ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE KILLS TWO

Israeli airstrike kills two
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip -- In the second botched Israeli airstrike in Gaza in two days, two people were killed and 13 were wounded when a missile hit a house Wednesday, just hours after grieving and angry Palestinians buried three children killed in a previous attack. Militants vowed revenge, and Israelis debated the effectiveness of airstrikes that target militants but are taking a mounting toll on innocent Palestinians. In Wednesday's attack, Israeli aircraft targeted militants in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis but hit a house instead, killing a man and a woman and wounding at least 13 people, including five children, according to hospital officials. The dead woman was identified as Fatma Abdel Khader, 35. The man, visiting from Saudi Arabia, was identified as Zakaria Ahmed, 45. The missile blew a hole in a wall of the one-story concrete block shack. A pool of blood covered part of the kitchen floor of the stricken house.
Military convoys attacked
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Attacks on two military convoys Wednesday in southern Afghanistan left one dead and 13 wounded -- including six Canadian soldiers -- and the U.S.-led coalition warned that "significant fighting" lies ahead. A suicide attacker detonated his explosives-filled car near a military convoy in the city of Kandahar, killing one and wounding nine, Afghan and coalition officials said. The troops were on their way back from a patrol in a light-armored vehicle when they were hit by the attacker's car around 7:30 p.m., said coalition spokesman Maj. Quentin Innis. Two Canadian soldiers were injured and the attacker was killed, he said. In addition, an Afghan bystander was killed and seven others injured, including one policeman and six civilians who were taken to Mir Wais Hospital, said Dr. Aziz Khan.
GOP affects renewalof Voting Rights Act
WASHINGTON -- Renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which eliminated many anti-black voting practices, suffered a setback Wednesday when House Republicans disagreed on whether to require bilingual ballots and federal oversight of Southern states. The dissension in a closed caucus meeting grew so intense it forced Republican leaders to postpone indefinitely a scheduled vote on renewing the act. It was the second time in just over a week that House GOP leaders stalled action on priorities -- immigration overhaul was the other -- on their election-year agenda. On the voting rights bill, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and three other leaders only promised a vote on the renewal "as soon as possible." The uncertainty in the House led Senate schedulers to hold off on a plan to advance an identical bill next week.
Study: Condoms offerprotection against virus
For the first time, scientists have proof that condoms offer women impressive protection against the virus that causes cervical cancer. A three-year study of female college students -- all virgins at the start -- found that women whose partners always wore a condom during sex were 70 percent less likely to become infected with the human papilloma virus, or HPV, than those whose partners used protection less than 5 percent of the time. "That's pretty awesome. There aren't too many times when you can have an intervention that would offer so much protection," said Dr. Patricia Kloser, an infectious-disease specialist at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who was not part of the study. Condoms have been shown convincingly to prevent pregnancy and AIDS. But conservatives who want to see abstinence taught in schools have long argued that condoms do not protect well against diseases such as HPV, because men can spread the virus to women from sores on their genitals outside the area covered by a condom.
Space shuttle launch
WASHINGTON -- The decision to press ahead with the launch of space shuttle Discovery next month without fixing the foam problem came down to whether six months would be too long to wait for repairs, NASA's chief engineer said Wednesday. Chief Engineer Christopher Scolese said that during a meeting of top NASA officials over the weekend, he wanted to fix the problem first and launch later. He estimated the job would take six months, which he called "a reasonably short amount of time." But those in favor of a July 1 liftoff worried that a six-month delay would not leave enough time to launch all the shuttles necessary to finish the space station by 2010, Scolese said Wednesday in a teleconference with reporters. Ultimately, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin decided to go ahead with a launch. The debate concerned the risks of foam flying off the shuttle's massive external fuel tank and potentially punching a hole in the spacecraft's protective skin. Falling foam blew a hole in Columbia in 2003, causing the shuttle to disintegrate during re-entry and killing seven astronauts.
Associated Press