7 Killed, 24 Wounded in Baghdad Car Blast
BAGHDAD, Iraq – A car bomb killed at least seven people and wounded 24 on a busy avenue in Baghdad on Saturday as Shiite politicians floated a proposal to end the standoff over a new government by having Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari step down _ but only if his replacement comes from his own party.
The blast occurred at lunchtime outside an east Baghdad restaurant frequented by police officers, four of whom were among the injured, Sgt. Sabah Mohsen said. All the dead were civilians, police said.
The explosion shattered windows and damaged shops over a wide area. Firefighters hosed down the debris-littered street as bystanders gawked at charred and windowless vehicles.
Such violence is adding urgency to talks on forming a government of national unity, a task unsettled four months after parliamentary elections.
Negotiations have stalled over the refusal of Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties to accept al-Jaafari, the Shiite Muslim nominee to head the new government.
Many Mexicans Have Jobs Before Crossing
SASABE, Mexico – When Pedro Lopez Vazquez crossed illegally into the United States last week, he was not heading north to look for a job. He already had one.
His future employer even paid $1,000 for a smuggler to help Vazquez make his way from the central Mexican city of Puebla to Aspen, Colo.
“We’re going to Colorado to work in carpentry because we have a friend who was going to give us a job,” Vazquez said.
Vazquez, 41, was interviewed along the Arizona border after being deported twice by the U.S. Border Patrol. He said he would keep trying until he got to Aspen.
His story is not unusual. A growing number of U.S. employers and migrants are tapping into an underground employment network that matches one with the other, often before the migrants leave home.
Robot Birth Simulator Gaining Popularity
VALLEJO, Calif. (AP) _ Noelle’s given birth in Afghanistan, California and dozens of points in between. She’s a lifelike, pregnant robot used in increasing numbers of medical schools and hospital maternity wards.
The full-sized, blond, pale mannequin is in demand because medicine is rapidly abandoning centuries-old training methods that use patients as guinea pigs, turning instead to high-tech simulations. It’s better to make a mistake on a $20,000 robot than a live patient.
The Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, estimates that as many as 98,000 U.S. patients die annually from preventable medical errors.
“We’re trying to engineer out some of the errors,” said Dr. Paul Preston, an anesthesiologist at Kaiser Permanente and architect of the hospital chain’s 4-year-old pregnancy-care training program, in which Noelle plays a starring role. “We steal shamelessly from everybody and everywhere that has good training programs.”
Noelle, from Miami-based Gaumard Scientific Co. Inc., is used in most of Kaiser’s 30 hospitals nationwide, and other hospitals are putting in orders. The Northwest Physicians Insurance Co. is sponsoring similar training programs in 22 hospitals in Oregon and Idaho, rolling out Noelle initially at five of them.
Accident Likely in Deaths of Wisconsin Boys
MILWAUKEE – Two boys missing for almost a month apparently drowned in an icy park lagoon near where they were last seen, and authorities said Saturday foul play was not suspected.
Purvis Virginia Parker, 11, and Quadrevion Henning, 12, disappeared the afternoon of March 19 after they asked Quadrevion’s grandfather whether they could play basketball at the nearby park.
The bodies were found in the park lagoon on Friday.
Police Chief Nan Hegerty speculated Purvis, who could not swim, fell in first, and Quadrevion, who was a strong swimmer, tried to save him.