04/16/07

AP PRESS RELEASE

Top military commander in Iraq, New York's governor and an ex-governor of Arkansas set to participate in AP's annual meeting

NEW YORK -- Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are the scheduled speakers May 7 for The Associated Press annual meeting in New York.

As part of the news cooperative's morning program, Petraeus, who officially took control of U.S. forces in Iraq in February, will take part in an exclusive satellite interview from Baghdad.

For the luncheon program, Spitzer and Huckabee will participate in a panel discussion, "What America Needs," moderated by Burl Osborne, chairman of the AP Board of Directors.

In addition to the interview with Petraeus, the morning session will feature state-of-the-AP reports to representatives of member newspapers in the United States. Portions of AP's annual meeting, which will be hosted by Tom Curley, AP president and CEO, and AP board chairman Osborne, will be audiocast, including Petraeus' remarks to publishers and other newspaper representatives, and the afternoon panel discussion. Access details will be posted, when they become available, on the AP's corporate Internet site at www.ap.org

Petraeus had served two previous yearlong tours in Iraq as commander of the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion in March 2003 and as commander of the training program for the Iraqi Army in 2004-05. Prior to his assignment as the top military commander in Iraq, Petraeus had served as commanding general of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Read more about Petraeus on the official Web site of the Multi-National Force-Iraq at http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=16

Spitzer was inaugurated as the 54th governor of New York in January after serving eight years as the state's attorney general. He worked in both the public and private sectors as an attorney before he ran for the New York State Attorney General's office.

Read more about Spitzer on the governor's official Web site at http://www.ny.gov/governor/firstfamily/spitzerbio.html

Huckabee, a past chairman of the National Governors Association, served as Arkansas governor for more than a decade. Barred from re-election by term limits, he left office Jan. 9 and has been traveling the country promoting a book touting his various policy proposals. Huckabee, who was the fourth Republican to be elected governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction, formed a 2008 presidential exploratory committee in January.

Read more about Huckabee at http://www.explorehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Biography.Home on his exploratory committee Web site.

Contact: Jack Stokes, AP Corporate Communications, 212.621.1720