Iraq Notebook
Violence could delay Iraq vote

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UNITED NATIONS — National elections in Iraq scheduled for January could be postponed unless security there improves, the top election official for the United Nations said yesterday.

"If the security situation does not improve, one of the things that is clear is that the U.N. won't participate in Mickey Mouse elections," Carina Perelli, the director of the U.N.'s electoral assistance division, told reporters in New York.

Perelli said that despite the ongoing violence in Iraq, technical preparations for elections are advancing faster than expected. The U.N. will establish an independent electoral commission by the end of the month after negotiating a new electoral law ahead of schedule.

"Security aside, right now we are better than on track," she said.

Schwarzenegger visits wounded troops, ex-hostage

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger met with wounded U.S. troops and former hostage Thomas Hamill yesterday after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Schwarzenegger spoke with Hamill for about five minutes in a room at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, and said the 43-year-old civilian contractor appeared to be in good health.

Schwarzenegger gave a speech to hundreds of troops on the base in which he shared humorous tales of his experiences in the Austrian military, bodybuilding and politics.

"I have to say that my career in the military was not spotless," Schwarzenegger told the crowd. "There was one night when I woke up in the morning and my tank was gone. I forgot to put the right gear in there and it rolled into the river in front of us. That's where I found it the next morning."

Official: Spain wouldn't join multinational force in Iraq
 
MADRID, Spain — Spain will not send troops back to Iraq even if the U.N. authorizes a multinational force to boost stability after the planned U.S. handover of power on June 30, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said yesterday.

Spain's new Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has ordered the withdrawal of Spanish troops serving with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sunday he expected the Security Council to authorize a multinational force aimed at improving security in violence-ridden Iraq.

However, Moratinos said the move would not meet Spanish demands that full sovereignty of Iraq be handed to Iraqis or the United Nations.

24 Bulgarian soldiers leave, saying duty too dangerous

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria sent 24 of its soldiers home yesterday after they complained about being unprepared for duty in Iraq, citing the growing danger since the beginning of the insurgency.

Their decision to leave the mission, along with the occasional evacuation of injured or sick soldiers, has brought the number of Bulgarian troops in Iraq down to 454 — dozens fewer than at its strongest. The military command, however, intends to send replacements in the next 10 days.

Paper's editor quits, citing heavy interference by U.S.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The head of a U.S.-financed Iraqi newspaper quit and said yesterday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication.

On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were "celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months. ... We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse."

Al-Sabah was set up by U.S. officials soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. Since its first issue in July, many Iraqis have considered it the mouthpiece of the U.S.-led coalition, along with the U.S.-financed television station Al-Iraqiya.

Zayer had sought to break Al-Sabah from the Iraqi Media Network, which is run by Harris Inc., a Florida-based communications company that won a $96 million Pentagon contract in January to develop the media.

Zayer accused Harris of interfering in the paper's workings, including trying to stop some of its advertising and speaking to reporters about articles.