Suicide bombs hit military targets

Suicide bombs hit military targets

EL-ARISH, Egypt

In near-simultaneous attacks, a pair of suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden cars into military targets in Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, killing at least nine soldiers and nudging the conflict there closer to a full-blown insurgency.

The bombings in the town of Rafah on the border with the Gaza Strip appear to be a deadly response by insurgents to a military crackdown on their north Sinai hideouts that has reportedly left more than three dozen people dead.

The officials said the remains of the two suicide bombers were recovered. The officials gave a death toll of nine for both attacks but did not say how many were killed in each.

Blasts at Shiite mosque kill 35

baghdad

A suicide attacker staged a double bombing near a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad as worshippers were leaving after evening prayers Wednesday, killing at least 35 in the latest deadly episode of violence to rock the country, according to Iraqi authorities.

A suicide bomber made his way to the gate of the mosque and then blew himself up. Shortly afterward, a car he apparently arrived in exploded nearby, police said.

At least 52 people were wounded, according to police and hospital officials, who confirmed the casualty numbers.

Panel: Schools can arm teachers, staff

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

A state board voted Wednesday to allow 13 school districts in Arkansas to continue using teachers, administrators and other staff as armed guards, despite a warning from the state’s top attorney that the licensing law they relied upon was intended for private businesses.

After initially voting to revoke two districts’ licenses classifying them as private- security firms, the Arkansas Board of Private InvestigatorsSFlband Private Security Agencies decided to allow the schools to keep them for two more years. The panel had voted to suspend the schools’ licenses last month after Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said they shouldn’t have been issued to the schools.

Board members said the two-year reprieve would give the Legislature a chance to look at ways schools could employ their own staff as armed guards.

Study looks at effect of estrogen on men

TV ads tout testosterone treatments for “low T,” but surprising new research shows a different hormone may play a role in less sex drive and more fat as men age. Estrogen — the female hormone — is needed by men, too, and the study gives the first clear evidence that too little of it can cause certain “male menopause” symptoms.

“A lot of things we think are due to testosterone deficiency are actually related to the estrogen deficiency that accompanies it,” said Dr. Joel Finkelstein of Massachusetts General Hospital. He led the U.S.-government funded study, which appears in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Nuke reactor back?

washington

A recent satellite image appears to show North Korea is restarting a plutonium reactor, in a move that could raise renewed international alarm over its nuclear- weapons program, a U.S. research institute said Wednesday. The 5-megawatt reactor at the Nyongbyon nuclear facility was shuttered in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement.

Associated Press