At least 3,240 civilians died in Iraq during the month of war, including 1,896 in Baghdad alone, according to an investigation by the Associated Press. The count is based on records from 60 of Iraq’s 124 hospitals from March 20 to April 20. However, many of the dead were not taken to hospitals, but were buried by their families or lost beneath the rubble of bombed buildings.
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Lisa Stark writes for abcnews.com that it was more than a piece of foam that caused the Columbia shuttle to disintegrate in space, killing seven astronauts?complacency and the tight budget at NASA did it too.
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Fisherman Larry Mattson caught a lake trout in Michigan’s Traverse Bay that had a computer inside it. It’s not the kind he could use to surf the internet, however, since it’s only the size of a finger. It was put inside the fish by game wardens, and there was also a phone number on a tag on the back of the fish. When Mattson called it, he reached the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.
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Phuong Ly writes in the Washington Post about Maryland eighth graders and best friends Karen, Mary and Kristin, who are real-life “Charlie’s Angels,” helping the FBI bust internet pedophiles. In Operation Innocent Images, FBI agents pose as teenage girls and try to strike up internet conversations with these guys, hoping to catch them. But agents are too old to know what’s “cool,” so they need help from these three, who’ve been teaching agents across the country how to sound like genuine teenage girls. It’s hard though?the first time they gave the FBI agents a quiz, the agents all failed.
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