Rise in violence leads to shake-up in Iraqi military

Rise in violence leads to shake-up in Iraqi military

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Western-backed government — facing intense pressure to address security lapses after suicide bombings killed 127 people in the capital — ordered a shake-up Wednesday in the country’s military leadership.

The angry mood that led Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to replace Baghdad’s top military commander reveals a stark psychological shift among Iraqis who once accepted such violence as routine and are now demanding someone pay a political price.

Al-Maliki appealed for Iraqis to be patient as he signaled more changes might be ahead for security officials. The prime minister was expected to attend a special parliamentary session today, where lawmakers demanded his security ministers answer for lapses that allowed for the attacks.

Marrow transplant cures sickle cell in adults

Researchers have for the first time performed a successful bone-marrow transplant to cure sickle- cell disease in adults, a feat that could expand the procedure to more of the 70,000 Americans with the disease — and possibly some other diseases as well.

About 200 children have been cured of sickle cell with transplants, but the procedure is considered too harsh for adults with severe sickle-cell disease. Now a team from the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University reports in today’s New England Journal of Medicine that it has developed a much less toxic transplant procedure and used it to cure nine of the first 10 patients studied.

Ousted Honduran leader given OK to go to Mexico

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras’ interim government says it has authorized ousted President Manuel Zelaya to leave the country and go to Mexico.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Milton Mateo says the safe- conduct pass was signed and would be delivered to the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya has been holed up since sneaking back into the country Sept. 21.

Survey: Americans mix and match their religion

When it comes to religion, many Americans like the mix-and-match, build-your-own approach.

Large numbers attend services of traditions other than their own and blend Christianity with Eastern and New Age beliefs, a survey finds.

The report Wednesday from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life also shows tremendous growth over the past three decades in the number of Americans who say they have had a religious or mystical experience.

Though the U.S. is an overwhelmingly Christian country, significant minorities say they hold beliefs of the sort found at Buddhist temples or New Age bookstores. Twenty-four percent of those surveyed overall and 22 percent of Christians say they believe in reincarnation, the idea that people will be reborn in this world again and again.

Guinea’s No. 2 man in junta makes speech

CONAKRY, Guinea — The No. 2 of Guinea’s military junta on Wednesday made his first public speech since last week’s assassination attempt on the country’s military strongman.

New footage on state TV showed Gen. Sekouba Konate talking to soldiers during a morning visit to one of the capital’s military barracks.

The nation of 10 million has been essentially without a government since Capt. Moussa “Dadis” Camara was shot by his aide-de-camp last week and evacuated overseas for emergency surgery.

Although a government spokesman has said that Konate is now coordinating the junta’s activities, he repeatedly declined to refer to him as the interim president, sowing fears of a power vacuum.

ACLU loses $19 million in annual donations

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union has lost a quarter of its yearly donations after a major donor cut off $19 million in annual donations because of economic difficulties.

David Gelbaum, a wealthy California conservationist, said he was indefinitely stopping the donations that had made him the New York-based group’s largest anonymous donor.

Gelbaum also announced he was halting some $12 million in yearly gifts to the Sierra Club Foundation and about $50 million a year that he’s been giving to an organization serving veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gelbaum has given a total of $389 million to the groups from 2005 to 2009.

Combined dispatches