Deadliest attacks in Iraq since US troop pullout

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Here is a look at the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops on Dec. 18, 2011:

?May 21, 2013: Car bombing at a Sunni mosque kills at least 20 people.

?May 20, 2013: A wave of attacks, some at markets and in rush hour crowds, kills 113 people in Shiite and Sunni areas.

?May 18, 2013: Shootings and bombings kill at least 16 people, including an anti-terrorism police captain and his family.

?May 17, 2013: Bombs rip through Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas, killing at least 76 people.

?May 16, 2013: Car bombs hit Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and attacks elsewhere in the country leave 21 people dead.

?May 15, 2013: A car bomb goes off near a bus station in Baghdad's main Shiite district, the deadliest of explosions that killed at least 33 people nationwide.

?May 14, 2013: A convoy of gunmen opens fire on a row of liquor stores in eastern Baghdad, killing 11 people.

?April 29, 2013: A wave of car bomb blasts tears through Shiite areas south of Baghdad, killing at least 36.

?April 25, 2013: More than 40 people are reported killed in fighting in the key northern city of Mosul.

?April 24, 2013: Clashes between the army and armed Sunni tribesmen who sealed off a central Iraqi town kill 22 people.

?April 23, 2013: Security forces storm a Sunni protest camp in the north, sparking deadly clashes in several towns, which combined with other attacks leave 56 people dead.

?April 18, 2013: A suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Baghdad cafe crowded with young people, killing 32 people.

?April 15, 2013: At least 36 are killed in string of attacks across the country ahead of provincial elections.

?April 6, 2013: A suicide bomber blows himself up at a lunch hosted by a Sunni candidate ahead of regional elections, killing 20 people.

?Mar. 19, 2013: Insurgents carry out a wave of bombings that kills at least 65 people on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. An al-Qaida in Iraq front group claims responsibility.

?Mar. 14, 2013: Militants unleash a carefully planned assault on the Justice Ministry, killing 30.

?Mar. 4, 2013: Gunmen attack a convoy of Syrian soldiers who had crossed into Iraq for refuge, killing 48.

?Feb. 17, 2013: Car bombs tear through shopping areas in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing at least 37.

?Jan. 23, 2013: A suicide bomber strikes a packed funeral ceremony at a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, killing at least 25.

?Jan. 17, 2013: Insurgents unleash a string of bomb attacks mainly targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims across Iraq, killing at least 26.

?Jan. 16, 2013: A wave of bombings against the offices of a major Kurdish party and Kurdish security forces headquarters in Kirkuk province kills at least 33.

?Nov. 27, 2012: Insurgents launch attacks against Shiite mosques, security forces, and other targets in central and northern Iraq, killing at least 30.

?Nov. 6, 2012: A suicide bomber detonates his explosives-laden car near a military base north of Baghdad, killing at least 33.

?Sept. 9, 2012: Insurgents gun down soldiers at an army post, bomb police recruits waiting in line to apply for jobs, and stage other attacks that kill 92.

?Aug. 16, 2012: A blistering string of bombings and shootings across the country kills at least 93.

?July 23, 2012: Attacks aimed largely at security forces kill 115 in the country's deadliest single day in two years.

?July 3, 2012: Bombs pound six cities and towns, killing some 40 and raising suspicion that security forces may be assisting attacks on Shiites.

?June 13, 2012: Car bombs target an annual Shiite pilgrimage, killing 72 people in 16 separate explosions.

?April 19, 2012: Bombs rip through 10 Iraqi cities, killing at least 30 and shattering a month of relative calm. Al-Qaida later says the attacks aimed to punish the Shiite-led government and its allies.

?March 20, 2012: Insurgents bent on derailing an Arab League meeting in Baghdad kill 46 in attacks on Shiite pilgrims in the holy city of Karbala, bombings in Kirkuk, and strikes on security and government officials around the country.

?Feb. 23, 2012: Attackers kill at least 55 as car bombs go off near an elementary school in the town of Musayyib, a restaurant in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, and various checkpoints and secure areas.

?Jan. 28, 2012: A suicide car bomber strikes a Shiite funeral procession, killing 33 in southwestern Baghdad.

?Jan. 14, 2012: A bomb tears through a procession of Shiite pilgrims in southern Iraq, killing at least 53.

