ABC News co-anchor Woodruff injured in Iraq explosion


Email this story
Printer friendly format

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer

January 29, 2006, 6:16 PM EST

NEW YORK -- ABC "World News Tonight" co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured Sunday when the Iraqi Army vehicle they were traveling in was attacked with an explosive device.

Both journalists suffered head injuries, and Woodruff also has broken bones. They were in stable condition following surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq, and due to be evacuated to medical facilities in Germany, probably overnight, said ABC News President David Westin.

<A HREF="http://adserver.trb.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=520070&AdID=198713&Custom=ihpromosnewsday&TargetID=1360&Segments=249,685,686,1093,1123,1345,1608,2168,2254,2776,3379,4294,4415,4538,4709,5041,5382,6207,50586,52276,52371,52529,52641,53182,53939,53942,54254,54255,54395,54522,54523,55007,55027,55084,55166,55222,55311,55495,55496,55497,55631&Targets=58299,55446,50790,58264,1360,57003,51704,9393,57311,57084,57001,56800,2811,57478,56000,11346,55443,53441,53620,53619,56069,56003,56008,57560,57663,58265,58266,58269&Values=30,46,50,60,72,80,91,101,110,150,289,301,310,328,395,583,591,593,835,903,1016,1065,1136,1191,1263,1282,1653,1654,1656,1664,1681,1733,1745,1754,1758,1786,1787,1835,1836,1839,1863,1870,1871,1872,1882,1887,1888,1890,1892,1941,1946,1977,1987,2011,2036,2044,2061,2106,2161,2284,2297,2353,2366,2380,2384,2482,2548,2748,2759,2765,2782,2795,2804,2805,2848,2861,2863,2915,2938,2948,2972,2975,3023,3024,3051,3061,3062,3067,3070,3086,3103,3113,3117,3153,3238,3242&RawValues=USERAGENTID%2CMozilla/5.0%2520(Windows%253B%2520U%253B%2520Windows%2520NT%25205.1%253B%2520en-US%253B%2520rv:1.8)%2520Gecko/20051111%2520Firefox/1.5&Redirect=http://www.newsday.com/extras/island/weddings/" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://brt.trb.com/ads/newsday/house/weddings/amny/WeddingsPromoCubeStaticAd.jpg" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></A>
"We take this as good news, but the next few days will be critical," Westin said.

Woodruff and Doug Vogt, an award-winning cameraman, were embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and traveling in a convoy with U.S. and Iraqi troops near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad.

They were wearing body armor and helmets but were standing up in the hatch of the mechanized vehicle when the device exploded, exposing them to shrapnel. An Iraqi solder was also hurt in the explosion.

ABC said the men were in the Iraqi vehicle _ considered less secure than U.S. military equipment _ to get the perspective of the Iraqi military. They were aware the Iraqi forces are the frequent targets of insurgent attacks, the network said.

"If you're going to cover the Iraqi military, you have to go with them, you have to see how they live," said ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz, reporting on the attack on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.

The U.S. military confirmed that Woodruff and Vogt were injured in the midday attack and said an investigation is under way.

Lara Logan, a CBS News correspondent who has covered Iraq, said the Taji area is considered particularly dangerous because it was the site of one of Saddam Hussein's munitions dumps. Many of the explosives are believed to have gotten into the hands of insurgents, she said.

"I admire Bob for going with the Iraqis," said Logan, who was blown 12 feet in the air by an explosion while with the U.S. military in Afghanistan in 2003. "It's important to hear their story and to experience it from their point of view. He did the right thing."

It was another dose of bad news for ABC News, still recovering from the cancer death of Peter Jennings in August. Woodruff, 44, assumed Jennings' old job anchoring "World News Tonight" with Elizabeth Vargas earlier this month.

Setting the broadcast aside from its network rivals, ABC usually stations one of the anchors in a New York studio while the other is doing reports from the field. Woodruff spent three days in Israel last week reporting on the Palestinian elections, and was to have been in Iraq through the State of the Union address on Tuesday, according to ABC.

Woodruff, a father of four, has been at ABC News since 1996. He grew up in Michigan and became a corporate lawyer in New York, but changed fields soon after a stint teaching law in Beijing in 1989 and helping CBS News during the Tiananmen Square uprising.

Vogt, 46, is a three-time Emmy award winning cameraman from Canada who has spent the last 20 years based in Europe covering global events for CBC, BBC and now exclusively for ABC News. He lives in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Vogt was recently in another convoy in which someone was killed by another improvised explosive device but Vogt wasn't injured.

