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BAQOUBA, Iraq - Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of army recruits Tuesday in an Iraqi province where devastating attacks persist despite security improvements in the rest of the country. At least 28 people died, the Iraqi police and military said.

The bombings came ahead of what Iraqi military officials have described as an imminent offensive in troubled Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. The U.S. military says it will support that effort, which they called an enhancement of existing patrols and actions there.

The blasts at the Saad military camp in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala, recalled the scenes of mass terror and grief that were almost a daily routine in previous years. Violence in Iraq is at its lowest level in about four years.

AP Television News footage showed medical staff unloading white body bags from ambulances, soldiers on their knees weeping over slain comrades and the wounded moaning as they lay on gurneys and even on the bloodstained floor of a hospital room.

The explosions killed 28 people and wounded at least 57 recruits, a police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A military officer in Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) from Baghdad, confirmed the death toll and said soldiers were among the casualties. He also spoke on the same anonymity condition.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the attack occurred around 8 a.m. It said 20 police recruits were killed and 55 were injured. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the reports.

Diyala is critical to Baghdad’s security because of its strategic importance as an entrance to the capital and a threat to supply routes going north. The volatile, ethnically mixed area also borders Iran, which the United States has accused of helping militants to stage attacks on American troops.

Last year, U.S. troops largely subdued militancy in Baqouba, which had been held by al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni extremist groups. But many insurgents were believed to have melted away and now appear to be regrouping.

Loyalists of Saddam Hussein’s regime had homes in Buhriz, a southern suburb of Baqouba, and the area served as a staging ground for Sunni attacks that drove Shiites out of the city.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Diyala province in June 2006.

On June 22, a female suicide bomber concealing explosives beneath her black robe struck outside a government complex in Baqouba. At least 15 people were killed and more than 40 were wounded. A car bomb across the street from the same compound killed at least 40 people in April.

The decline in violence in Iraq has been driven by a variety of factors, including the 2007 U.S. troop surge and a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have scored successes in offensives against Shiite militants in Baghdad’s Sadr City district and the southern cities of Basra and Amarah, and against Sunni extremists in Mosul in the north.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said Sunday that the government’s planned operation in Diyala would be "the last surge."

Al-Mada, an Iraqi newspaper, on Tuesday reported Khalaf as saying that the file on the Diyala operation had been handed to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who will decide when to launch it.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said it had captured the Iranian-trained leader of an explosives cell in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad. It said the suspect has been linked to attacks against U.S. and Iraqi bases in the capital.

 

 

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Evelyn Keyes, who played Scarlett O’Hara’s younger sister Suellen in "Gone With the Wind" and counted director John Huston and bandleader Artie Shaw among her famous husbands, has died. She was 91.

The actress died July 4 of uterine cancer at her home in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, producer and close friend Allan Glaser said Friday.

Glaser said the news was withheld because lawyers wanted to wait until the death certificate was filed.

Keyes’ personal life often overshadowed her acting career. Besides her often turbulent marriages to Shaw and directors Huston and Charles Vidor, she lived with the flamboyant producer Mike Todd for three years during his preparation and filming of "Around the World in 80 Days." She played a cameo role in the movie and helped on publicity.

Todd sent her to the premiere in Caracas, then called her abruptly from Paris with this message: "Listen, I have to tell you. I’ve fallen in love with Elizabeth (Taylor)."

"Oh well, nothing lasts forever," she philosophized in 1977. "The good part was that I invested all my money in `Around the World in 80 Days,’ and that set me up for life."

Keyes gave a frank account of her romances and marriages in her 1977 autobiography, "Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister." Her role in the 1939 classic led to a contract at Columbia Pictures and stardom.

Among her notable roles: as Robert Montgomery’s lover in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941), the Ruby Keeler role as Al Jolson’s wife in "The Jolson Story" (1946), and as Dick Powell’s wife in "Mrs. Mike" (1949).

She also starred in B pictures that were later praised by movie critics as prime examples of film noir: "Johnny O’Clock" (1947), "The Killer That Stalked New York" (1950), "The Prowler" (1951), "99 River Street" (1953) and "The Big Combo" (1955).

Keyes’ marriages and divorces made her the darling of gossip columns and fan magazines. Her first marriage, to a handsome Englishman and heavy drinker named Barton Bainbridge, ended in headlines when he fatally shot himself during a separation.

