Iraq violence subsides

hIraq violence subsides

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Violence in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City subsided Sunday as a deal took hold to end fighting between Shiite militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi forces. But U.S. military officials and militia commanders said that a truce had not yet been reached, underscoring the fragility of the agreement.

Senior commanders of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia said in interviews that they had not yet received orders to stand down from Sadr or his top aides in the southern holy city of Najaf. They added that any truce would not last long given the current climate of mistrust, deepened by recent weeks of bloodshed in Sadr City, where an estimated 2 million people live.

Silent march in Mexico

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Thousands of white-clad people marched silently Sunday to protest a surge of drug -related violence in a Mexican city across from Texas where the No. 2 police officer was shot dead.

The crowd of several thousand students, church leaders, businessmen and politicians walked for about four miles across Ciudad Juarez to a park near a border crossing, breaking the silence in a burst of speeches, dancing and singing.

Hundreds strip — for art

VIENNA, Austria — The man behind the camera had three requests for his subjects: no sunglasses, no smiling, and no underwear.

The latest work by New York photographer Spencer Tunick gathered 1,840 people, baring it all in Austria’s Happel Stadium on Sunday.

“Stay very still. Don’t move,” the Austria Press Agency quoted Tunick as telling the crowd as he went to work.

Much of the hours-long photo shoot had little to do with soccer, with naked volunteers assuming different poses at the behest of the artist.

Many flee Fla. wildfires

MALABAR, Fla. — Brush fires forced residents to flee more than 100 homes in central Florida on Saturday and closed a major interstate, authorities said.

A fire near Cocoa had burned more than 100 acres and forced evacuations of about 100 to 200 homes, Brevard County Fire and Rescue spokesman Orlando Dominguez said.

Heavy smoke from another fire in the Brevard community of Malabar forced authorities to close part of Interstate 95, the major East Coast corridor.

Collision kills 6 on I-90

DETROIT — A minivan carrying a group of Indian computer programmers and their wives on the way to a Niagara Falls vacation flipped and crashed in western Pennsylvania, killing six of seven people on board, officials say.

The programmers worked for Troy-based Syntel Inc., an information technology contract services provider.

The van crossed a median on Interstate 90 and was hit by an oncoming car about 4 p.m. Saturday, police say. They said it was about three miles inside the Pennsylvania-Ohio border in Erie County when it crossed the highway and began flipping and rolling, coming to rest on its roof.

It was then struck by an oncoming westbound car, whose driver was treated at a hospital and released Saturday night, said Pennsylvania state police Cpl. Kevin Havern.

Study: Few watch 401(k)

NEW YORK — Despite extensive efforts to educate workers about saving for retirement, many employees are not doing a good job of managing their company-sponsored 401(k) accounts, a new study indicates.

The analysis of nearly 1 million retirement portfolios found that 69 percent have inappropriate risk or diversification of holdings and 36 percent have worrisome concentrations of company stock. In addition, one-third of savers aren’t putting enough aside to qualify for the full company matching contribution.

Combined dispatches