"They've covered all the wars, the hot spots," said ABC News' Jim Sciutto, who is covering the war in Iraq. "The best we have with Doug. He's the cameraman we all request when we go to the field because he's so good, a fantastic eye. He's won so many awards for ABC."

On CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, anchor Bob Schieffer abandoned his commentary to wish Woodruff and Vogt well. "It just hit us all like a lightning bolt because we've all been there," he later told The Associated Press.

NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams said he had been in touch with Woodruff's family and is praying for the families of both men.

"There is no way to cover the story in Iraq without exposure to danger," he said.

Dozens of journalists have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped by gunmen Jan. 7. She was among 250 foreigners who had been taken captive in the country since the U.S. invasion; at least 39 of those foreigners were killed.

The most visible among the U.S. TV reporters was David Bloom of NBC News, who died from an apparent blood clot while traveling south of Baghdad on April 6, 2003.

The Blooms and Woodruffs were known to be close friends, and when NBC News executives had to tell Bloom's widow that her husband had died, they made sure Lee Woodruff was there to offer support.

MyNewsbot.com

US under fire as Chavez hosts World Social Forum

By Patrick Markey
Reuters



Tuesday, January 24, 2006


CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of international activists gathered in Caracas on Tuesday for the World Social Forum to protest U.S. imperialism and debate topics from fair trade to indigenous rights.

The event bills itself as nonpartisan. But much attention will focus on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary, who has become a regional standard-bearer for left-wing, anti-U.S. movements since allying himself with Cuba.

The sixth world forum, an event that began in Porto Alegre in Brazil, registered more than 67,000 participants and starts with a march against imperialism that will likely focus on U.S. President George W. Bush and the U.S.-led Iraq war.

"This is a process that can bring change for everyone," said Colombian Lucy Martinez, who belongs to a solidarity group with Cuba. "It's great that it is here in Venezuela because Chavez, like Fidel Castro, is an example for everyone."

Ecuadorean Indians in traditional shawls sat among piles of their luggage while Brazilian students checked out street stalls offering Che Guevara T-shirts and bracelets, watches and posters printed with Chavez's image.

Lines of participants waiting to register snaked inside a Caracas theater complex and others set up a campsite in a nearby public park.

Many traveled by road from neighboring Brazil and Colombia. At least four Brazilian students were killed and 11 injured when their bus crashed in Peru in route to Caracas.

The forum began as an alternative to the gathering of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, but it is now a broad movement where activists campaign and discuss topics as varied as gay rights, debt forgiveness and anti-globalization.

Two similar events have been organized for Mali and Pakistan.

"BUSH TERRORIST"

At the start of the Caracas forum, Cuba's National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon held an "open court" to accuse Bush of protecting a Cuban-born former CIA operative wanted by Havana and Caracas for the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976.

"We all know Mr Bush is a terrorist, " Alarcon said. "But I want to indulge him, up to a certain point, he is not guilty. He learned to be a terrorist from the crib, he carries it in his blood."

A U.S. judge last year ruled Luis Posada Carriles, who is also blamed for bomb attacks on Havana hotels, could not be extradited to Venezuela.

The forum took place just days after Bolivia's Evo Morales became the latest left-wing president to assume power in South America on a wave of regional rejection of U.S.-backed free-market economic policies.

Venezuela's Chavez has branded Bush "Mr. Danger" and says he is bringing socialism to the world's No. 5 oil exporter to better the lives of the poor.

Chavez, who often claims inspiration from South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar, says he has sought out trade and energy deals with South American neighbors to counter Washington's damaging influence in the region.

MyNewsbot.com

Source: BBC News

The Iranian authorities have started to block the BBC's Persian language internet site, for the first time.
The BBC says the level of traffic to the site from within Iran has dropped sharply over the last three days.

No official explanation has been given. The BBC has expressed concern at the action, saying it deprives many Iranians of a trusted source of news.

The BBC said it would be approaching the Iranian government at an official level about re-instating access.

BBC Persian.com is the most popular of the BBC's non-English language websites, receiving about 30 million page impressions a month - about half of which are from inside Iran.

BBC World Service radio broadcasts in English and Persian are being received by audiences in Iran as normal, as are the BBC's international online news services in English.

When entering the BBC's Persian site a sign comes up saying "access to this site denied", says the BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran.

It is not clear if the filtering will be permanent, but many websites are routinely blocked in Iran, our correspondent says.

The BBC says readers from Iran have begun emailing them to ask for help with what are known as filter-buster sites, which enable access to banned sites.

MyNewsbot.com

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The fatty acids found in some fish may help combat heart disease but there is no strong evidence they prevent cancer as some research has suggested, a study said on Tuesday.