Vidor, a handsome Hungarian who directed her first Columbia film, "The Lady in Question," became romantically involved with Keyes, though both were married at the time. When her husband committed suicide and Vidor’s wife, actress Karen Morley, divorced him, Vidor and Keyes married. The marriage ended two years later when she discovered he was unfaithful to her as well.

Husband No. 3 was Huston. She was impressed when they met at a Hollywood dinner party, and more impressed when he took her afterward to his Tarzana horse ranch and made no effort to seduce her.

Their marriage in 1946 led to an adventurous life. Just one of the examples she recalled in 1971 involved Huston returning home from the 1949 film "We Were Strangers," with a gift from actress Jennifer Jones, a pet chimpanzee.

"The chimp fell in love with John, and he brought it home to live with us in our all-white apartment."

David Niven wrote in his memoir "Bring on the Empty Horses" that Keyes became exasperated at the non-housebroken animal and issued an ultimatum: "One of us has to go. It’s the monkey or me."

According to Niven, Huston replied, "Honey, it’s you." Keyes reported in her own memoir that it was the chimp that got the boot.

The Huston marriage did end in 1950, however, and Keyes sought analysis to recover from the failure. Her conclusion: "I was always looking for the same man — a strong father figure."

Keyes’ marriage to Shaw in 1957 seemed to follow the same pattern. He had given up his brilliant career as a clarinetist and bandleader and had been seeking intellectual challenges.

Shaw played Henry Higgins to her Eliza Doolittle, giving her a new name, Keri, introducing her to literature and leading her on his world travels. For a time they lived in Spain. After several years she tired of his dominance and they separated. They divorced in 1985.

After Shaw died in 2004 at age 94, she battled in court for a share of his estate, saying he had promised it to her. A jury backed her in 2006, but the executor of the estate vowed to appeal.

Keyes was born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1916, according to state birth records; some references give a later year. She grew up fatherless and poor in Atlanta. A glowing blond beauty with an alluring figure, she danced in nightclubs and at 17 set out for Hollywood. Cecil B. DeMille signed her to a seven-year contract and cast her in "The Buccaneer."

After a few minor roles at Paramount, she appeared in "Gone With the Wind" and then moved to Columbia, where her career blossomed.

After her film career and marriages ended, she turned author, producing an autobiographical novel, "I Am a Billboard," two memoirs, "Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister" and "I’ll Think About It Tomorrow," film scripts and articles.

Keyes took a frank view of her life and career in a 1999 interview:

"To become a big movie star like Joan Crawford you need to wear blinders and pay single-minded attention to your career. Nobody paid attention to me, including me. I was the original Cinderella girl, looking for the happy ending in the fairy story. But my fantasy prince never came."

 

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It’s a tale of two movies, with an oddly similar ending.

Five years ago, "Hulk," the first movie based on Marvel’s hulking green comic book character, rang up $245 million in worldwide box office but was widely dismissed as a commercial failure.

The second attempt, "The Incredible Hulk," amped up the fun factor and dialed down the brooding of director Ang Lee’s original but is unlikely to gross significantly higher than its predecessor and might not spawn a sequel. And it’s been dubbed a success.

"We’re happy with the financial results, even if they (only) reach the first film’s levels," a Marvel insider insisted. "Having a sequel is not the definition of success."

That’s fortunate, as even outpacing the first film’s worldwide haul by 10% looks optimistic at this point, and that’s not likely to stoke enthusiasm for a franchise follow-up anytime soon.

After four weekends, the Louis Leterrier-directed "The Incredible Hulk" has earned $125 million, the same as what "Hulk" had pulled in at the same time in its run. "Hulk" finished with $132 million, and its successor is unlikely to do much better.

Its foreign rollout is still in progress, with comics-friendly Japan among the territories the remake has yet to bow, but it appears likely that the Edward Norton starrer will struggle to reach $130 million internationally. The first film tallied $113.2 million overseas.

Action films tend to outperform internationally, though comic book adaptations can be a different matter if the fan base skews American. Marvel touts the Hulk comic franchise as its second most popular worldwide, after Spider-Man.

"All we can say as a studio is that we are very pleased with the result," Universal domestic distribution president Nikki Rocco said.

