BAGHDAD (AP) ? A car bomb exploded as Sunni worshippers were leaving a mosque after evening prayers Tuesday in Baghdad, the deadliest in a string of attacks that killed at least 20 people nationwide in a week of the most sustained sectarian violence in the country since U.S. troops withdrew more than a year ago.
Rising tensions between Sunnis and the Shiite-led government have burst into a new round of bloodshed with 279 people killed since last week and scenes reminiscent of some of the worst carnage during the days when the two Islamic sects battled each other as well as U.S.-led forces in the chaotic years after Saddam Hussein's ouster.
The violence has raised fears the country is sliding back to the brink of civil war amid rising Sunni anger over perceived mistreatment at the hands of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and dangerous spillover from Syria's civil war next door, which pits mainly Sunni rebels against Syrian President Bashar Assad, a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters in Washington that the U.S. administration was "deeply concerned by the frequency and the nature of recent attacks." U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington were in contact with a wide range of senior Iraqi leaders "to urge calm and help resolve ongoing political and sectarian tensions," he said Monday.
The explosion targeting the worshippers occurred in the western neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, the site of the infamous prison of the same name, killing 10 people and wounding 21, according to police and hospital officials. A bomb also targeted a tea house in Baghdad's mainly Sunni southern Dora neighborhood, killing three people and wounding 14, two police officers and a medical official said.
Several smaller attacks struck areas elsewhere in the country earlier Tuesday.
A suicide bomber set off his explosives-laden vest at a military checkpoint in the town of Tarmiyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad. The blast was followed by militants who opened fire at the Iraqi troops, killing three soldiers and wounding nine, a police official said.
In the northern city of Tuz Khormato, two parked car bombs went off simultaneously, killing three civilians and wounding 38 people, said Mayor Shalal Abdool. The town is about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of the Iraqi capital.
And in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, three bombs exploded back-to-back at a sheep market, killing one person and wounding 25, police Col. Taha Salaheddin said.
Authorities also raised the death toll from Monday's wave of bloodshed ? a series of blitz attacks stretching from north of Baghdad to the southern city of Basra and targeting bus stops, open-air markets and rush-hour crowds ? to 113 after many of the wounded died of their injuries. That made it the deadliest single day since July 23, 2012, when attacks aimed largely at security forces killed 115.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but such systematic carnage carries the hallmarks of the two sides that brought nearly nonstop chaos to Iraq for years: Sunni insurgents, including al-Qaida's branch in Iraq, and Shiite militias defending their newfound power after Saddam's fall.
Hours after Monday's stunning bombings, al-Maliki accused militant groups of trying to exploit Iraq's political instability and vowed to resist attempts to "bring back the atmosphere of the sectarian war."
Under Saddam, Iraq's Sunni minority held a privileged position, while the Shiites were largely oppressed. But since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam, those dynamics have been flipped.
Many Sunnis contend that much of the country's current turmoil is rooted in the policies of al-Maliki's government, which they accuse of feeding sectarian tension by becoming more aggressive toward the minority community after the U.S. military withdrawal in December 2011.
Protests by Sunnis, which began in December amid anger over alleged random detentions and neglect, have largely been peaceful. However, the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23.
We gasped our way through the liveblog. We brought you news of the specs and the software and everything else. But now it's time to take a deep dive into the Xbox One, Microsoft's next-gen console, and what it might mean for Earth's living rooms. Engadget was given exclusive access to the hallowed labs at the heart of this project and to the engineers who made it happen. We got to play with prototypes of the hardware and to discover firsthand whether Kinect 2.0 really can tell if we're winking. Read on past the break and we promise to spare you no detail.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry challenged Congress on Monday to go beyond its investigations of embassy security and help ensure that U.S. embassies and consulates abroad have the resources they need for appropriate security. His comments come as the Republicans continue to press for answers about the Obama administration's handling of last year's deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
Speaking to State Department trainees at the Foreign Service Institute, Kerry said the administration would spare no expense or effort to protect American diplomats overseas. However, in a sign of frustration with congressional Republicans who have suggested the administration is trying to cover up alleged malfeasance related to the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack, he said lawmakers must play a part in mitigating the risks that diplomats take.
