KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bombing tore through a U.S. convoy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people including six Americans in a blast so powerful it rattled the other side of the Afghan capital. U.S. soldiers rushed to help, some wearing only T-shirts or shorts under their body armor. A Muslim militant group claimed responsibility for the morning rush hour attack, saying it was carried out by a new suicide unit formed in response to reports that the U.S. plans to keep bases and troops in Afghanistan even after the 2014 deadline for the end of the foreign combat mission. The group, Hizb-e-Islami, said its fighters had stalked the Americans for a week to learn their routine before striking — a claim which raises questions about U.S. security procedures. Two children were among nine Afghan civilians killed in the attack. (read more at Kennebec Journal)
CHICAGO — As the guitarist strums and softly sings a lullaby in Spanish, tiny Augustin Morales stops squirming in his hospital crib and closes his eyes. This is therapy in a newborn intensive care unit, and research suggests that music may help those born way too soon adapt to life outside the womb. Some tiny preemies are too small and fragile to be held and comforted by human touch, and many are often fussy and show other signs of stress. Other common complications include immature lungs, eye disease, problems with sucking, and sleeping and alertness difficulties. Recent studies and anecdotal reports suggest the vibrations and soothing rhythms of music, especially performed live in the hospital, might benefit preemies and other sick babies. (read more at Kennebec Journal)
AMSTERDAM — Willem-Alexander became the first Dutch king in more than a century Tuesday as his mother, Beatrix, abdicated after 33 years as queen. The generational change in the House of Orange-Nassau gave the Netherlands a moment of celebration, pageantry and brief respite as this trading nation of nearly 17 million struggles through a lengthy recession brought on by the European economic crisis. Visibly emotional, the much-loved Beatrix ended her reign in a nationally televised signing ceremony as thousands of orange-clad people cheered outside. Millions more were expected to watch on television. King Willem-Alexander gripped his mother’s hand and looked briefly into her eyes after they both signed the abdication document in the Royal Palace on downtown Amsterdam’s Dam Square. Beatrix looked close to tears as she then appeared on a balcony overlooking some 20,000 of her subjects. “I am happy and grateful to introduce to you your new king, Willem-Alexander,” she told the cheering crowd, which chanted: “Bea bedankt” (“Thanks Bea.”) (read more at Kennebec Journal)
BOSTON — The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by a radical brand of Islam but do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, U.S. officials said Monday after interrogating and charging Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with crimes that could bring the death penalty. Tsarnaev, 19, was charged in his hospital room, where he was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway. His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died Friday after a fierce gunbattle with police. The Massachusetts college student was charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. He was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 200 a week ago. The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the U.S. for about a decade, practiced Islam. (read more at Kennebec Journal)
BOSTON — Authorities investigating the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon have recovered a piece of circuit board that they believe was part of one of the explosive devices, and also found the lid of a pressure cooker that apparently was catapulted onto the roof of a nearby building, an official said Wednesday. A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirmed to The Associated Press that authorities have recovered what they believe are some of the pieces of the explosive devices. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to publicly discuss evidence in the ongoing investigation. A person close to the investigation previously told AP the bombs consisted of explosives put in 1.6-gallon pressure cookers, one with shards of metal and ball bearings, the other with nails. (read more at Kennebec Journal)
BOSTON – Two bombs exploded Monday in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing at least three people and injuring more than 140 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs. A White House official called the explosions an act of terror. “Any event with multiple explosive devices — as this appears to be — is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. At the White House, President Obama vowed that those responsible will “feel the full weight of justice.” The fiery twin blasts took place about 10 seconds and about 100 yards apart, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending dense plumes of smoke rising over the street and through the fluttering national flags lining the route. (read more at Portland Press Herald)
LONDON — The eurozone economy has passed another bleak milestone. Official figures Tuesday showed that unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro has struck 12 percent for the first time since the currency was launched in 1999. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said the rate in February was unchanged at the record high after January’s figure was revised up to 12 percent from 11.9 percent. Spain and Greece have mass unemployment and many other countries are seeing their numbers swell to uncomfortably high levels. A total of 19.07 million people were officially out of work in the eurozone in February, nearly two million more than the same month the year before. For the 27-country European Union, of which the eurozone is a large part, the unemployment rate was 10.9 percent. (read more at Kennebec Journal)
Tragedy struck in north Bryan County on Wednesday afternoon when a toddler was mauled and killed by seven dogs, all pit bulls or pit bull mixes, in her backyard off Elm Road. According to Bryan County Deputy Sheriff James Beatty, a 6:24 p.m. call to 911 reported the girl’s grandmother woke up, looked out the back window, saw it happening, and along with others rushed outside to pull the dogs off the child, but it was too late. “When we got here and spoke to EMS, they told us that when they got here, she was already cold. There was nothing they could do,” Beatty said. Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith said the coldness of the body indicated to him the child had to have been dead for a while. How the girl, who would have been 2 years old in June, got into the backyard with the dogs was not immediately known. (read more at Savannah Now)
CLEVELAND — With a snow storm expected to batter the Plains, Midwest and East Coast this weekend, a spring-deprived Ohio prosecutor is taking out his frustration with the long winter on a famous prognosticating groundhog. “I decided it was about time we indicted Punxsutawney Phil for fraud,” said Mike Gmoser, prosecutor in Ohio’s Butler County, in an interview Friday. When he emerged from his burrow in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania, Phil did not see his shadow, leading to a forecast of an early spring. Gmoser’s mock indictment contends that the forecast was fraudulent. The rodent is being charged with a single mock felony count of “misrepresentation of early spring,” which Gmoser said should be punishable by death. Tom Kines, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, said he understands why Gmoser and his fellow Ohioans might be inclined to take out their frustrations on the groundhog. “The mid-Atlantic and upper Midwest have been experiencing record-coldest high temperatures, which means that the high temperatures have never been so cold,” said Kines. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
VATICAN CITY — Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the troubled Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, taking the name Francis I and becoming the first non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years. Pope Francis, 76, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica just over an hour after white smoke poured from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to signal 115 cardinal electors had chosen him to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. “Pray for me,” the new pontiff, dressed in the white robes of a pope for the first time, urged the crowd, smiling warmly. The choice of Bergoglio, who is the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, was announced by French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran with the Latin words “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam” (“I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope.”). (read more at Bangor Daily News)
KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bombing tore through a U.S. convoy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people including six Americans in a blast so powerful it rattled the other side of the Afghan capital. U.S. soldiers rushed to help, some wearing only T-shirts or shorts under their body armor. A Muslim militant group claimed responsibility for the morning rush hour attack, saying it was carried out by a new suicide unit formed in response to reports that the U.S. plans to keep bases and troops in Afghanistan even after the 2014 deadline for the end of the foreign combat mission. The group, Hizb-e-Islami, said its fighters had stalked the Americans for a week to learn their routine before striking — a claim which raises questions about U.S. security procedures. Two children were among nine Afghan civilians killed in the attack. (read more at Kennebec Journal)
