2 car bombs kill 10 people in Iraq

2 car bombs kill 10 people in Iraq

baghdad, iraq

Authorities in Iraq say two separate car bombs inside parking lot of two hotels have killed 10 people in the capital Baghdad.

Police officials say a car bomb exploded in the parking lot of Babil Hotel late Thursday, killing six people and wounding 14 others.

About one minute later, a second car-bomb blast inside the parking lot of Cristal Hotel, formerly Sheraton, killed four people and wounded 13 others.

Medical officials confirmed the casuality figures from both attacks.

Pope joins gallery of murals in Philly

PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia boasts a large and colorful cast of characters painted on buildings across the city – and now Pope Francis will join the crowd.

Officials announced Thursday that hundreds of residents and visitors will help create a mural honoring families and the pontiff, who is scheduled to visit the city for the World Meeting of Families in September.

The multigenerational portrait, titled “The Sacred Now: Faith and Family in the 21st Century,” will show the pope with his arm around a youngster and surrounded by a diverse group of parents and children. Flowers and grapevines will border the triptych, which will span more than 4,000 square feet over three sections of the future St. Malachy school.

Lawyers: Monitor Zimmerman shooter

SANFORD, FLA.

Prosecutors in Florida want a man charged with shooting at George Zimmerman to wear a monitoring device while he is out on bond.

The attorneys filed a motion on Thursday asking a judge to require Matthew Apperson to wear a GPS device.

A police report says Apperson had a fixation on the former neighborhood-watch leader and that Apperson had recently been admitted to a mental institution before his run-in with Zimmerman earlier this month.

A hearing on the matter is set for today.

National Spelling Bee ends in a tie again

OXON HILL, Md.

They couldn’t be rattled. They couldn’t be denied. Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar had worked too hard and come close too many times not to win the National Spelling Bee.

So they shared the title, making history in two different ways. The bee hadn’t ended in a tie for 52 years – until last year. Now it’s happened for an unprecedented two years running.

And Vanya is the first sibling of a past champion to win. Her sister, Kavya, won in 2009.

Vanya’s final word was “scherenschnitte.” After being informed he’d be the co-champion if he got the next word right, Gokul didn’t even bother to ask the definition before spelling “nunatak.”

Boston snow piles are filled with trash

BOSTON

Snow piles from the record-setting New England winter are lingering in the Boston area, even as the weather turns summerlike.

A 75-foot-high snow mound in Boston’s Seaport District has been reduced to a three-story pile of dirt and trash – including bicycles, traffic cones and even half a $5 bill – that remains encrusted in solid ice.

Department of Public Works Commissioner Michael Dennehy told The Boston Globe that the vile pile is “a science experiment waiting to happen.”

Crews have been working for six weeks to clean away the trash as it breaks free from the mound. So far, they have pulled out 85 tons of debris. Dennehy says the pile will be around for weeks, even as the air temperature hits 80.

Associated Press