"We need to hold all of our elected officials accountable for making these efforts a priority," he said. "And that includes the Congress. This is a Congress that reminds us all the time they that are a co-equal branch of the federal government. And they should, because they are. But that means Congress needs to play a role on the world stage as well; not just investigating, but leading."
Congress, Kerry said, must provide "the resources and the support and the investments that make the risks that we take today worthwhile."
His comments follow a similar call that President Barack Obama made last week when he complained that persistent Republican-led investigations into Benghazi were a "sideshow" and urged lawmakers to provide more money to strengthen security at U.S. diplomatic missions around the world. The State Department is seeking about $1.4 billion for increased security; the money would come primarily from funds that haven't been spent in Iraq.
Since the Benghazi attack, Democrats have complained that Republicans cut $300 million from the Obama administration's budget request of $2.6 billion for diplomatic and embassy security in 2012. Republicans have said such allegations are unfair.
Kerry said Monday the administration is fully committed to implementing, and expanding upon, the recommendations of an independent review board that investigated the Benghazi attack and sharply criticized the State Department for not providing adequate security at the missions. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack.
But Kerry pointed out that the risks to American officials abroad are not new and will not go away.
"The dangers of diplomacy are not unique to this moment in time: our diplomatic missions didn't become dangerous that night in Benghazi," he said, noting that most of the 244 diplomats honored on plaques at the State Department were killed in the line of duty long before Benghazi.
Kerry said the risks can never be eliminated, but they can and will be mitigated because America's national security interests demand diplomatic outreach even in the most dangerous places.
"If we are going to bring light to the world, we have to go where it is dark," he said.
Contact: Evan Lerner elerner@upenn.edu 215-573-6604 University of Pennsylvania
A team of University of Pennsylvania engineers has used a pattern of nanoantennas to develop a new way of turning infrared light into mechanical action, opening the door to more sensitive infrared cameras and more compact chemical-analysis techniques.
The research was conducted by assistant professor Ertugrul Cubukcu and postdoctoral researcher Fei Yi, along with graduate students Hai Zhu and Jason C. Reed, all of the Department of Material Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science.
It was published in the journal Nano Letters.
Detecting light in the mid-infrared range is important for applications like night-vision cameras, but it can also be used to do spectroscopy, a technique that involves scattering light over a substance to infer its chemical composition. Existing infrared detectors use cryogenically cooled semiconductors, or thermal detectors known as microbolometers, in which changes in electrical resistance can be correlated to temperatures. These techniques have their own advantages, but both need expensive, bulky equipment to be sensitive enough for spectroscopy applications.
"We set out to make an optomechanical thermal infrared detector," Cubukcu said. "Rather than changes in resistance, our detector works by connecting mechanical motion to changes in temperature."
The advantage to this approach is that it could reduce the footprint of an infrared sensing device to something that would fit on a disposable silicon chip. The researchers fabricated such a device in their study.
At the core of the device is a nanoscale structure about a tenth of a millimeter wide and five times as long made of a layer of gold bonded to a layer of silicon nitride. The researchers chose these materials because of their different thermal expansion coefficients, a parameter that determines how much a material will expand when heated. Because metals will naturally convert some energy from infrared light into heat, researchers can connect the amount the material expands to the amount of infrared light hitting it.
"A single layer would expand laterally, but our two layers are constrained because they're attached to one another," Cubukcu said. "The only way they can expand is in the third dimension. In this case, that means bending toward the gold side, since gold has the higher thermal expansion coefficient and will expand more."
To measure this movement, the researchers used a fiber interferometer. A fiber optic cable pointed upward at this system bounces light off the underside of the silicon nitride layer, enabling the researchers to determine how far the structure has bent upwards.
"We can tell how far the bottom layer has moved based on this reflected light," Cubukcu said. "We can even see displacements that are thousands of times smaller than a hydrogen atom."
Other researchers have developed optomechanical infrared sensors based on this principle, but their sensitivities have been comparatively low. The Penn team's device is an improvement in this regard due to the inclusion of "slot" nanoantennas, cavities that are etched into the gold layer at intervals that correspond to wavelengths of mid-infrared light.
"The infrared radiation is concentrated into the slots, so you don't need any additional material to make these antennas," Cubukcu said. "We take the same exact platform and, by patterning it with these nanoscale antennas, the conversion efficiency of the detector improves 10 times."
