AP NewsWatch

I'm Ben Thomas with an AP News Minute. U.S. officials tell AP the aircraft carrier USS

George H.W. Bush is heading to the Middle East along with three destroyers and more than

6,000 sailors. Meanwhile, Julie Walker has delayed us on a U.S. reporter kidnapped in Iraq.

American freelance journalist Shelley Kiddelsen was often working without formal assignments

on shoestring budgets, heading to lawless corners of Iraq. On Tuesday, surveillance video shows

her being forced into a car by two men on a busy Baghdad street. Iraqi security forces chased

them and caught one. U.S. officials say Kiddelsen had been told they were kidnapping threats against her

and they believe she was taken by a Kiteeb Hadsbola and Iran linked Iraqi militia. Friends and

fellow journalists say the 49-year-old who was originally from Wisconsin built an admirable career

across the Middle East and has always been gutsy. I'm Julie Walker. And I'm Ben Thomas.