Despite the similarity of the Hulk films’ theatrical runs, industryites suggest the lighter tone of the second film makes it more the vehicle to generate sequels, and some suggest the remake will prove a more lucrative DVD title than the Eric Bana-starring original. On the other hand, production costs and marketing expenses were steeper the second time around, totaling more than $200 million. The first film cost about $150 million to make.

Still, the dark original so turned off the Hulk character’s fanboy base as to require a complete reworking of its big-screen rendering before a film franchise could be christened.

But Marvel has yet to greenlight a Hulk sequel. So other observers suggest the films’ most important distinction lies simply in how well market expectations were managed in advance of their respective bows.

"Hollywood is always about perception," said David Davis, managing partner and entertainment analyst at Arpeggio Partners in Los Angeles. "The first Hulk (movie) had such high expectations after the NBC-Universal merger and was supposed to be critical-favorite Ang Lee’s breakout commercial blockbuster.

"Then with the new Hulk film, Marvel was able to underplay the importance of the success after the great success of ‘Iron Man’ this summer," Davis said. "So the new one overdelivered, relative to its underpromise."

The Marvel-produced, Paramount-distributed "Iron Man" has fetched more than $563 million at the worldwide box office.

LONDON (Reuters) - Soul singer Amy Winehouse has developed the lung condition emphysema and has been warned by doctors that she will die if she continues smoking drugs, her father said in an interview on Sunday.

Mitch Winehouse said the incurable illness, which leaves sufferers struggling for breath, was diagnosed when his daughter had series of health checks in hospital.

"The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her," he was quoted as saying in the Sunday Mirror. "The doctors have said that if she had continued the way she was going she could have ended up an invalid — she wouldn’t have been able to breathe."

He added: "She’s got emphysema. It’s in its early stages, but had it gone on for another month they painted a very vivid picture of her sitting there like an old person with a mask on her face struggling to breathe.

"With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes, her lungs are all gunked up. There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She’s got 70 percent lung capacity."

He added that a spell in hospital last week and renewed treatment for her well-publicized drug addiction had offered a ray of hope for his 24-year-old daughter.

"If she doesn’t go back to drugs, then she can lead this magnificent life," he said. "We are praying that that’s what Amy really wants. She seems resolute."

He called on drug dealers to help her recovery by refusing to supply her with crack cocaine.

There is no medical reason why she shouldn’t be able to perform at the Glastonbury Festival next weekend, he added. In the past, work has helped to keep her away from drugs.

"If she hadn’t done recent shows in Moscow and Portugal she could have been dead by now," he said. "She abstains and regulates her drug use when she has to do a show."

Winehouse won five Grammy Awards in February and enjoyed commercial success with her album "Back to Black."

 

LONDON (AFP) - Maria Sharapova, who once wore diamond-encrusted shoes at Wimbledon, is keeping her style simple at this year’s championships - she’ll be wearing shorts.

“I’m going with the traditional shorts, believe it or not,” said Sharapova, the 2004 champion.

“I’ve never worn shorts at a Grand Slam. I’m gonna be debuting that. Call it menswear, obviously. It’s kind of like a tuxedo look, very simple lines, classic.”

Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam tournament of the year, gets under way on Monday.

 

Got a copy of the soundtrack to the TV series House and I got to thinking of how other TV shows in the past affected the hit charts. I remember the opening lines of Johnny Yuma was a rebel, Henry Mancini’s theme from Peter Gun, Al Caiola playing Bonanza, the Ventures surfing with Hawaii 50 and even the unknown Vonda Shepard zooming to stardom because of her weekly closing songs on Ally McBeal.

So I next wondered how the current shows are doing as far as music is concerned. First off I checked out my favorites but I could not find any soundtrack CD to all three of the C.S.I. shows. That means C.S.I., C.S.I.: Miami and C.S.I.: New York. All three make clever use of music to set the tone of the series and even have hit-oriented theme songs but there are no soundtrack albums available. I did better with other award-winners Lost and Entourage.

House. The exasperating House is not your typical hospital doctor and the show is not like most TV dramas. The soundtrack is no different. It is every bit as quirky, as smart, and as hip as the series and its star Hugh Laurie. The award-winning actor is, in truth so closely intertwined with his character that it is a song performed by his real-life rock band, Band from TV that encapsulates the tone of the show for the CD. It sounds like an admonition for House, You Can’t Always Get What You Want and it is the closing track.

