REAUTHORIZATION: U.S. presidential contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sought to force another showdown with President Bush over the Iraq war, announcing she and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) would introduce legislation to require the president to seek a reauthorization from Congress to extend the military effort in Iraq beyond Oct. 11. “If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him,” the New York Democrat said in a speech on the Senate floor. The two senators have not decided how they will seek to force a vote on the measure — whether through an amendment, a stand-alone bill or a spending bill.
RECEDING RECESS: Iraqi lawmakers said Thursday they might consider shortening — or even canceling — their planned two-month summer break. But they insisted that pressure from Washington is not the reason. U.S. lawmakers had complained that it wasn’t right for Iraq’s parliament to close up shop while American troops were fighting. Iraqi legislators — at least those who had not fled the country — were quick to fire back. “We can stay if we feel that this is very important, but I think that the worries by the [U.S.] congressmen are premature,” said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker. “Moreover, they themselves take vacation.”
RADIO ATTACK: Gunmen stormed the offices of an independent radio station in a predominantly Sunni area of Baghdad on Thursday, killing two employees and wounding five before bombing the building and knocking the station off the air, police said. It was the third attack in five months against the private Dijla radio station in the Jami’a neighborhood.
ZONE DEATHS: The U.S. Embassy said a rocket attack on the Green Zone killed four Asian contractors Wednesday, the third straight day that militants fired rockets or mortars at the U.S.-controlled area. The embassy statement gave no other details about Wednesday’s attack that killed the four contractors: two from India, one from the Philippines and one from Nepal.
