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Iraq official: Three suicide bombers at large in Anbar province

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — U.S. planes bombarded al Qaeda in Iraq safe havens on the southern outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday, hours after a suicide bomber carrying explosives in a candy box killed six people in Anbar province.

An hour after the suicide attack, members of the Awakening Council arrested a woman wearing an explosives-laden belt after receiving intelligence indicating five suicide bombers had entered the area, an Interior Ministry official said.

They were still searching for three other suicide bombers, he added.

The suicide bomber handed the explosive-laden box to Sheikh Hadi at a celebration attended by members of the Anbar Awakening Council, who were celebrating his recent release from U.S. custody, the Interior Ministry official said.

Two guards also were killed, according to the official.

The suicide bomber was a relative of Hadi, the Interior Ministry official told CNN. The bomber’s target was Sheikh Aeifan al-Issawi and other members of the Anbar Awakening Council, the official said. Al-Issawi was unhurt.

Hadi had been in U.S. custody for about five days, al-Issawi said. Al Qaeda in Iraq had planted a bomb near Hadi’s house and made it appear that the sheikh was dealing with insurgents, said al-Issawi, the leading member of the Council.

Sunday’s U.S. airstrike against al Qaeda in Iraq is part of a new countrywide push against insurgents, the U.S. military said.

The strike, in the Arab Jabour area, followed two others — one last Wednesday and one on January 10 — in the same region, the military said.

The three strikes used more than 80,000 pounds of bombs to hit a combined total of 64 targets, the military said in a written statement.

Intelligence, some from a group called Concerned Local Citizens, helped the military identify the targets, Brig. Gen. Jim Huggins told CNN. Concerned Local Citizens was started by the U.S. military to assist U.S. and Iraqi forces in security tasks, such as manning checkpoints.

A military official told CNN last week that the area targeted is a mostly agricultural area, six to nine miles (10 to 15 kilometers) south of Arab Jabour, and is one of the last insurgent safe havens in the area.

The purpose of operation Marne Thunderbolt is to establish patrol bases in and amongst the Iraqi people in the southern Arab Jabour area, so then we can go about bringing better stability and better services into their area, Huggins said.

The Sunni-dominated province is where the U.S. military reports increased indigenous tribal support against al Qaeda in Iraq. However on Sunday, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith noted that al Qaeda has not entirely left the province.

Awakening councils, which are usually Sunni groups standing against al Qaeda in Iraq fighters, have been targeted in a spate of attacks in recent weeks.

In other violence across Iraq at least one Iraqi civilian was killed and three police officers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police convoy in eastern Baghdad Sunday morning, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.

Other developments

The number of weapons coming from Iran into Iraq has dropped significantly, a U.S. military spokesman said Sunday. The news comes despite a sharp increase in early January in attacks with explosively-formed penetrators believed to be linked to Iran. We do believe that the number of signature weapons that have come from Iran … are down dramatically, except for this short uptick of explosively formed penetrators in the early part of January, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said Sunday.
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Frances Lewine, trailblazing journalist, dies

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Frances Lewine, who covered the White House for the Associated Press during six presidential administrations and spent nearly three decades as a CNN editor and producer, died Saturday of an apparent stroke. She was 86.

Lewine was regarded as a trailblazer who battled for women’s rights in journalism, fighting to open the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club — a Washington journalists’ organization — to women.

It’s amazing that at her age, Fran was still staking out administration and elected officials after weekend talk shows, CNN Washington Bureau Chief David Bohrman said. All of journalism has lost a true pioneer.

Lewine was assigned to the White House in 1956 to cover the activities of first ladies and the Washington social scene, but in 1965 became the AP’s first full-time female White House correspondent.

In 1977, she left AP to join the administration of President Jimmy Carter, and became the Department of Transportation’s deputy director of public affairs. When Carter left office in 1981, Lewine moved to the newly created Cable News Network — at age 60 — as an assignment editor and field producer.

When President Reagan was shot, I walked over to CNN that day and asked to help, Lewine said in a 2005 article in a newsletter for Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. My claim to fame was, I found out what type of gun was used. They paid me $80 for my work.

Sunday would have been Lewine’s 87th birthday, co-workers said. She had been recovering from surgery, but was expected to return to the office as soon as this week.

I don’t understand people who quit, Lewine said in the newsletter article. We have the best jobs in the world. I have a front-row seat to history. What are you going to do that’s possibly better than this?

Lewine was born in 1921 in New York and grew up in Far Rockaway. She graduated from New York’s Hunter College, where she edited the college newspaper and worked as a reporter for the Plainfield, New Jersey, Courier-News before moving to the Newark AP bureau.

Lewine wrote that she began covering the White House full time with the arrival of the glamorous young Kennedys and recalled that her working attire often was an evening dress.

She accompanied the family to Vienna, Paris, and Rome and followed first lady Jacqueline Kennedy on a vacation trip to India and Pakistan, as well as two yachting excursions in the Mediterranean.

On one of those trips, the first lady’s staff attempted to keep reporters in Athens, Greece, Lewine recalled. But she and several other journalists on a rented yacht followed her from island to island and, much to the anger of the White House, kept track of the first lady’s activities by listening in on ship-to-shore radio.

Lewine’s wrote that she was often frustrated at being relegated to social and family stories and sidebars while male colleagues covered the president.

She wrote that it was a source of disappointment and anger that the AP never considered her an equal to male White House colleagues.

That anger, she wrote, energized her to become a leader in the movement of women journalists in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s to protest discrimination against women in their jobs and assignments.

To protest the Gridiron Club’s policy against women, Lewine founded the Counter-Gridiron. A group of women reporters and sympathetic male reporters met regularly at her home to organize protests, she recalled. Eventually, she was the second woman invited to join the Gridiron.

