National News - April 7, 2007

BAGHDAD (AP) - There's a second day of heavy fighting south of Baghdad involving U-S and Iraqi forces against Shiite militia. U-S warplanes fired on suspected militiamen wielding shoulder-fired rockets.

BAGHDAD (AP) - The military says a roadside bomb that hit an American patrol in eastern Baghdad was a sophisticated type that the U-S claims Iran is supplying to Shiite militias. One soldier was killed and four others were wounded by the blast.

WASHINGTON (AP) - National Guard units in Oklahoma, Indiana and Arkansas are being told they could be sent to Iraq around the first of the year. If the 13-thousand troops are deployed, it would be the first time full National Guard combat brigades were sent back to Iraq for a second tour.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Officials and witnesses say NATO and Afghan troops have taken control of an area in southern Afghanistan long held by militants. About one-thousand troops with helicopters and armored vehicles pushed toward a town in Helmand province, the world's biggest opium-producing region.

PHOENIX (AP) - No one was injured when authorities in Arizona converged on a house west of Phoenix holding at least 80 suspected illegal immigrants and two alleged smugglers. They're all in custody. Authorities say a Michigan resident called complaining about smugglers demanding more money from one of their relatives.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Organizers expect several thousand people at a Los Angeles rally today supporting rights for illegal immigrants. The president of Latino Movement U-S-A says illegal immigrants feel betrayed by President Bush and a White House draft plan for immigration reform.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Despite the rhetoric about cracking down on illegal immigrants, 98 percent of those caught along the Mexican border are never prosecuted. An Associated Press analysis of federal data shows that between October 2000 and September 2005, more than five (m) million were simply returned to Mexico.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - It took firefighters in the Philippines about five hours to put out a raging fire that left about 12-hundred families homeless in a suburban Manila slum. Fire officials say the families shared about 400 homes destroyed by the blaze, but there were only two minor injuries.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - The Indian Point Three nuclear power reactor north of New York City has been shut down after an equipment fire elsewhere on site. The fire in the transformer took about 15 minutes to put out. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says no one was injured and there was no public health or safety impact.

WASHINGTON (AP) - An aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has quit. Monica Goodling had earlier refused to testify before Congress about her role in the firings of federal prosecutors. Her former boss will testify in about two weeks.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) - The world's fifth would-be space tourist has gotten a bon voyage from friend Martha Stewart. Stewart has traveled to remote Kazakhstan to give a send-off to Charles Simonyi, the (b) U-S billionaire who developed Microsoft Word. He leaves today on a 13-day trip to the international space station.

GIZO, Solomon Islands (AP) - There's a race to head off disease among victims of Monday's big earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands. International aid workers are rushing to South Pacific islands to dig latrines and set up water purifiers. Thousands of people remain homeless.

UNDATED (AP) - An Easter weekend cold snap has brought a threat of snow to areas from the Great Lakes east. It's even been snowing in the national capital region this morning. But forecasters say the high April sun should melt a lot of what falls.