Mubarak sentenced to life in prison

Mubarak sentenced to life in prison

cairo

Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that ousted him, offering his opponents a measure of justice. But he and his two sons were acquitted of corruption in a verdict that did not satisfy public demands for accountability after what the chief judge called 30 years of “darkness” under the old regime.

The mixed ruling set off street protests, and by nightfall, a large crowd of up to 10,000 was back in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the uprising, to vent anger over the acquittals.

Study: ‘Smart bomb’ attacks breast cancer

chicago

Doctors have successfully dropped the first “smart bomb” on breast cancer, using a drug to deliver a toxic payload to tumor cells while leaving healthy ones alone.

In a key test involving nearly 1,000 women with very advanced disease, the experimental treatment extended by several months the time women lived without their cancer getting worse, doctors planned to report today at a cancer conference in Chicago.

More importantly, the treatment seems likely to improve survival; it will take more time to know for sure. After two years, 65 percent of women who received it were still alive versus 47 percent of those in a comparison group given two standard cancer drugs.

A warning to hopeful patients: The drug is still experimental, so it is not available yet. Its backers hope it can reach the market within a year.

AP ‘napalm girl’ photo turns 40

trang bang, vietnam

In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing “Too hot! Too hot!” as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village. She will always be naked after blobs of sticky napalm melted through her clothes and layers of skin like jellied lava.

It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut to snap the iconic black-and-white image 40 years ago. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history.

It was a moment captured in the chaos of war that would be both her savior and her curse on a journey to understand life’s plan for her.

“I really wanted to escape from that little girl,” says Kim Phuc, now 49. “But it seems to me that the picture didn’t let me go.”

Plane crash kills at least 10 in Ghana

accra, ghana

A Boeing 727 cargo plane attempting to land at the international airport in Ghana’s capital crashed Saturday, slamming into a bus loaded with passengers on a nearby street, killing all 10 people inside the vehicle, emergency responders and airport officials said.

The crash occurred in Accra near Kotoka International Airport, which sits near newly built high-rise buildings and hotels.

NATO rescues 4

kabul, afghanistan

It was a risky but successful operation: British and other NATO forces stormed a cave tucked in the mountains before dawn Saturday and rescued two female foreign aid workers and their two Afghan colleagues being held hostage by Taliban-linked militants.

Helen Johnston, 28, from Britain, and Moragwa Oirere, 26, from Kenya, and their two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped May 22 while traveling on horseback in Badakhshan province.

Associated Press