The inclusion of nanoantennas provides the device with an additional advantage: the ability to tailor which type of light it is sensitive to by etching a different pattern of slots on the surface.
"Other techniques can only work at the maximum absorption determined by the material itself," Yi said. "Our antennas can be engineered to absorb at any wavelength."
While only a proof-of-concept at this stage, future research will demonstrate the device's capabilities as a low-cost way of analyzing individual proteins and gas molecules.
###
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Penn's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Penn's Nano/Bio Interface Center and the Penn Regional Nanotechnology Facility.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Evan Lerner elerner@upenn.edu 215-573-6604 University of Pennsylvania
A team of University of Pennsylvania engineers has used a pattern of nanoantennas to develop a new way of turning infrared light into mechanical action, opening the door to more sensitive infrared cameras and more compact chemical-analysis techniques.
The research was conducted by assistant professor Ertugrul Cubukcu and postdoctoral researcher Fei Yi, along with graduate students Hai Zhu and Jason C. Reed, all of the Department of Material Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science.
It was published in the journal Nano Letters.
Detecting light in the mid-infrared range is important for applications like night-vision cameras, but it can also be used to do spectroscopy, a technique that involves scattering light over a substance to infer its chemical composition. Existing infrared detectors use cryogenically cooled semiconductors, or thermal detectors known as microbolometers, in which changes in electrical resistance can be correlated to temperatures. These techniques have their own advantages, but both need expensive, bulky equipment to be sensitive enough for spectroscopy applications.
"We set out to make an optomechanical thermal infrared detector," Cubukcu said. "Rather than changes in resistance, our detector works by connecting mechanical motion to changes in temperature."
The advantage to this approach is that it could reduce the footprint of an infrared sensing device to something that would fit on a disposable silicon chip. The researchers fabricated such a device in their study.
At the core of the device is a nanoscale structure about a tenth of a millimeter wide and five times as long made of a layer of gold bonded to a layer of silicon nitride. The researchers chose these materials because of their different thermal expansion coefficients, a parameter that determines how much a material will expand when heated. Because metals will naturally convert some energy from infrared light into heat, researchers can connect the amount the material expands to the amount of infrared light hitting it.
"A single layer would expand laterally, but our two layers are constrained because they're attached to one another," Cubukcu said. "The only way they can expand is in the third dimension. In this case, that means bending toward the gold side, since gold has the higher thermal expansion coefficient and will expand more."
To measure this movement, the researchers used a fiber interferometer. A fiber optic cable pointed upward at this system bounces light off the underside of the silicon nitride layer, enabling the researchers to determine how far the structure has bent upwards.
"We can tell how far the bottom layer has moved based on this reflected light," Cubukcu said. "We can even see displacements that are thousands of times smaller than a hydrogen atom."
Other researchers have developed optomechanical infrared sensors based on this principle, but their sensitivities have been comparatively low. The Penn team's device is an improvement in this regard due to the inclusion of "slot" nanoantennas, cavities that are etched into the gold layer at intervals that correspond to wavelengths of mid-infrared light.
"The infrared radiation is concentrated into the slots, so you don't need any additional material to make these antennas," Cubukcu said. "We take the same exact platform and, by patterning it with these nanoscale antennas, the conversion efficiency of the detector improves 10 times."
The inclusion of nanoantennas provides the device with an additional advantage: the ability to tailor which type of light it is sensitive to by etching a different pattern of slots on the surface.
"Other techniques can only work at the maximum absorption determined by the material itself," Yi said. "Our antennas can be engineered to absorb at any wavelength."
While only a proof-of-concept at this stage, future research will demonstrate the device's capabilities as a low-cost way of analyzing individual proteins and gas molecules.
###
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Penn's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Penn's Nano/Bio Interface Center and the Penn Regional Nanotechnology Facility.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Here?s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I?ve read over the past week.
One Child?s Autism Eliminated by Removal of Glutamate From Her Diet
This is one of the most amazing things I?ve ever read. By changing this child?s diet, her severe case of autism has been reversed, she has caught up to children of her own age and she shows no signs of ever even having the condition. If you know someone with an autistic child, show them this article.
