Car bombs kill 51

Car bombs kill 51

BAGHDAD

A string of car bombs tore through busy shopping streets in several Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday night, killing 51 people as the army announced that one of its airstrikes had killed 60 militants in the city of Mosul.

Baghdad police said the first attack was a pair of car bombs that exploded in the densely populated Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing 31 people, followed by another bomb in the nearby area of Ur that claimed another 11 lives. Nine more people were killed in the southeast of the city shortly afterward by two more car bombs.

Census: Almost 10M changed their race

WASHINGTON

Nearly 10 million Americans decided they would be a different race or ethnicity in the early 2000s, with the largest movement coming from Hispanics deciding which racial category they should be in, a new census report showed Wednesday.

People switched between races, moved from multiple races to a single race or back, or decided to add or drop Hispanic ethnicity from their identifiers on census forms. Researchers said the information used — race, ethnicity, sex, age, location and how the information was gathered — is not particularly helpful for figuring out why people decided to make those changes.

Study ties new gene to breast-cancer risk

It’s long been known that faulty BRCA genes greatly raise the risk for breast cancer. Now scientists say a more recently identified, less-common gene can do the same. Mutations in the gene can make breast cancer up to nine times more likely to develop, an international team of researchers reports in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

About 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are thought to be due to bad BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Beyond those, many other genes are thought to play a role but how much each one raises risk has not been known, said Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel, a genetics expert at City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.

The new study on the gene — called PALB2 — shows “this one is serious,” and probably is the most dangerous in terms of breast cancer after the BRCA genes, said Weitzel, one of leaders of the study.

Russia to block US agricultural imports

MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hit back hard against countries that have imposed sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, ordering trade cuts that an official said would include a ban on all imports of agricultural products from the United States.

The full list of products to be banned or limited for up to one year is to be published today. But the state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Alexei Alexeenko of Russia’s plant and veterinary oversight service as saying “from the USA, all products that are produced there and brought to Russia will be prohibited.”

Space probe swings alongside comet

DARMSTADT, Germany

An unmanned probe swung alongside a comet Wednesday after a 4-billion mile chase through outer space over a decade.

Europe’s Rosetta probe will orbit and study the giant lump of dust and ice as it hurtles toward the sun and, if all goes according to plan, drop a lander onto the comet in coming months.

Rosetta turned up as planned for its rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The trip, launched March 2, 2004, marks a milestone in mankind’s effort to understand the mysterious “shooting stars” that periodically flash past Earth.

Associated Press