May 02, 2008 05:18 pm
—
US military blames
al-Qaida for double
suicide attack on
wedding party in Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military on Friday blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for a double suicide bombing that killed at least 36 people during a wedding procession through a crowd of people cheering the bride and groom in a town northeast of Baghdad.
The attack Thursday evening came amid heightened worries that al-Qaida militants are regrouping, despite recent security gains by U.S.-led forces. The terror network announced April 19 that it was launching a one-month offensive against U.S. troops and U.S.-allied Sunnis.
"Al-Qaida in Iraq continues their malicious tactics against the people of Iraq and their way of life," the military said in a statement. "They seek violence and chaos in Iraq."
Thursday's blasts occurred in Balad Ruz, a predominantly Shiite Muslim town 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. An Iraqi female suicide bomber imitating pregnancy detonated the first bomb, the military said. A male bomber also blew himself up.
The woman bomber blew herself up as people were dancing and clapping while members of the passing wedding party played music. The male bomber attacked minutes later as police and ambulances arrived at the scene, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, head of the Diyala provincial operations center that oversees Balad Ruz.
Report: Microsoft may go hostile in its bid for Yahoo, announcement 'likely' Friday
SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft Corp. may go hostile in its bid for Yahoo Inc. as soon as Friday, according to a published report.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported early Friday that the world's largest software maker may be preparing to go straight to Internet pioneer Yahoo's shareholders.
An announcement was "likely" to come Friday, according to the report, though the newspaper said its sources cautioned that Microsoft may delay.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told employees in a company assembly Thursday that he knows how much he'd spend to buy Yahoo and accelerate his company's Internet play.
"We're willing to pay for that at some level, and beyond that level we're not willing to pay for it. I know exactly what I think Yahoo is worth to me," the executive said. "I won't go a dime above, and I will go to what I think it's worth if that gets the deal done."
Despite long-held image of cocaine as a white crime, Hispanics lead number of fed offenses
WASHINGTON (AP) — They were indelible images of the cocaine world of the 1970s and '80s: Rich yuppies and white suburbanites partying down with a couple of lines of "blow." Stockbroker Charlie Sheen snorting up in the limo in "Wall Street." Woody Allen's sneeze in "Annie Hall."
More than 30 years later, the image remains but the reality of coke in the United States has shifted significantly. Long portrayed as a white crime, Hispanics now make up the overwhelming majority — 60 percent — of federal offenders facing powder cocaine charges.
In fact, data show, more Hispanics than whites or blacks have been sentenced on federal powder charges as far back as 1992. Law enforcement officials say that's because federal agents almost exclusively pursue cocaine traffickers from South America and Mexico instead of end-of-the-line U.S. consumers.
Until the last decade, when the price of cocaine dropped sharply, consumers were largely affluent and educated. That fed into the misperception — often reported by The Associated Press and other news organizations — that most powder cocaine offenders were white, experts say.
"There was a lot of publicity about the white population using it; it was more of a higher economic status thing," said Dorothy K. Hatsukami, a behavioral scientist at the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Center. She co-authored a 1996 study medically challenging federal sentencing guidelines that penalized black cocaine offenders more harshly than white ones.
Analysis: Recent big win, Obama's pastor problem give Hillary Rodham Clinton a measure of hope
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton has an unmistakable bounce in her step these days — a sense of energy and optimism that somehow belies the daunting challenge she faces in wresting the Democratic presidential nomination from Barack Obama.
"I feel good. We're making progress every day," she told supporters Thursday in Kentucky, which holds its primary May 20. "Wish I could be here for the Derby. ... I hope everyone's going to place a little money on the filly," a reference perhaps to horse Eight Belles and herself.
Buoyed by her convincing win in Pennsylvania's primary April 22, Clinton has been campaigning intensively before Indiana and North Carolina's contests next week. She's greeted by large crowds who respond enthusiastically to her plans for improving the faltering economy, and several polls out this week suggest she would be the stronger candidate to face Republican John McCain this fall, both nationally and in important swing states.
