American officials said the civilians were caught in crossfire with militants, but witnesses and some Afghan officials said the troops shot indiscriminately.
Hundreds of American and Iraqi soldiers patrolled the streets and conducted house-to-house searches in Sadr City, a stronghold of Iraq?s largest Shiite militia.
Nobody should underestimate the capacity of Middle East leaders for making bad situations worse. Headlines about the "agreement" in Mecca between President Mahmoud Abbas and the terrorist group Hamas implied that something agreeable had come out of the Saudi initiative to bring them together in a unity government. On the contrary. The terrible result of the weakness of Abbas—a weakness of character and a weakness of his organization—is that the conflict with Israel will torment still another generation of Palestinians. The agreement drove a stake through the heart of the two-state dream, because it left no one with whom the Israelis could make a peaceful settlement.
Vitamin studies always seem to stir controversy, but certainly not visions of death. On that score, last week's report on antioxidant vitamins, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was a doozy. The researchers concluded that people taking the antioxidants vitamins A, its precursor beta carotene, and vitamin E, for whatever reason, at whatever dose, and for however long, may be putting their lives in jeopardy. But before you toss out your vitamin pills, let's examine this alarmist study a little bit closer.
Not so very long ago, fatherhood had a bit of mystery to it. No more. Advances in genetics have made paternity tests one of the simplest and most reliable medical tests ever available. Being able to be 99.99 percent sure has helped fuel the frenzy over the fate of little Dannielynn, the late Anna Nicole Smith's infant daughter, and her four would-be daddies. It also made last week's announcement that DNA samples would be taken from the body of the late soul legend James Brown before burial—to settle new paternity claims—seem almost commonplace.
AP - Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton crossed campaign paths for the first time Sunday as they paid homage to civil rights activists who helped give them the chance to break barriers to the White House.
AP - An explosives-rigged minivan crashed into a convoy of Marines that U.S. officials said also came under fire from militant gunmen Sunday. As many as 10 people were killed and 34 wounded as the convoy made a frenzied escape, and injured Afghans said the Americans fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away.
AP - New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici acknowledged Sunday that he called a federal prosecutor to ask about a criminal investigation, but insisted he never pressured nor threatened his state's U.S. attorney.
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