Researchers at RAND Health and the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System said they reached the conclusion after reviewing 38 studies published between 1966 and 2005 on omega-3 fatty acids, found in some fish and certain vegetables and sold as dietary supplements.

"Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to have beneficial health effects, particularly reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease," said RAND's Catherine MacLean, chief author of the report. "We found cancer prevention isn't one of the health benefits."

She said there had been a few studies that showed reduced risk of cancer from consuming the fatty acids. "But we found even more studies that showed no decrease in cancer risk and even a few that suggested a higher risk. Our conclusion is that there is no relationship between omega-3 fatty acids and lower rates of any types of cancer."

The study was published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.



© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

MyNewsbot.com

BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Lebanon's prime minister on Tuesday to discuss renewed U.N. Security Council pressure to disarm the Hizbollah guerrilla group.

"They discussed the U.N. Security Council statement over the situation in Lebanon and resolution 1559," a statement from Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's office said.

It gave no further details.

On Monday, a unanimous Security Council put fresh pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hizbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, in line with resolution 1559 adopted in September 2004.

A council statement also urged Lebanon to conduct free and fair presidential elections without outside interference and called on Syria to take measures to stem the flow of arms and people into its smaller neighbour.

Syria last year withdrew its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year military presence under international and local pressure following the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in February.

But Hizbollah has yet to disarm and has joined the Lebanese government after a landslide victory in parliamentary elections held in June, after the Syrian withdrawal.

The United States has long classified Shi'ite Muslim Hizbollah as a terrorist group and Syria is a fixture on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Washington has put increasing pressure on Damascus to stop interfering in Lebanon, quit backing Hizbollah and prevent insurgents from crossing its borders to fight in Iraq.

Syria is also under pressure to comply with a U.N. investigation that has already implicated its security officials in Hariri's murder. Damascus denies any role in the murder and says it is doing its best to control its borders.



© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

MyNewsbot


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's public service broadcaster the BBC accused Tehran on Tuesday of blocking its Farsi-language Web site, which it describes as one of the most influential sources of news in Iran.

The BBC says its Farsi site, BBCpersian.com, normally receives 30 million page views a month, making it the British broadcaster's most popular foreign-language site.

An Iranian culture ministry official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters in Tehran the Web Site had been "filtered since two days ago" but did not give a reason behind the move.

The site is read by about a third of the 7 million internet users in Iran, the broadcaster said in a statement. But it said access had dropped dramatically over the past three days since reports emerged that the Iranian government was blocking it.

"We are very concerned at this action and regret that it deprives a great number of ordinary Iranians of a trusted source of impartial and editorially independent news and information," BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman said in the statement.

"The appetite among Iranians to know more about what's going on -- both in Iran and abroad -- has never been greater," he said.



© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Saddam Trial Will Resume Today With Temporary Presiding Judge
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Baghdad tribunal trying Saddam Hussein and seven of his former aides for a 1982 massacre resumes today with Rauf Rashid Abdel Rahman to fill in for the presiding judge.

Rahman will temporarily replace Rizkar Mohammed Amin, who offered to quit his post earlier this month amid criticism that he was too soft on the eight defendants and unable to control their courtroom outbursts, President Jalal Talabani's political party said on its Arabic-language Web site yesterday.

If Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, his two deputies and the Presidency Council led by Talabani approve Amin's resignation, the five-judge panel hearing the case will select a permanent replacement. It wasn't clear when a decision would be reached, or if Rahman is in contention for the position.

Hussein and his co-defendants deny charges of killing 148 people in Dujail in 1982. They face the death penalty if found guilty. The court has already heard from witnesses to the murders. Former members of Hussein's government may be among those who are called to testify in the next two weeks, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified U.S. official.

Proceedings have been dogged by courtroom disruptions and delays since opening on Oct. 19. Defendants have argued with witnesses and questioned the jurisdiction of the court.

Refusing to Attend

On one occasion, Hussein refused to show up after complaining that he hadn't been allowed to change clothes for three days, and on another he told Amin ``to go to hell.''

Amin's supporters say he sought to give the defendants as much leeway as possible to ensure the process is seen as fair.

Last week, Chief Investigating Judge Read Juhi said the No. 2 on the panel, Said al-Hameesh, would be promoted to presiding judge.

That idea may have been dropped following allegations that al-Hameesh was a senior member of Hussein's Baath party, a charge he denies.

Rahman was born in Halabja, the Kurdish town that lost at least 5,000 residents in 1988 when it was gassed by Hussein's forces, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said.



To contact the reporter for this story:
Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net;
Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 23, 2006 21:51 EST