Obama, meanwhile, is still contending with the fallout from the controversy surrounding his former pastor and polls showing a tight contest in Indiana, where he once led.
While Obama has won several superdelegate endorsements this week, including that of former DNC chairman and one-time Clinton backer Joe Andrew, the former first lady has secured a few of her own after weeks of superdelegate drought. On Tuesday, she got a boost in North Carolina with the endorsement of Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, another superdelegate.
7 wildfires burning across Texas; 1 injury reported
FORT STOCKTON, (AP) — At least seven wildfires, two of them consuming more than 20,000 acres each, burned across Texas on Thursday, threatening homes, a wind farm and a $10 million vineyard, officials said.
There have been no deaths reported and just one injury, a heavy equipment operator who was treated for smoke inhalation.
One of the largest fires was the Huckabee Fire in Pecos County, about 30 miles southeast of Fort Stockton in West Texas. The 21,000 acre blaze was threatening two natural gas facilities that produce more than $1 million of natural gas a day. Both facilities appear out of danger, said Jeanne Eastham, a spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service.
The Huckabee Fire was also threatening a $280 million wind farm that employs about 250 people and an 800-acre vineyard, Eastham said.
The wind farm issued a voluntary evacuation. The forest service had a mandatory evacuation for one ranch in the fire's path.
Pecos County resident Weldon Blackwelder said he was keeping watch on the fire to see if it gets close to his home.
"It's amazing how this old country will burn like that," Blackwelder said in a story for Friday's Odessa American.
A separate Pecos County fire destroyed one outbuilding and threatened three homes. It was burning across 200 acres and was 40 percent contained, according to the Texas Forest Service.
The 2,000-acre Price Fire in Midland County has burned five structures, threatened 200 more and forced the evacuation of 150 homes, officials said.
A 150-acre Brooks County fire that burned one outbuilding was about 40 percent contained but "extreme weather conditions and lack of air resources are limiting the ability of ground crews to gain control," Eastham said.
A train started a 320-acre fire around 12:45 p.m. Thursday in Howard County. Officials said the fire burned rapidly along Interstate 20 but was under control and about 80 percent contained. There was a 200-acre fire in Crockett County that was mostly contained and caused minimal damage.
The state's other large fire is a 23,000-acre blaze in Brewster County dubbed the Cathedral Fire. This lightning fire is in an inaccessible area but is not threatening any structures and considered mostly contained. "Crews are making good progress," Eastham said.
Afghans pay for leftovers as global crisis sends bread price skyrocketing
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hungry Afghans looking for their next meal eye bread scraps piled up like heaps of trash at a Kabul market as a vendor weighs out fistfuls of the stale crusts on a scale. A Pashtun woman waits with an empty plastic sack.
She isn't scavenging — she's paying for leftovers that in better times were sold for feeding to sheep and cows. The woman said her household of 14 people had to give up fresh bread a month ago as the price spiraled out of reach.
Rising global food prices have hit few places as hard as Afghanistan, where the cost of wheat flour has shot up 75 percent in three months, fueling anger against the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. In the volatile south, officials fear it could boost recruitment for the Taliban insurgency.
"Karzai is the king and this is my life," wailed the Pashtun woman, who declined to give her name because of her conservative social code. "Since the Americans came here, nothing is cheap."
The U.N. World Food Program, or WFP, warns that the situation for the poorest in Afghanistan is dire and deaths from malnutrition are likely to increase. Protests have broken out in at least one city.
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Scientists in New York to discuss plans to capture DNA of trees worldwide for genetic database
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Botanical Garden may be best known for its orchid shows and colorful blossoms, but its researchers are about to lead a global effort to capture DNA from thousands of tree species from around the world.
The Bronx garden is hosting a meeting this week where participants from various countries will lay the groundwork for how the two-year undertaking to catalog some of the Earth's vast biodiversity will proceed.
