In the news

WORLD

LONDON – Britain will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the coming months and aims to further cut its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the country’s south, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday.

The announcement, which came as Denmark said it would withdraw its 460 troops, comes as the U.S. is implementing an increase of 21,000 more troops for Iraq – putting Washington on the opposite track of its main coalition allies.

Analysts say there is little point in boosting forces in largely Shiite southern Iraq, where most non-U.S. coalition troops are concentrated. Yet as more countries reduce military numbers or pull out, it could create a security vacuum if radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stirs up trouble.

Blair told the House of Commons that British troops will stay in Iraq until at least 2008. Troops work to secure the Iran-Iraq border and maintain supply routes to U.S. and coalition troops.

“Increasingly our role will be support and training, and our numbers will be able to reduce accordingly,” Blair said.

NATION

WASHINGTON – Cracking down on college students, the music industry is sending thousands more complaints to top universities this school year than it did last year as it targets music illegally downloaded over campus computer networks.

A few schools, including Ohio and Purdue universities, already have received more than 1,000 complaints accusing individual students of significant download increases over the past school year. For students who are caught, punishments vary from e-mail warnings to semester-long suspensions from classes.

The Recording Industry Association of America identified the 25 universities that received the most copyright complaints it sent so far this school year. The top five schools are Ohio, Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina. The RIAA complained about almost 15,000 students at the top 25 universities, almost triple the number for the previous school year.

The industry group long has pressured schools to act more aggressively against online pirates on campus.

STATE & LOCAL

RICHMOND – A proposal to raise Virginia’s minimum wage was killed by a parliamentary maneuver on the House of Delegates floor Tuesday.

The Democrat-backed legislation was sent to the Appropriations Committee on a largely party line 53-43 vote. The move dooms the bill because Monday was the deadline for committee action on legislation.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Manassas, would have increased the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.50 per hour, effective July 1. House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said the legislation needed to go to the Appropriations Committee because it would cost the state about $5 million.

But Delegate Kenneth Plum, D-Reston, argued that the state could easily accommodate any additional cost by tapping an unappropriated contingency fund.

Griffith also complained about the tactics employed by the bill’s supporters to get the measure to the floor. The bill had died in subcommittee, but was revived by a narrow majority of the House Commerce and Labor Committee and approved after debate was abruptly cut off.