Morning News Roundup (30 Mar)

• Good news from Iraq: kidnapped Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll was released after 82 days in captivity. [CSM; the WaPo also has details and a video interview]
  


• Not so good news from Iraq: More than 30,000 Iraqis have been displaced as a result of sectarian violence between the country's two main communities over the past month. Almost every day victims of the sectarian bloodshed are found in Baghdad, their bodies dumped around the city. [BBC]
  
  Since the start of March, gunmen - mostly masked, many wearing police uniforms - have stormed at least six Baghdad businesses. On Wednesday, eight people were killed at the al-Ibtikar trading company when they were lined up against a wall and shot, and six others were wounded. At least 90 workers have been kidnapped and tens of thousands of dollars stolen in the five other assaults. [AP/Mercury News]
  
  Reuters also has an article about a kidnapped Iraqi shopkeeper and others whose abductions don't get the press that Jill Carroll or other Western hostages do.
  


• Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari asserted his right to stay in office today in the face of calls from the US to step down and defended his recent political alliance with the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, now the prime minister's most powerful backer. [NYTimes]
  


• The 15-member UN council unanimously adopted a nonbinding statement on Iran's nuclear program, calling for it to suspend its uranium enrichment program within 30 days. Iran says it won't be giving up its peaceful nuclear power activity. [WaPo] The statement came after weeks of tense negotiations, with Russia and China determined that it not contain language that could lead to sanctions or other punitive measures. [WaPo]
  


• Reality sets in at the Pentagon: The US Army has relaxed its policy on tattoos in a bid to boost the number of new recruits to its ranks. Soldiers can now have tattoos on their hands and back of the neck as long as they are not "extremist, indecent, sexist or racist." The US army was 7,000 short of its target of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers last year. [BBC] We'll see if the addition of ink can up the numbers, but I think there might be a few other reasons for the continuing shortfall. You can also check out this ABCNews story on the army's key demographic to learn of other factors that limit recruiting (obesity, criminal records).
  


• Senator Charles Schumer introduced a bill Wednesday that would put lawsuits challenging the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program on a fast track to the Supreme Court. The bill would permit lawsuits by scholars, journalists and others who assert that they have refrained from calls or e-mail messages to Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries because of "a reasonable fear" of N.S.A. eavesdropping. [NYTimes via ThinkProgress]
  


• Palm Beach County's elections supervisor has given Ann Coulter, "the right wing's unofficial mouthpiece," 30 days to explain why she voted in the wrong precinct. [Palm Peach Post]
  

  In his official incident report released last week, poll worker Jim Whited wrote that Coulter tried to vote in the Feb. 7 town council election at Bethesda-by-the-Sea, the right place for a Seabreeze resident. Coulter left in a hurry when, Whited said, he asked her to correct the record. Later she cast her ballot at the St. Edward's precinct, where real Indian Road residents go.
  
  Coulter, a constitutional lawyer who relentlessly made fun of Palm Beach County voters after the botched 2000 presidential election, couldn't be reached for comment.

  The case could be referred to State Attorney Barry Krischer for criminal charges if Coulter is not more forthcoming. Here's hoping she continues to be obstinate.