The project is known as TreeBOL, or tree barcode of life. As in a similar project under way focusing on the world's fish species, participants would gather genetic material from trees around the world.
A section of the DNA would be used as a barcode, similar to way a product at the grocery store is scanned to bring up its price. But with plants and animals, the scanners look at the specific order of the four basic building blocks of DNA to identify the species.
The resulting database will help identify many of the world's existing plant species, where they are located and whether they are endangered. The results are crucial for conservation and protecting the environment as population and development increases, said Damon Little, assistant curator of bioinformatics at the Botanical Garden and coordinator of the project.
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Oprah Winfrey's couch is safe: Tom Cruise more subdued during show taping this time around
CHICAGO (AP) — Tom Cruise didn't jump on Oprah Winfrey's couch this time. The actor was in Chicago on Thursday to tape an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," a tribute to his showbiz career that took off 25 years ago when he danced in his underwear in "Risky Business." Audience members told The Associated Press that Cruise's demeanor was nothing like his infamous coach-jumping incident three years ago, when he made a spectacle of himself while proclaiming his love for now wife Katie Holmes.
"He was really calm and collected," said Diane Andonovski of Toronto, Canada.
Cruise was accompanied by immediate and extended family members, including Holmes and the couple's 2-year-old daughter Suri, audience member Jenny Hume of England said.
It was half of a two-part interview Winfrey did with Cruise that will air Friday and Monday. For Friday's show, Winfrey interviewed the 45-year-old actor at his home in Telluride, Colo. Monday's show was taped at her Chicago studio in front of an audience.
In a preview of Friday's show posted on her Web site, Winfrey asked Cruise if he feels he has been misunderstood, thinks he has come under attack unnecessarily and how he has been accepted by his wife Katie Holmes' family. Winfrey mentions his criticism of actress Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants and his tiff with "Today" show host Matt Lauer over whether psychiatric treatment helps people.
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Pistons crush 76ers 100-77 in Game 6, advance to second-round matchup against Orlando
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Detroit team that showed up for the first four games of the playoffs was in trouble against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Pistons who showed up for Games 5 and 6 sure look ready for the Orlando Magic.
The Pistons powered into the second round by crushing Philadelphia 100-77 on Thursday night, winning the series 4-2 and again demonstrating how good they are when they feel they need to be.
Detroit convincingly won the last two games of a series that wasn't expected to last this long. The Pistons have only one day off before they host the Magic on Saturday in the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals — but probably wouldn't want a break since they just found their groove.
"Usually when we start getting into a rhythm, we start playing well," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "We are better off having them play again than taking two or three days off and resting. Hopefully we will be able to get out of here quick and get back home and get ready for Orlando."
Richard Hamilton hit his first five shots during Detroit's overpowering start and finished with 24 points, 13 in the decisive first quarter when he outscored the 76ers by himself. Chauncey Billups added 20 points and Tayshaun Prince had 12 for the Pistons, who reached the second round for the seventh straight season.
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Franzen's second hat trick in 3 games leads Red Wings to 8-2 win and sweep of Avs
DENVER (AP) — Johan Franzen keeps pushing aside Gordie Howe's records.
In March, his six game-winning goals bested the franchise record of five established by Howe in 1952, and on Thursday night, he scored three goals in the Detroit Red Wings' series-clinching 8-2 rout of the Colorado Avalanche, giving him nine in the four-game sweep.
So what did he think of again besting Howe, the Hall of Famer who set the franchise record of eight goals in one series (seven games) in 1949?
"I didn't follow the game back then," cracked Franzen.
"He's been great. He's a big, big man with lots of skill. We're lucky to have him," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "We feel good about that. I'm not taking anything away from what we did, but their team was depleted by the end here.
"He's been big now for a long time. He broke Gordie's record in March, and then he broke his record here today. So good for him. If you're going to break records, you might as well break Gordie Howe's."
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