National and State News-Monday, June 18th

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Seven children are among the dead after a U-S-led coalition airstrike on a compound where al-Qaida militants were thought to be holed up. The coalition says surveillance never revealed the children's' presence. The coalition says other clashes killed dozens of militants.

BAGHDAD (AP) - There's been a big battle in Amarah, a city 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, where British troops going house to house clashed with Shiite militiamen. A doctor at the city's
hospital says 36 bodies were brought in. A U-S military statement says an operation in Amarah killed at least 20 insurgents.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanese troops are again attacking al-Qaida-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp. The fighting with the Fatah Islam group near the northern city of
Tripoli has claimed more than 150 lives as it enters its fifth week.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior U-S official says to expect an announcement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lifting the U-S economic and diplomatic embargo against the Palestinian
government on the West Bank. That's after the moderate Fatah formed a government without the militant Hamas, which still controls Gaza.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A computer expert in Ohio today will be trying to determine the chance that someone could access data on a stolen computer backup device. The device contained information on welfare recipients and all 64-thousand state workers. The governor
says the information would be hard to access.

BALTIMORE (AP) - Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler will have surgery today at Johns Hopkins Hospital to remove fluid from his brain. Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine tells The Sun that doctors believe the excess fluid was caused by the head injury the former bishop of Harrisburg suffered in a car accident last fall while on vacation in Italy.

AKRON, Ohio (AP) - Opening statements are scheduled today in a federal courtroom in Akron, Ohio, in the trial of a Mercer County woman accused of persuading her lover to kill her wealthy urologist husband along the Ohio Turnpike two years ago. Donna Moonda of Hermitage faces the death penalty if convicted of murder for hire in the death of Doctor Gulam Moonda.

MEADVILLE, Pa. (AP) - The federal government has given 90-thousand dollars to rescue units in northwestern Pennsylvania to install high-tech tracking devices in ambulances and at dispatch centers. The navigation technology will make it easier for teams to assist in emergencies outside their coverage areas. It will be operational in Crawford and Clarion counties.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A newspaper deliveryman was shot in West Philadelphia this morning in what police say was apparently a robbery attempt. Police say the 35-year-old man was filling an honor box with newspapers from The Philadelphia Inquirer when two men tried to rob him. Authorities say the man is hospitalized listed in with a neck wound.

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) - In one of the biggest upsets in golf history, longshot Argentine Angel Cabrera has won the 107th U-S Open in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. It's Cabrera's first win ever on the P-G-A Tour. He's the first Argentine to ever win a U-S Open.