My Medical Choice by Angelina Jolie
Can you believe that Angelina Jolie was able to get a preventive double mastectomy without anybody finding out? She underwent the procedure before actually having breast cancer, but decided that it was the right choice for her and her family since she has a gene mutation that gives her an 87 percent risk of getting it. What an amazing, and drastic, decision she made. I?m not sure how I feel about it. I feel that cancer is caused by the things that are introduced to our bodies ? pesticides, food dyes, molds, pollution, and so on ? and I think there are better ways of preventing cancer than removing parts of our bodies.
Coaching the Sumo Deadlift
Great tips on pulling sumo deadlifts. The author doesn?t mention much about why sumo?s are better than conventional but he does mention that one of his lifters was at a standstill for a year before trying sumo?s and then reached a PR shortly after switching.
Sleep: What the Research Actually Says
Poor sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity, suppress testosterone, may decrease workout performance and could cause overeating. There are some cool geeky tips here on fixing your sleep so that you won?t suffer any of those things.
Non-smoking hotel rooms still expose occupants to tobacco smoke
Looks like choosing a non-smoking room in a hotel that allows smoking isn?t good enough to prevent high exposure to tobacco pollutants, so if you?re traveling, choose a non-smoking hotel.
Simple Squat Correction
I?m constantly messing with my form trying to find something that feels right for me and I can say from experience that what Brett talks about here works. I?ve used the ?poor? form he shows many times and it really screws with my knees. The ?correct? form he demonstrates feels much more natural to me and allows me to get into a deeper position easier.
The Wii game that shows the greatest potential as a cardiovascular fitness tool
Do you like to workout with video games? If you?re looking for a fun game that can provide good cardio benefit, it looks like Wii Sports boxing is your answer. I must admit, Wii Sports Boxing is a lot of fun!
Don?t Swing Your Kids By the Arms, Please
It?s common to see people swinging their kids around by the arms, but that?s because they don?t realize the potential to dislocate their child?s shoulders or cause damage to their arms, elbows and shoulders, which may show in their later years. Luckily for me, my dad swung me and my brother around in King Soopers bags
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court says a woman can seek lawyers' fees from the government even though her lawsuit over damage she said was caused by a vaccine was ruled untimely.
The high court on Monday ruled for Melissa Cloer, who wanted lawyers' fees for her lawsuit over damage she says was caused by hepatitis B vaccines. Shortly after finishing the vaccine, she started having symptoms of what was later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. Cloer sued, but courts said her lawsuit was too late.
Cloer then filed for more than $118,000 in lawyers' fees, but government officials said she shouldn't get anything.
The justices disagreed, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that even unsuccessful petitions under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act can get attorneys' fees if they are "brought in good faith and (for which) there was a reasonable basis."
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea fired short-range projectiles into its own eastern waters Monday for a third straight day, Seoul officials said. The North said it was bolstering deterrence against enemy attack.
North Korea regularly conducts short-range missile tests. Analysts say the recent launches appear to be weapons tests or an attempt to get U.S. and South Korean attention amid tentative signs of diplomacy after soaring tensions that followed U.N. sanctions aimed at a North Korean nuclear test in February.
The two projectiles fired by North Korea on Monday had similar trajectories as four previous launches over the past two days, according to officials at Seoul's Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff. Officials were analyzing whether the projectiles were missiles or rockets fired from a large-caliber gun North Korea may be developing, the officials said on condition of anonymity citing department rules.
Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters earlier Monday that South Korea is taking seriously whatever weapons North Korea develops because it could attack the South. He said artillery guns with a larger caliber will likely have more destructive power.
South Korea urged North Korea to behave responsibly, while the U.S. said threats or provocations would only further deepen the North's international isolation.
North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea on Monday called South Korean and U.S. criticism an "intolerable challenge" that is deepening tension. It said it conducted "rocket launching tests" on Saturday and Sunday as part of drills to bolster deterrence against what it calls U.S. and South Korean plots to launch nuclear strikes against North Korea. It didn't comment on Monday's firing.
North Korea has a variety of missiles but Seoul and Washington don't believe the country has mastered the technology needed to make nuclear warheads small and light enough to be placed on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.
The Korean Peninsula officially remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
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Public release date: 20-May-2013
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