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Doctors may have to check citizenship

PHOENIX

Republican lawmakers want to widen Arizona’s illegal-immigration crackdown with a proposal to require hospitals to check on whether patients are in the country illegally, causing outrage among medical professionals who fear becoming de facto immigration agents under the law. The medical industry ripped the bill Monday as it was scheduled for a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Doctors envisioned scenarios in which immigrants with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis would stay home from the clinic or hospital and put themselves and the public at a grave health risk.

Study: Eating fiber could prolong life

CHICAGO

Eat more fiber and you just may live longer.

That’s the message from the largest study of its kind to find a link between high-fiber diets and lower risks of death not only from heart disease but from infectious and respiratory illnesses as well.

The government study also ties fiber with a lower risk of cancer deaths in men, but not women, possibly because men are more likely to die from cancers related to diet, such as cancers of the esophagus. And it finds the overall benefit to be strongest for diets high in fiber from grains.

Mideast protesters meet resistance

CAIRO

Tens of thousands of protesters faced club-wielding security forces Monday in Bahrain, Yemen and Iran in what experts said may be shaping up as a pro- democracy wave ignited by the revolts that drove Egypt and Tunisia’s autocratic rulers from power.

At least one protester was confirmed killed in Bahrain, and there were unconfirmed reports of several deaths and hundreds of arrests in Tehran, where anti-government marchers chanting “death to dictators” staged their largest demonstration in more than a year.

The Obama administration spoke out for the Iranian protesters, in contrast to relatively mild initial statements it issued when unrest erupted there after disputed presidential elections in 2009.

Suicide bomb kills 2 at Afghan mall

KABUL, Afghanistan

A suicide bomber struck Kabul’s first Western-style shopping mall Monday, killing two security guards at the entrance in the second attack in less than a month targeting a site frequented by foreigners and upscale Afghans in the heavily secured capital.

The Ministry of Interior said the bomber detonated his explosives at the gates of the Kabul City Center shopping mall, which also houses the four-star Safi Landmark hotel. Two people were wounded in the blast.

9/11 memorial to have limited access

NEW YORK

The Sept. 11 memorial will open in the World Trade Center’s footprints by the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks, but for years afterward access will be limited to a set number of people, and mourners will be surrounded on all sides by the noise of construction, the memorial foundation president said Monday.

It will be years before the millions of people who want to visit the center have unfettered access to the memorial site, said Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Ultimately, visitors will be able to approach the memorial and its green spaces and cobblestoned plazas from all sides. But for years, visitors will be surrounded by construction of skyscrapers and a transit hub and may use only one entrance, and organizers will observe strict capacity limits for safety reasons, Daniels said.

Combined dispatches