The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Suicide bomb kills more than 100
TUZ KHORMATO, Iraq — A suicide truck bomber blasted a Shiite town north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing more than 100 people, police said, in a sign Sunni insurgents are pulling away from a U.S. offensive around the capital to attack where security is thinner.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, told The Associated Press he expected Sunni extremists to try to “pull off a variety of sensational attacks and grab the headlines to create a `mini-Tet.’”

He was referring to the 1968 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Tet offensive that undermined public support for the Vietnam War in the United States.

The U.S. military on Saturday also reported that eight American service members were killed in fighting in Baghdad and western Anbar province over two days, reflecting the increased U.S. casualties that have come with the new offensives. A British soldier was killed in fighting with Shiite militias overnight in the southern city of Basra.

Fire forces evacuations in Northern Arizona
MORMON LAKE, Ariz. — Authorities evacuated about two dozen people from two small Northern Arizona communities after a lightning-sparked wildfire grew to 350 acres Saturday, authorities said.

The two communities, known as Long Park and Bear Park, have a combined 18 homes and summer cabins, said Coconino County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Gerry Blair.

Long Park is less than two miles east of the blaze and Bear Park is between three and four miles north of it, he said.

Farm bill will again battle over subsidies
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Momentum is building in Congress for overhauling farm subsidies because of tight budgets and increasing enthusiasm for renewable fuels and conservation programs.

Major change will not come easily. The current farm bill, which expires in September, provides payments and other help to supplement farmers’ incomes, support crop prices and manage supplies. Any cuts in subsidies will face resistance.

President Bush sought similar reductions upon taking office. But he made little headway in the latest farm bill, which Congress wrote in 2002.

Since then, Democrats have regained control of the House and energy prices have skyrocketed, leading to more calls for ethanol, which is derived from plants. Record prices for corn and other crops have some people questioning the need for subsidies.

The government paid out almost $17 billion in subsidies last year, a drop of more than $10 billion from 2000.

Some lawmakers are rallying around a bipartisan proposal by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Jeff Flake,R-Ariz., a to wean farmers from government payments. Kind won 200 votes for a similar plan during the debate on the 2002 bill. Their proposal would replace subsidies with savings accounts that farmers could use to cover losses when crop prices are low or yields are poor.Some subsidies would be diverted to biofuels, rural development and conservation programs that pay farmers for leaving land idle.

Pope revives old Latin Mass
VATICAN CITY—In a major gesture to traditional, conservative Roman Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday removed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving a rite that was all but swept away by the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Benedict stressed that he was not negating Vatican II by allowing greater use of the Tridentine Mass. But his decision nevertheless overruled the objections of liberal-minded Catholics and angered Jews because the Tridentine rite contains a prayer for their conversion.

Benedict issued a document authorizing parish priests to celebrate the Tridentine Mass if a “stable group of faithful” requests it. Currently, the local bishop must approve such requests — an obstacle that supporters of the rite say has greatly limited its availability.

New land protections to ease San Pedro burden
SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — Parts of the major tributary to a threatened Southwestern Arizona river are going to be protected from land development in an effort to control water pumping.

About 1,410 acres of the historic Babocomari Ranch area have been put aside, preventing dozens of homes from being built in the future, said Tom Callazo, associate director of The Nature Conservancy in Arizona.

Callazo said the effort will ensure the reduction of groundwater pumping along the Babocomari River, the major tributary of the San Pedro River, one of the last dam-free large rivers in the Southwest.

The San Pedro is home to more than 300 bird species, and is lined by huge colonies of cottonwood and willow trees running north from Mexico to Benson and beyond.

Conservationists and some federal agencies have warned since as early as 1960 that Sierra Vista’s growth and water pumping could cause the San Pedro to dry.

.The Nature Conservancy paid nearly $2 million for the most recent easement of 487.3 acres of the Babocomari Ranch land. The U.S. Army is to reimburse the organization.