U.S.-Mexico

Bush says he’s optimistic for a breakthrough on immigration

MERIDA, Mexico — President Bush pledged Wednesday to intensify his push for languishing immigration legislation, at a news conference at the end of his weeklong Latin America tour.

U.S. immigration laws were a prime topic for Bush. The president said his most important ally in getting Congress to overhaul immigration rules may be a longtime nemesis of Republicans, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, because of his vast legislative experience.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has complained U.S. immigration laws are too harsh and has criticized U.S. plans to add fencing along the border. He said he supports efforts by Bush to establish a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

“The borders should bring us together and not separate us,” said Calderon. He said he and Bush discussed the possibility of opening new border crossings and checkpoints and agreed that better jobs in Mexico are the answer — not more border fencing./AP

Terrorism

Judge: Sudan responsible for USS Cole bombing

NORFOLK, Va. — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Sudanese government caused the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole and will be liable for paying damages to the families of the 17 sailors killed in the attack.

The families of the Cole sailors sued Sudan, contending the attack in 2000 could not have happened without the nation’s support of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network. Sudan tried to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that too much time had passed between the bombing and the filing of the lawsuit in 2004.

The Cole was in Yemen’s port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000, when the explosion ripped a 40-foot hole in its side. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar heard the trial, with no jury, in the city where the Cole is based.

Four experts on terrorism, including former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, testified in person or by deposition Tuesday to support the families’ contention that al-Qaida needed the African nation’s help to carry out the attack. The families are seeking $105 million in damages, but Doumar could reduce that amount to $25 million to $35 million, lawyers said./AP

U.S. Senate

War measure clears Senate, Bush warns of veto

WASHINGTON — Legislation to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq cleared its first Senate hurdle Wednesday, but Republicans confidently predicted they would soon defeat it and Bush backed them up with a veto threat.

The legislation, calling for combat troops to return home over the next 12 months, ‘’would hobble American commanders in the field and substantially endanger America’s strategic objective of a unified federal democratic Iraq,’’ the White House said in a written statement.

Democrats in the House and Senate are advancing different bills calling for the withdrawal of troops.

In the House, Democratic leaders said they were building support behind legislation to require the withdrawal of troops by Sept. 1, 2008, if not sooner. The Senate measure lacks a firm deadline for an end to U.S. participation in combat. It says a withdrawal should begin within 120 days ‘’with the goal of redeploying, by March 31, 2008, all United States combat forces from Iraq except’’ for those needed for non-combat roles.

Bush has threatened to veto both./AP

Iraq war

Signs of progress in Baghdad — outlook mixed

BAGHDAD — Bomb deaths have gone down 30 percent in Baghdad since the U.S.-led security crackdown began a month ago. Execution-style slayings are down by nearly half.

While many Iraqis are encouraged, they remain skeptical how long the relative calm will last. Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents are still around, perhaps just lying low or hiding outside the city until the operation is over.

U.S. military officials have been cautious about declaring the operation a success. Only two of the five U.S. brigades earmarked for the mission are in the streets, and the full complement of American reinforcements is not due until late May.

A Pentagon report released Wednesday in Washington even used for the first time the term ‘’civil war’’ to describe some of the past violence in Baghdad. But it stressed that the term does not capture Iraq’s complex situation.

As of Wednesday, at least 3,200 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. The British military has reported 134 deaths./AP

Egypt

Egypt names first female judges

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s judiciary chief has named the country’s first female judges despite opposition from conservative Muslims, according to a decree published Wednesday.

Mukbil Shakir, the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, appointed 31 women to judge or chief judge positions in Egypt’s courts, the official Middle East News Agency said.

The move is expected to give a boost to President Hosni Mubarak’s political and social reforms that have been widely criticized as too restricted. But others said the announcement still falls short of providing women equal opportunities.

Women’s rights advocates have been pushing for female judges for decades, but the government had refused, fearing angry reaction from conservative Muslims opposed to a move they consider un-Islamic./AP