Militia in another Iraqi province ends cooperation with U.S.

BAGHDAD -- U.S.-allied fighters in a second Iraqi province have quit working with American troops after two incidents this week in which U.S. soldiers killed militia members.

Citizen brigades in the province of Babil, south of Baghdad, quit work after three members were killed by U.S. forces Friday, a local police spokesman said.

Another high-profile fatal incident occurred in the same province a little over two weeks ago. Nationwide in that time span, 19 citizen militia members have been killed and 12 wounded by U.S. forces, said the police spokesman, Capt. Muthanna Ahmed.

The action in Babil province follows a strike by citizen brigades members in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, that has gone on for more than a week. The citizen militias allege the local police chief leads a death squad and seek his removal, among other demands.

Also this past week, a leader in another powerful citizens militia warned that U.S. and Shiite-dominated Iraq forces should no longer interfere in its work, suggesting coordinated efforts against insurgents might be coming to an end.

A U.S. military spokesman on Saturday downplayed the recent events and said they have little impact on the more than 83,000-member largely Sunni Muslim movement, known as the Awakening Movement.

Maj. Brad Leighton called the recent events "unfortunate accidents" but said there wasn't any trend or underlying issue to connect the incidents.

The Awakening Movement began in late 2006 in Anbar province when former Sunni Muslim insurgents and those who assisted them turned on al-Qaida in Iraq and the rest of the insurgent movement and agreed to ally with U.S. and Iraqi forces. The citizens brigades members, also known as Sawha and recently renamed Sons of Iraq by the U.S. military, are paid about $10 per day.

Along with a six-month freeze in activities of the Mahdi Army militia ordered by Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the increased surge in U.S. troops, the Awakening Movement is seen as one of the key reasons for a reduction of violence in Iraq.

Car license plate auctioned off for $14M

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- A license plate with nothing but the number "1" on it went for a record $14 million at a charity auction Saturday.

Saeed Khouri, a member of a wealthy Abu Dhabi family, wouldn't say how many automobiles he owned or which of them might carry the record-breaking single-digit plate.

"I bought it because it's the best number," said Khouri, whose family made its fortune in real estate. "I bought it because I want to be the best in the world."

The oil-rich UAE began auctioning off vanity license plates last May.

Ordinary automobile license plates issued to drivers here -- and even most other vanity series plates -- carry both Arabic and Western numerals and script, defining the issuing city and country.

Bush talks to Congress from Africa

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania -- President Bush is betting Congress will hear him better from the heart of Africa than it does from down the street in Washington.

Foreign aid programs that Bush sees as crowning achievements -- and which he holds dear -- are having their spending levels questioned on Capitol Hill. By visiting Africa for six days to showcase their results, Bush aims to change that in the short term and secure the programs' future beyond his presidency.

His first stop Saturday was Benin, a tiny sliver on West Africa's coast. Hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars are helping to pay for an aggressive anti-malaria campaign, the training of tens of thousands of teachers and reforms to Benin's judiciary, port and financial systems.

"My trip here is a way to remind future presidents and future Congresses that it is in the national interest and in the moral interests of the United States of America to help people," Bush said.

The first American president to visit Benin, Bush spent three hours at the airport in Cotonou. He promoted progress in the country and then flew across the continent to Tanzania after his plane refueled,

On Sunday and Monday, Bush planned to highlight a new aid pact with Tanzania as well as U.S.-funded efforts on AIDS, malaria and education.

Bush also goes to Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. Like Benin and Tanzania, they are desperately poor but making strides, with U.S. help, on economic growth, the rule of law and better living conditions.

Bird flu kills 3-year-old Indonesian boy

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A 3-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, a health official said Saturday, announcing the country's second death from the illness in one day.

The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.

The latest victim was identified only as Han, a 3-year-old boy from the southern part of the capital, Jakarta, radio El-Shinta reported. It said he died Friday at a hospital in the city.

Senior Health Ministry official Nyoman Kandun confirmed the report and said laboratory tests confirmed the boy had the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. It was not clear how he was infected, and Kandun gave no further details.

Earlier Saturday, the Health Ministry said a 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java province died of bird flu. The boy, whose name was not disclosed, became ill on Feb. 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web site.

He died a week later in a hospital in the city of Solo about 280 miles southeast of Jakarta, said Sumardi, a ministry spokesman. Like he many Indonesians, he goes by one name.

Tests confirmed the boy had H5N1, the ministry's Web site said.

The 16-year-old victim's neighbors had sick chickens on their property and the boy apparently slaughtered some of them before he became ill, the ministry said.

Canada extradites convicted Nazi war criminal to Italy

ROME -- An 83-year-old former SS prison guard who was sentenced to life in prison in Italy for Nazi war crimes was jailed near Naples Saturday, hours after he was extradited from Canada.

Michael Seifert arrived shortly before dawn at an airport near Rome aboard a military jet from Toronto. He was taken to a prison near Naples, where he was having a routine medical exam, said Bartolomeo Costantini, the military prosecutor who pursued the case.

"His legs were a little wobbly after he got off the flight" likely due to the stress and the long journey, Costantini said.

Seifert has a pacemaker but otherwise is apparently healthy, he said. If doctors deem it necessary, Seifert could be incarcerated in a hospital ward in the prison.

If someone is willing to host him, the former SS officer eventually could be allowed to serve his sentence on house arrest because of his age.

Seifert, known as the "Beast of Bolzano," was convicted in absentia in 2000 by a military tribunal in Verona on nine counts of murder committed while he was an SS guard at a prison transit camp in Bolzano, northern Italy.

At his trial, people testified that Seifert starved a 15-year-old prisoner to death, gouged out a person's eyes and tortured a woman before killing her and her daughter.

Seifert, a Canadian citizen of Ukrainian origin, has acknowledged being a guard at the SS-run camp but denies being involved in atrocities.