?Jan. 5, 2012: Coordinated bombings target Shiite Muslims, killing 78 in Baghdad and near the southern city of Nasiriyah, just days before a Shiite holy day.

?Dec. 22, 2011: Attackers hit markets, cafes and government buildings in mostly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 69 people.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deadliest-attacks-iraq-since-us-troop-pullout-123913916.html

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Christina Aguilera, Pitbull "Feel This Moment" at Billboard Music Awards

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/christina-aguilera-pitbull-feel-this-moment-at-billboard-music-a/

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Xbox One will have a slot-loading Blu-ray drive to go with its 500GB HDD

Microsoft has confirmed what many saw as inevitable: the Xbox will have a Blu-ray drive. The company just announced the victor in the drive wars will be installed as a slot-loading front unit in each new Xbox One to provide entertainment and gaming input along with a 500GB HDD, a 360-degree switch from Redmond's last console, as it were. Microsoft heavily resisted the move to Blu-ray in the Xbox 360, but has caved to the inevitable, no doubt having come to an agreement with Sony, the owner of the tech, through gritted teeth.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/microsoft-confirms-xbox-will-have-blu-ray-drive/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Jim Inhofe and the "reverse NIMBY" phenomenon (Washington Post)

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Tornadoes level homes in Okla., 21 injured

SHAWNEE, Okla. (AP) ? One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.

The tornadoes, high winds and hail across Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

At least four separate twisters touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon, including one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park.

Across the state, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

Following the twisters, local emergency officials went from home site to home site in an effort to account for everyone. Cain said that, many times in such situations, people who are not found immediately are discovered later to have left the area ahead of the storm.

Forecasters had been warning of a general storm outbreak since Wednesday, and for Sunday's storms some residents had more than a half-hour's notice that a twister was on the way. Tornado watches and warnings were in effect through late Sunday in much of the nation's midsection.

The trailer park west of Shawnee was among the hardest-hit areas, and among the hardest to reach, as tractor-trailers that forced the closure of a section of Interstate 40 north of the site and power lines draped across roads to the south.

James Hoke lives with his wife and two children in Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park. He said the family went into their storm cellar as the storm approached. When they came out, their mobile home had vanished.

"It took a dead hit," Hoke said.

A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth "scoured" at the mobile home park.

"It seemed like it went on forever. It was a big rumbling for a long time," said Shawn Savory, standing outside his damaged remodeling business in Shawnee. "It was close enough that you could feel like you could reach out and touch it."

Gov. Mary Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties that suffered from severe storms and flooding during the weekend. The declaration lets local governments acquire goods quickly to respond to their residents' needs and puts the state in line for federal help if it becomes necessary.

Heavy rains and straight-line winds hit much of western Oklahoma on Saturday. Tornadoes were also reported Sunday at Edmond, Arcadia and near Wellston to the north and northeast of Oklahoma City. The supercell that generated the twisters weakened as it approached Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.

"I knew it was coming," said Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young sons in their Edmond home's safe room when the tornado hit. He said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.

"Then I realized it was swirling debris. That's when we shut the door of the safe room," said Grau, adding that they remained in the room for 10 minutes.

In Wichita, Kan., a tornado touched down near Mid-Content Airport on the city's southwest side shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas' biggest city. The Wichita tornado was an EF1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan said there were no reports of fatalities or injuries in Kansas.

There were also two reports of tornadoes touching down in Iowa on Sunday night, including one near Huxley, about 20 miles north of Des Moines, and one in Grundy County, which is northeast of Des Moines, according to the Des Moines Register. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

In Oklahoma, aerial television news footage showed homes with significant damage northeast of Oklahoma City. Some outbuildings appeared to have been leveled, and some homes' roofs or walls had been knocked down.

"When I first drove into the neighborhood, I didn't see any major damage until I pulled into the front of my house," said Csaba Mathe, of Edmond, who found a part of his neighbor's fence in his swimming pool. "My reaction was: I hope insurance pays for the cleaning."

"I typically have two trash cans, and now I have five in my driveway."

The Storm Prediction Center had been warning about severe weather in the region since Wednesday, and on Friday, it zeroed in on Sunday as the day the storm system would likely pass through.

"They've been calling for this all day," Edmond resident Anita Wright said after riding out the twister in an underground shelter. She and her husband, Ed, emerged from their hiding place to find uprooted trees, downed limbs and damaged gutters in their home.

