Denver among 11 seeking ’08 Democratic convention
Washington – Eleven cities, Denver among them, have shown interest in playing host to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, twice the number of cities that applied to get the 2004 gathering.
The DNC initially sent out letters to more than 30 cities, giving them an overview and finding out their level of interest.
The 11 cities that said they were interested: Anaheim, Calif.; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; New Orleans; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix; and San Antonio.
The cities must have a convention space that can seat 23,000 to 25,000 people (in portable or nonportable seating), must have 17,000 hotel rooms and 1,000 suites available, and must be able to provide adequate office space, media work space and transportation to and from the convention site.
The Democratic National Committee has asked cities to send their bids to the DNC by May 19. The DNC’s technical advisory committee will sort through the proposals and visit most or all of those cities sometime this summer. The convention is scheduled for Aug. 25-28, 2008.
Republicans have sent out invitations to bid on their convention, but they have not set convention dates.
WASHINGTON
Dems rejected in call for special counsel
The White House on Monday rejected the call by more than a dozen House Democrats for a special counsel to investigate the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program.
President Bush’s spokesman, Scott McClellan, said those Democrats should instead spend their time investigating the source of the unauthorized disclosure of the classified program, which “has given the enemy some of our playbook.” “I really don’t think there’s any basis for a special counsel,” McClellan also said.
NEW DELHI, India
Premier: Nuke pact won’t lessen security
With India and the United States struggling to work out a nuclear pact before President Bush arrives this week, India’s prime minister pledged Monday not to compromise the country’s security to seal the deal.
During his visit beginning Wednesday, Bush is likely to find excitement over Indian-U.S. ties mixed with ambivalence about sidling up to a nation many see as a bully.
Talks on the nuclear deal “are currently at a delicate stage,” held up by disagreements over which of India’s nuclear facilities are to be designated as civilian and which are to be considered military, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told lawmakers Monday.
MADRID, Spain
Hit-man suspect tied to Milosevic evidence
Spanish police arrested a suspected Serb hit man wanted in the murder of a Kosovo Albanian who was believed to have had evidence implicating former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in dozens of murders.
Police Monday said the arrest of Veselin Vukotic, a master of disguise who confounded authorities in Europe and Latin America for 16 years, could reveal key evidence against Milosevic at the U.N. war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
Milosevic faces 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide, for his role in Bosnia, Kosovo and Croatia during the bloody breakup of the six-nation Yugoslav federation in the 1990s.
BOGOTA, Colombia
Guerrillas gun down 8 town councilors
Rebels burst into a hotel in southern Colombia where local government officials were meeting Monday and killed eight town councilors, authorities said.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels arrived in a truck disguised as police, walked into the hotel and opened fire while officials were having a working lunch, said Gilberto Toro, head of the Colombian Federation of Municipalities.
President Alvaro Uribe condemned the attack.
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Only Iraqi lawyers of Hussein to attend trial
Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi lawyers will attend this week’s trial session, a month after they walked out in protest and accused the chief judge of being biased against their client, one of the lawyers said Monday.
Khamis al-Obeidi said only the eight Iraqi attorneys will be at today’s session; he said five foreigners defending the ex-president and members of his former regime could not come to Iraq because of the daytime curfew and violence. “They will attend the following sessions,” al-Obeidi said.
However, in Switzerland, two foreign members of Hussein’s defense team said they were unsure when they might be allowed to see the deposed leader. They accused the court of blocking access to their client.
Hussein’s chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, met with him Sunday and found him “in good health and high morale as usual.”
