Pakistani president resigns

Pakistani president resigns

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced Monday that he will resign, just days ahead of impeachment in parliament over attempts by the U.S.-backed leader to impose authoritarian rule on his turbulent nation.

An emotional Musharraf said he wanted to spare Pakistan from a dangerous power struggle.

“I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes,” Musharraf said in a televised address largely devoted to defending his record.

Musharraf dominated Pakistan for years after seizing power in a 1999 military coup, making the country a key strategic ally of the U.S. by supporting the war on terror. But his popularity at home sank and his influence has faded steadily over the past year. He quit the pivotal post of army chief in November and his resignation was widely forecast.

Masked gunmen ambush election workers in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying election workers in southern Iraq on Monday, killing two of them, including an official known for resisting interference by Shiite religious extremists, authorities said.

Also Monday, a suicide car bomber blasted a police checkpoint in the western city of Ramadi, killing seven policemen, an official said.

The two incidents in widely separated parts of the country illustrate the dangers still facing Iraq despite a sharp decline in violence over the past year.

The attack on the bus occurred when gunmen opened fire as their car passed it in the Abu al-Khasib area south of Basra, police and election officials said. A third election employee was wounded.

More doctors checking patients’ vitamin D levels

WASHINGTON — Don’t be surprised if your doctor orders a vitamin D test during your next physical.

Blood tests to check levels of the so-called sunshine vitamin are on the rise as doctors and patients react to headline-grabbing research that suggests having too little may not only hurt your bones — it might increase your risk of certain cancers or heart disease.

But there are problems with deciding next steps: As intriguing as the research is, it’s far from proof that vitamin D really is that powerful. Also, it’s not clear just how much is enough — and megadoses can harm.

Nor are there guidelines on exactly who should be tested, or how. Test during winter, for example, and in much of the country people will harbor considerably less vitamin D than if they were tested in the sunny summer.

Still, “the hope is so high that it will have some effect that everybody’s asking for it,” says Dr. Clifford Rosen of the Maine Medical Center, who is helping government researchers evaluate the research. “It’s pretty much the wild, wild West right now.”

Texas governor supports teachers’ having guns

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Rick Perry indicated Monday that he supports a school district’s decision to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes start this month.

Trustees of the Harrold Independent School District approved a policy change last year to allow employees to carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings.

“There’s a lot of incidents where that would have saved a number of lives,” Perry said after a news conference in Austin.

Texas law outlaws firearms on school campuses unless specific institutions allow them.

District policy requires a teacher carrying a gun to school to have a Texas concealed handgun license, authorization by the district to carry the weapon, training in crisis management and hostile situations and ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricochet.

More tourists evacuated

PHOENIX — Authorities on Monday evacuated more tourists and residents from a remote offshoot of the Grand Canyon where weekend flooding caused by heavy rains and a breached dam nearly washed away some rafters in the rugged gorge.

Rescue crews planned to transport 120 tourists and residents out of Supai Canyon by day’s end, but many people elected to stay, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department. Some 400 Havasupai tribe members live in the village of Supai, which is at the bottom of the canyon.

“By the end of the day, if the weather cooperates, we can probably get all of our tourists out of there,” Blair said.

Helicopters had evacuated about 170 visitors and residents from Supai by Sunday night.

Associated Press