In Katie Leathers' backyard, the family's trampoline was tossed through a section of fence and a giant tree uprooted.

"I saw all the trees waving, and that's when I grabbed everyone and got into two closets," Leathers said. "All these trees just snapped."

___

Associated Press writers Ken Miller in Shawnee, Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tornadoes-level-homes-okla-21-injured-031505250.html

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CA-NEWS Summary

Hezbollah steps up Syria battle, Israel threatens more strikes

AMMAN (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held town alongside Syrian troops on Sunday and Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein the militia in, highlighting the risks of a wider regional conflict if planned peace talks fail. Activists said it was the fiercest fighting in Syria's two year-old civil war involving Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group backed by Iran which they said appeared to be helping President Bashar al-Assad secure a vital corridor in case Syria fragments.

North Korea fires short-range missiles for two days in a row

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast on Sunday, a day after launching three of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers. Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions have raised concerns about the region's security.

Canadian prime minister's top aide quits over expenses scandal

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper abruptly resigned on Sunday over his role in an mounting expenses scandal which is threatening to undermine the Conservative government. Nigel Wright, Harper's chief of staff, quit after secretly giving a C$90,000 ($87,000) check in February to Mike Duffy, a member of the upper Senate chamber, to help him cover living expenses he had improperly claimed. News of the gift leaked late on Tuesday.

Exclusive: Bangladesh factory banned by Wal-Mart still makes Wrangler shirts

GAZIPUR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - A Bangladesh factory where Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Inditex SA inspectors spotted cracks in the wall this month is still making Wrangler shirts for the world's largest apparel maker, U.S.-based VF Corp. VF confirmed on Saturday it was still using Liz Apparels to make its clothing following an inspection ordered by the factory owner, Nassa Group, on May 12. VF, whose other clothing brands include North Face, Timberland and Nautica, said its philosophy was to "stay and improve" working conditions.

Israel demands French TV correct 13-year-old report on boy's death

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel demanded a French television station on Sunday correct a report from nearly 13 years ago which helped fuel anger across the world and ignite a bloody uprising against the Jewish state. Twelve-year-old Mohammed al-Dura and his father, Jamal, were filmed crouching in terror by a wall in the Gaza Strip in September 2000, bullets whizzing around them, as Israeli forces battled Palestinian gunmen days into an uprising that erupted after failed peace talks.

Insight: Despite curbs, China's vast hot money triangle flourishes

ZHUHAI, China/HONG KONG (Reuters) - In an underground mall just a stone's throw from China's teeming border with Macau, a row of 30 small shops with identical golden plaques does a brisk, though shadowy trade with mainland Chinese visitors, many of them bound for the gambling hub. "Good rates. Better than the banks," shout salespeople jostling to usher clients into shops where thick wads of Chinese 100 yuan ($16.31) and HK$1,000 ($130) bank notes change hands and shuffle noisily through electronic cash-counting machines. Licensed as liquor and dry goods stores with stacked shelves of rice wine and cigarettes, many conduct their real business in back rooms - as underground bankers and remittance agents.

India gripes over border, trade woes on Li's first foreign trip

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told visiting Chinese President Li Keqiang on Sunday a recent military standoff in the Himalayas could affect relations between the two countries as they looked to boost bilateral trade. At a meeting shortly after Li arrived in India on his first foreign trip, Singh said relations were affected when "peace and tranquility" on the border was impacted, a senior government official with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.

Nigeria offers amnesty to insurgents who surrender

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria offered an amnesty on Sunday to Islamist militants who surrender and said 17 people had been killed on the fifth day of a military operation to try to crush the Boko Haram insurgency in the country's northeast. In their biggest offensive since the insurgency began in 2009, Nigerian forces are trying to chase well-armed militants out of territory they control in remote semi-deserts around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Tunisian Islamist protester killed in clash with police

TUNIS (Reuters) - One protester died and several were injured when Tunisian Islamists defied a ban on their demonstration and clashed with police on Sunday. The 27-year-old man was killed in the violence in the capital Tunis which continued into the evening, the state news agency said. A Reuters witness saw several others injured at the protest in support of the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia group.