Now while there are several familiar names in the line-up, House is actually no hit-bound collection. It is too intelligent with songs that you feel should make the charts but are instead content to just bubble quietly under the magic circle. No matter. These are also the songs you can listen to over and over and make your own.

Teardrop, the House theme by Massive Attack, is the opener. Others included are Beautiful by Elvis Costello; Dear God by Sarah McLachlan; Feelin’ Alright by Joe Cocker; Waiting on an Angel by Ben Harper; Got to be More Careful by Joe Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen; God Please Let Me Go Back by Josh Rouse; and Are You Alright? by Lucinda Williams.

Lost. Although the show also uses popular songs as incidental music, the Lost soundtrack from the first season is nothing like House. It is instead made up of full-length versions of themes composed by Michael Giacchino and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra. This decision was probably reached because of the nearly epic feel of the series. There is just no way you can rely on a regular song to set the atmosphere when you have survivors from a downed jetliner trying to cope with their demons, others’ demons and life on a deserted island.

No need for listeners to worry though because Giacchino is good at what he does. His melodies and most importantly his arrangements can take you across an entire season of Lost anytime you want. Like those characters, you too can experience puzzlement, joy, or fear, (hear that heartbeat) that can send you running for your life. Opening cut is of course the now very popular Main Title composed by the series’ creator J.J. Abrams.

Entourage. In contrast to House and Lost, the credits in the soundtrack album from Entourage reads like a who’s who of Billboard’s Hot 100 list. And these tunes are actually what the series calls for. Entourage is about Vincent Chase, played by Adrian Grenier, a young man who started out as a D-lister actor in the show but is now a hot movie star in Hollywood. Entourage refers to just that, Vincent’s entourage, his retinue, friends, hangers-on, assistants, etc., all those people who must be around to make life easy or bearable for the famous.

 

LOS ANGELES - A bigger, meaner "The Incredible Hulk" crushed the competition at North American weekend box office with a $54.5 million take, but still fell short of its predecessor, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
 
The action-oriented film revival starring the hulking green superhero is only the second self-financed production from Marvel Studios, which paid General Electric Co’s Universal Pictures a fee to market and distribute the film.

Marvel and Universal brought the first "Hulk" to theaters in 2003, but that more introspective version failed to follow through on its muscular $62 million debut after disappointing comic book fans. Its ticket sales fell quickly and the movie ended its run with $137 million at domestic box offices.

The new film stars Edward Norton as former scientist Bruce Banner, who morphs into the green beast when his attempts at anger management fail. Banner’s love interest is played by Liv Tyler. William Hurt and Tim Roth take turns as villains.

It has received moderately better reviews and advance buzz on fan Web sites. Its $15,500 average ticket sales per theater from slightly more than 3,500 theaters also beat competitors.

The weekend’s other new entry, M. Night Shyamalan’s "The Happening," landed in the No. 3 spot with a weekend take of $30.5 million and a per theater average of $10,200 from just under 3000 theaters. It was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp..

GOOD SHOW FOR SHYAMALAN

"Happening" turned in the third-largest opening for the director who wowed audiences with "The Sixth Sense" in 1999 but disappointed with his 2006 film "Lady in the Water."

DreamWorks Animation’s "Kung Fu Panda," last week’s No. 1, remained a top performer fighting its way to a second place finish with a weekend tally of $34.3 million.

Still, the opening for the new "Hulk" was widely watched because of the disappointing overall run for the 2003 version, as well as Marvel’s decision to spend up to $150 million to restart the franchise so soon afterward.

"It seems like ‘Hulk’ has smashed those questions to pieces," said David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Entertainment division Marvel Studios.

Maisel added that "Hulk" was the second-strongest Father’s Day weekend opening behind $58.1 million for last year’s "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," also based on Marvel superheroes.

Paul Dergarabedian of Los Angeles-based box office tracker Media By Numbers, said the movie industry overall is on a roll with year-over-year sales up three straight weeks.

This weekend’s top 12 movies grossed $174.3 million, up nearly 25 percent from a year ago.

Columbia Pictures’ "You Don’t Mess with the Zohan," starring Adam Sandler, fell two spots to No. 4 with $16.4 million. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," distributed by Paramount, was No. 5 after collecting $13.5 million to boost its domestic total to $275.3 million.

Viacom Inc-owned Paramount also distributes DreamWorks productions. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp.