The Times from Munster, Indiana • 40

I4AW First snow in memory falls over Baghdad The flakes melted quickly. But the smiles, wonder and excited story-swapping went on throughout the day: It snowed in Baghdad. The morning flurry Friday was the first in memory in the heart of the Iraqi capital. "For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad," said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, a 63-year-old retiree. GET THE LATEST NEWS: nwi.comnw RO SATURDAY JANUARY 12 2008 PAGE A15 Musharraf says U.S.

not welcome to join fight against al-Qaida national news update SALT LAKE CITY Trooper back on the job The Utah trooper who used a stun gun on a motorist who was walking away from him in a confrontation widely viewed on the Internet is back on duty after taking a verbal communications course. Trooper Jon Gardner returned to work Dec. 7 after internal investigators questioned the motorist in the Sept. 14 confrontation on U.S. 40 in eastern Utah.

LAS VEGAS O.J. back in custody O.J. Simpson was taken into custody Friday in Florida on allegations he violated terms of his bail in an armed robbery case. Clark County District Attorney David Roger alleges in a voice message, Simpson told his bail bondsman to contact co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart and express frustration about testimony given at a hearing where Simpson, Stewart and a third man were ordered to stand trial. 'r I ing place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, as well as a staging ground for Taliban militants planning attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The New York limes reported last week that Washington was considering expanding the authority of the CIA and the U.S. military to launch aggressive covert operations within the tribal regions. Several U.S. presidential candidates also have hinted they would support unilateral action in the area. On Friday, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that anything the U.S.

has done, and anything it will do, has been "in full cooperation" with Pakistan's government. AP ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN Despite the growing threat from Islamic extremists, President Pervez Musharraf said U.S. troops are not welcome to join the fight against al-Qaida on Pakistani soil. Musharraf warned in an interview published Friday that Pakistan would resist any unilateral military action by the United States against militants sheltering in its lawless, tribal regions close to the Afghan border. "I challenge anybody coming into our mountains," he told Singapore's The Straits Tunes in the interview notable for its unusually strident language.

"They would regret that day." The Pakistan-Afghan border has long been considered a likely hid arB. ram N.C. authorities believe they have found body of pregnant Marine who is missing JACKSONVILLE, N.C. Authorities said Friday they believe they found the shallow grave of a pregnant Marine in the backyard of a comrade she accused of rape. A person close to the case said the suspect left a note insisting the woman had killed herself.

After some slight digging in a fire pit discovered in the yard of Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, detectives found what "appeared to be burnt human remains," Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said Friday night. Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach, 20, vanished three weeks ago, days after she talked to military prosecutors about a rape case against Laurean, who remains at large. Authorities said Friday that information from another woman, a former Marine, left them certain that she is dead.

That witness is Laurean's wife. Before fleeing Jacksonville on Friday, Laurean gave his wife a note that said Lauterbach cut her own throat, an insider said. Laurean said in the note that he had nothing to do with her suicide, but that he had buried her body. Laurean's wife Christina is "heartbroken," said her mother, Debbie Sue Shifflet.AP PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President George W. Bush, center, looks up at the photographs in the Hall of Names Friday during his visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.

With Bush are from left, President Shimon Peres, Tommy Lapid, chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. BUSH MARKS VISIT TO HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL U.S. should have bombed railway to help Jews, president says U.S. Navy says ship fired warning shots at Iranian craft CAIRO, EGYPT The U.S. Navy said Friday that one of its ships fired warning shots at a small Iranian boat in the Strait of Hormuz in December during one of two serious encounters that month.

The USS Whidbey Island fired the warning shots on Dec. 19 in response to a small Iranian boat that was rapidly approaching it, said a U.S. Navy official. "One small (Iranian) craft was coming toward it, and it stopped after the Whidbey Island fired warning shots," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. AP Padilla ruling next week A federal judge said Friday she will issue key rulings early next week on whether Jose Padilla and two co-defendants have a shot at serving less than life prison sentences for their terrorism conspiracy and material support convictions.

MOBILE, ALA. Witness contradicts dad A witness reported seeing four children in their father's vehicle on the bridge from which investigators say he tossed them, and another witness later saw the father leave the area without the children, a sheriff said Friday. Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said the witness accounts contradict Lam Luong's claim that he gave the children to a friendly Asian woman. world news update PARIS Threats are investigated Portuguese aviation authorities have alerted French counterterrorism officials to an intercepted message threatening terrorist attacks against targets in Paris including the Eiffel Tower, a French newspaper reported Friday. French counterterrorism officials were trying to identify possible suspects behind the message, the report said.

