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Tehran was given an informal two-week deadline, set July 19 by the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany, to stop expanding uranium enrichment — at least temporarily — in exchange for their commitment to stop seeking new U.N. sanctions.

Tanker pilot sent warning

NEW ORLEANS — The pilot of a massive tanker involved in a collision on the Mississippi River repeatedly warns a tug boat pushing a barge to get out of the way, but no one on the smaller boat responds, according to radio transmissions released Saturday by the Coast Guard.

The July 23 wreck caused thousands of gallons of fuel to spill and shut down part of the nation’s busiest inland waterway for several days. The newly released audio recordings and radar from that day show the tug boat, Mel Oliver, crossing the river in front of the tanker, Tintamara.

“Mel Oliver, come in cap, you’re crossing the bottom of a ship coming at you,” a Coast Guard traffic controller says.

As the pilot of the tanker becomes increasingly distressed, he calls out to the captain of the Mel Oliver again and again.

“This ain’t good, man,” the pilot says. Then, as the two dots on a radar intersect, he says, “We just took his tow. The barge is right in front of us and we’re running it over.”

The pilot of the tanker was not identified.

Associated Press