AP - Two car bombs exploded near the interior minister's offices Thursday, killing 18 people and wounding three dozen. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blasts, the latest in several weeks of stepped up attacks that followed a relative lull in violence in mid-March.
AP - Starting Thursday, air travelers will have to leave their lighters at home. Unlike guns, knives and other dangerous items that a passenger cannot carry aboard but may stow in checked bags, lighters are banned everywhere on a plane.
AP - Bankruptcy legislation that could make it impossible for thousands of people to wipe away their debts neared passage by Congress Thursday as opponents in the House warned that it would hurt the economically vulnerable.
More than 10,000 fugitives from justice have been captured in a nationwide, weeklong dragnet, law enforcement sources say. In one case, an armed man was found in a cave under a trap door in his kitchen floor. "We're really amazed. We had no idea we'd apprehend more than 10,000 bad guys," said one federal law enforcement official who asked not to be identified.
For the first time, an American businessman and company have been indicted in a federal investigation of the United Nations' Iraq oil-for-food program, law enforcement sources said Thursday.
Two suicide car bombs targeting an Iraqi police convoy exploded almost simultaneously today killing eleven people and wounding 37 in southern Baghdad, Iraqi police said. Meanwhile in Kirkuk, gunmen attacked a police station and killed three Iraqi police officers. A police official said most of the casualties were civilians, although some police officers were among them.