TORONTO Mulroney inquiry looms A formal government inquiry into allegations that former premier Brian Mulroney received money from an arms dealer while still in office will begin once a parliamentary panel completes its probe, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday. BISSAU, GUINEA-BISSAU 2 arrested in slayings Two Mauritanians suspected of involvement in the killings of four French tourists were arrested Friday. Officials said they are believed to belong to an Algerjan-based terror cell affiliated with al-Qaida. The two suspects, both in their 20s, confessed to participating in the Christmas Eve attack. MOSCOW New nuke talks possible Top U.S.

nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said Friday that the next round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program could take place this month, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Hill's visit to Russia came amid concern over North Korea's failure to meet a year-end deadline for a full declaration of its nuclear activities. HONGKONG Ferry accidents abound Two hydrofoils ferrying passengers between the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau collided Friday night in heavy fog, seriously injuring 19 people. Thick fog blanketed China's commercial center, Shanghai, where an unlicensed river ferry carrying 22 people capsized Friday, leaving 10 missing, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. NEWS BRIEFS FROM TIMES WIRE REPORTS JERUSALEM A teary-eyed President Bush stopped in front of an aerial photo of Auschwitz on Friday at Israel's Holocaust memorial and said the U.S.

should have sent bombers to prevent the extermination of Jews there. Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev, quoted Bush as saying the U.S. should have "bombed it." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush referred to the train tracks leading to Auschwitz, not the camp itself, where between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people were killed by Nazi Germany. The issue of bombing the Nazi death camps or the rail lines leading to them has been debated for years and the lack of action was interpreted by some as a sign of Allied indifference. The Allies had detailed THE STAT 1 1N 5 0 ''v.

ill reports about Auschwitz toward the end of World War II from escaped prisoners. But they chose not to bomb the camp, the rail lines, or any of the other Nazi death camps, preferring instead to focus all resources on the broader military effort. Some experts note only late in the war did the United States have the capability to bomb the infamous camp in occupied Poland, and also faced a moral dilemma since such an operation could kill thousands of prisoners. Even Jewish leaders at the time struggled with the issue and many concluded that loss of innocent lives under such circumstances was justifiable. Bush twice had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of the museum, said Shalev, who guided Bush through the exhibits.

AP 1 SOUTH CAROLINA Giuliani staffers aid campaign About a dozen senior campaign staffers for Rudy Giuliani are forgoing their January paychecks, a sign of possible money trouble for the Republican presidential candidate and last year's nationalfront-runner. "We didn't ask anybody to do it," Giuliani told reporters Friday after a town hall meeting at a charter school in Coral Springs, Fla. "Some people volunteered to do it because they wanted to stretch out the money," he said. "We've got quite a bit of money and they wanted to make sure that we had even more money for the end of this situation in Florida, so we could have enough on the air or whatever." AP MARIA FRANCES LAUTERBACH CESAR ARMANDO LAUREAN If nilflTF tr: il: iu i were running iui unite di uiib punu i oe saying, tor me I going to be an agent ot change. PHOENIX Arizona governor throws support behind Obama Arizona Gov.

Janet Napolitano endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president on Friday, citing his message of hope in supporting his candidacy over Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards. Napolitano visited the Obama campaign office in Phoenix and joined him in a conference call with reporters. "This endorsement is based on my belief in your leadership and vision and the fact that we need a new message of hope and solidarity of coming together in Washington, D.C" Napolitano said. AP ELECTION PAY 298 DAYS UNTIL NOV. 4 JL KELLY TIPPETT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS POWERFUL STORM LEADS TO PILEUP: Standing under an umbrella to avoid the rain, Dick Sackett of Caledonia, observes stacked up vehicles in the Caledonia High School parking lot.

A tornado is believed to have caused the pileup as well as damaged a number of school buildings and area homes. ma THF v. NEXT UP Tuesday in Michigan respondents in a survey considers Republican' Mike Huckabee attractive, including 18 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans. -Ir utt i ii i vote SOUTH CAROLINA McCain draws crowds along i S.C. coastline John McCain and his gang of South Carolina backers took their campaign roadshow to a trio of restaurants along the coastline Friday, one week before the state's primary.

At each event, the Arizona senator was flanked by state Attorney General Henry McMaster, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and state House Speaker Bobby Harrell. "I could not be more comforted by the people who are here with me," McCain said. The last rally of the day got off to a rough start. More than 500 people waited in the parking lot as traffic jammed Route 78 and delayed McCain's arrival.

When McCain took the microphone, the sound failed. AP 3 A NEW YORK Bill Clinton: Obama campaign no 'fairy tale' Former President Bill Clinton says his r. comment about Barack Obama telling a tale" about opposing the war in Iraq has been misconstrued as a criticism of the senator's run for the Democratic nomination, "There's nothing 'fairy tale' about his campaign. It's real, it's strong, and he might win," Clinton said in a phone 1 interview for the Rev. Al Sharpton's Radio One network talk show.

Clinton said his "fairy tale" remark on the eve of the New Hampshire primary won by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was only intended to describe Obama's claim to have exercised better judgment about the war, not as a sign of "personal disrespect" AP.