Lewine was one of six plaintiffs in a sex-discrimination suit filed against the AP, which was settled out of court for $2 million and changed the news organization’s policies.

Lewine was also a member of the National Press Club, Executive Women in Government and the Society of Professional Journalists. She was elected to the Washington Society of Professional Journalists’ Hall of Fame and to the Hunter College Hall of Fame.

Last year, she was awarded the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the highest honor bestowed by the Missouri School of Journalism.

In times like these, when the credibility of our nation and our president often comes into question, it is the reporter on the scene that can raise issues and put the spotlight on problems so the nation can address them, she said in her acceptance speech.

Reporters should understand that they have an obligation to search for the truth and to stand in the front line in holding governments and officials accountable for their actions. E-mail to a friend

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Kaymer clinches maiden Tour title

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Rookie of the year Martin Kaymer held his nerve during Sunday’s final round at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship to claim a maiden European Tour title with a four-stroke victory over Briton Lee Westwood and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson.

The 23-year-old from Germany began the day with a six-stroke lead over Anthony Wall and carded a final two-over-par 74 as Westwood and Stenson fell short of overhauling the overnight leader.

Sunday’s win took Kaymer, the youngest German winner of a European Tour event, into 35th place in the world rankings.

This is an unbelievable feeling. The back nine was tough especially with players like Stenson and Westwood chasing me, he said

I was struggling a bit on the front nine but I just tried to stick to my game plan and hit fairways and greens.

For those guys to catch me they had to make birdies and I really tried to stay patient and just try to make pars. It is not always an easy thing to do but I was very proud of the way I handled myself and I am thrilled the way today worked out.

Stenson admitted that he had too much to do after starting the day seven shots off the lead.

I have been struggling with my tee ball all week long and it was no different today. I didn’t hit enough fairways, he said.

Because of that I haven’t been able to hit my driver enough and I didn’t feel comfortable on the tee. I think that made the difference. If I had a strong driver in the bag I felt like I could have given him a run for his money.

Dubai Desert Classic champion Stenson claimed a tie for second with a final-round 71, while Westwood fired a battling 70 which included a bogey at the last.

Westwood, who had backed himself to catch Kaymer following his third-round, seven-under-par 65, had a chance to move within one with five holes to play but agonisingly missed a 10-foot downhill putt.

He also missed a 20-foot birdie chance at the 16th before hitting his second shot at the next over the back of the green and having to scramble for a par four.

Westwood’s dropped shot at the last handed Kaymer a three-stroke cushion heading down the 18th and he made no mistake to collect the $333,000 first prize with a birdie four — only his second of the final round.

England’s Richard Finch, Spain’s Ignacio Garrido and Sweden’s Peter Hedblom finished tied for third at 10 under par.

Scot Colin Montgomerie was 23rd on a five-under 283, missing out on his targeted top-10 finish to break back into the world’s top 50 in order to be able to compete at April’s Masters. E-mail to a friend

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Beijing mayor vows pollution curbs

BEIJING, China (AP) — Beijing will use the strictest standards to control emissions and curb pollution for the Summer Olympics but it will be an uphill task, the host city’s mayor was quoted as saying Sunday.

Guo Jinlong vowed to finish preparations for the August 8-24 Games and provide services in high-level and high-caliber ways, the official Xinhua News Agency cited him as saying.

That meant dealing with crippling gridlock and widespread pollution that have been major concerns, he said. So far, Beijing has begun shutting down blast furnaces in the city’s biggest steel company to improve air quality.

It is expected to enact temporary traffic restrictions to ease bumper-to-bumper traffic and help reduce vehicle exhaust that creates the gray haze that often blankets the capital.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, told CNN last August that poor air quality could potentially lead to the postponement of certain competitions, such as track and field events. Watch the CNN interview
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McCain wins in S. Carolina over Huckabee’s evangelical surge

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — Sen. John McCain was the projected winner of South Carolina’s Republican primary Saturday night despite a strong showing by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee among the evangelical Christian voters who dominated the day’s turnout.

Exit polls found self-described evangelical Christians made up nearly 60 percent of the vote, and Huckabee — an ordained Baptist minister who emphasized his conservative Christian credentials — was the choice of 40 percent of those voters. But he took only 12 percent of the nonevangelical vote, while McCain took 40 percent and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 21 percent.

McCain ran strong in the coastal Low Country around Charleston and ran even with Huckabee in the state’s inland Piedmont region, according to exit polls.

The GOP presidential contenders faced their first Southern contest in South Carolina, where voters like to point out that no one since Ronald Reagan has reached the White House without a win. Watch McCain thank supporters in South Carolina

Former Education Secretary and CNN analyst Bill Bennett said a victory in South Carolina, the first major contest in the heavily Republican South, was a must-win for the former Arkansas governor.

If he doesn’t win South Carolina, he’s not going to finish anywhere close to winning in Florida, the scene of the next major Republican contest, Bennett said.

Rain and snow were falling in some places in the state Saturday morning, while election officials in Horry County, which includes Myrtle Beach, reported a human error that put voting machines offline in 80 percent of the county’s precincts. McCain’s campaign had sought to obtain a court order to extend voting in the county by an additional hour, but was unable to do so.

Huckabee won the first contest of 2008, the Iowa caucuses, with a strong turnout from his fellow evangelicals. But he placed third in the next major contests of the race, in New Hampshire and Michigan, while coming in fifth in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, which Romney — the winner in the Michigan primary Tuesday — won easily.

Republicans named the economy as the most important issue affecting their vote in the South Carolina primary Saturday, according to early exit polling data, echoing Nevada voters in caucuses earlier in the day. And, like Nevada voters, illegal immigration was the second-most important issue.

The war in Iraq, followed by terrorism, were next, the exit polls showed. E-mail to a friend

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