Protesting Egyptian police block Israel border crossing

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police enraged by the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula blocked a commercial border crossing with Israel on Sunday to pressure the Cairo government to help free the men, security sources said. A video posted online on Sunday showed seven blindfolded men, who said they were the hostages, begging President Mohamed Mursi to free political detainees in Sinai in exchange for their own release.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-005241860.html

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Genetic diversity within tumors predicts outcome in head and neck cancer

May 20, 2013 ? A new measure of the heterogeneity -- the variety of genetic mutations -- of cells within a tumor appears to predict treatment outcomes of patients with the most common type of head and neck cancer. In the May 20 issue of the journal Cancer, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary describe how their measure was a better predictor of survival than most traditional risk factors in a small group of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

"Our findings will eventually allow better matching of treatments to individual patients, based on this characteristic of their tumors," says Edmund Mroz, PhD, of the MGH Center for Cancer Research, lead author of the Cancer report. "This method of measuring heterogeneity can be applied to most types of cancer, so our work should help researchers determine whether a similar relationship between heterogeneity and outcome occurs in other tumors."

For decades investigators have hypothesized that tumors with a high degree of genetic heterogeneity -- the result of different subgroups of cells undergoing different mutations at different DNA sites -- would be more difficult to treat because particular subgroups might be more likely to survive a particular drug or radiation or to have spread before diagnosis. While recent studies have identified specific genes and proteins that can confer treatment resistance in tumors, there previously has been no way of conveniently measuring tumor heterogeneity.

Working in the laboratory of James Rocco, MD, PhD -- director of the Mass. Eye and Ear /MGH Head and Neck Molecular Oncology Research Laboratory, principal investigator at the MGH Center for Cancer Research and senior author of the Cancer report -- Mroz and his colleagues developed their new measure by analyzing advanced gene sequencing data to produce a value reflecting the genetic diversity within a tumor -- not only the number of genetic mutations but how broadly particular mutations are shared within different subgroups of tumor cells. They first described this measure, called mutant-allele tumor heterogeneity (MATH), in the March 2013 issue of Oral Oncology. But that paper was only able to show that patients with known factors predicting poor outcomes -- including specific mutations in the TP53 gene or a lack of infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) -- were likely to have higher MATH values.

In the current study, the investigators used MATH to analyze genetic data from the tumors of 74 patients with squamous cell head and neck carcinoma for whom they had complete treatment and outcome information. Not only did they find that higher MATH values were strongly associated with shorter overall survival -- with each unit of increase reflecting a 5 percent increase in the risk of death -- but that relationship was also seen within groups of patients already at risk for poor outcome. For example, among patients with HPV-negative tumors, those with higher MATH values were less likely to survive than those with lower MATH values. Overall, MATH values were more strongly related to outcomes than most previously identified risk factors and improved outcome predictions based on all other risk factors the researchers examined.

The impact of MATH value on outcome appeared strongest among patients treated with chemotherapy, which may reflect a greater likelihood that highly heterogeneous tumors contain treatment-resistant cells, Mroz says. He also notes that what reduces the chance of survival appears to be the subgroups of cells with different mutations within a tumor, not the process of mutation itself. "If all the tumor cells have gone through the same series of mutations, a single treatment might still be able to kill all of them. But if there are subgroups with different sets of mutations, one subgroup might be resistant to one type of treatment, while another subgroup might resist a different therapy."

In addition to combining MATH values with clinical characteristics to better predict a patient's chance of successful treatment, Mroz notes that MATH could someday help determine treatment choice -- directing the use of more aggressive therapies against tumors with higher values, while allowing patients with lower values to receive less intense standard treatment. While MATH will probably be just as useful at predicting outcomes for other solid tumors, the investigators note, that will need to be shown in future studies.

"Our results have important implications for the future of oncology care," says Rocco, the Daniel Miller Associate Professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School. "MATH offers a simple, quantitative way to test hypotheses about intratumor genetic heterogeneity, including the likelihood that targeted therapy will succeed. They also raise important questions about how genetic heterogeneity develops within a tumor and whether heterogeneity can be exploited therapeutically."

Additional co-authors of the Cancer paper are Aaron Tward, MD, PhD, Mass. Eye and Ear; Curtis Pickering, PhD, and Jeffrey Myers, MD, PhD, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. The study was supported by National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research grants R01DE022087 and RC2DE020958, National Cancer Institute grant R21CA119591, Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas grant RP100233, and the Bacardi MEEI Biobank Fund. The MGH has filed a patent application for the MATH measure.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/i05TKezQ-qU/130520094600.htm

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