4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY, APRIL 3. 2006
Helicopter crash kills two, Iraqi bodies also found
BY ROBERT H. REID
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military said Sunday that the bodies of two American pilots killed when their Apache helicopter crashed near Baghdad were recovered and the aircraft was probably shot down. Three other U.S. soldiers were reported killed in Baghdad and northern Iraq.
"The soldiers' remains were recovered following aircraft recovery operations at the crash site" of the helicopter "which went down due to possible hostile fire." the statement said.
The AH-64D Apache Longbow went down about 5:30 p.m. Saturday during combat operations west of Youssifyah, about 10 miles southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
In political developments, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made a surprise visit to press Iraqi politicians to speed up the formation of the government. The trip came as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari faced mounting pressure from his fellow Shiites to withdraw his nomination for a second term.
No further details were released on the helicopter crash, but Yousifiyah is located in the "triangle of death," a religiously mixed area notorious for attacks by Sunni extremists against Shites traveling between Baghdad and religious shrines south of the capital.
It was the first loss of a U.S. helicopter since three of them crashed in a 10-day period in January, killing a total of 18 American military personnel. At least two of those helicopters were shot down.
The U.S. command also said three more soldiers had been killed — two by a roadside bomb late Saturday in central Baghdad and another from non-hostile related injuries suffered
near the northern city of Kirkuk on the same day.
The five U.S. deaths brought to at least 2,333 the number of American service members killed since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded Sunday near a U.S. convoy, blowing parts of a vehicle onto the roof of a nearby building. No U.S. casualties were reported, but witnesses said men danced around the wreckage, chanting "God is great."
The latest U.S. casualties followed one of the least deadly
No U.S. casualties were reported,but witnesses said men danced around the wreckage chanting "God is great."
months of the Iraq war for American forces. Thirty-one American service members died during March, the lowest monthly death toll for the U.S. military since February 2004.
However, about 400 Iraqi died, many in violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims that escalated following the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra that triggered a wave of reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.
The rise in sectarian violence has added new urgency to the need to form a government of national unity following the Dec. 15 national elections to prevent the country from disintegrating into chaos.
Underscoring the problem, the bodies of at least 42 men — handcuffed and shot in the head or chest — were found over the weekend in several neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital, police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi
However, talks among the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties have bogged down due to differences among the sectarian and ethnic groups.
said Sunday.
Sunni and Kurdish politicians blame much of the impasse on the decision by the dominant Shiite bloc to nominate al-Jaafari for a second term. Critics maintain al-Jaafari was ineffective in combatting the Sunni led-insurgency and curbing sectarian tensions.
Rice was careful to say the U.S. did not want to interfere in the democratic process, but she harped on al-Jaafari's failure to organize a unity government.
Shite legislator Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer also said Sunday that the prime minister no longer had the acceptance of Iraqi parties and the international community and should step aside.
"There is no other way out of the government formation problem," said al-Sagheer, a member of the United Iraqi Alliance and of SCIRI, the largest Shiite political organization. Further delays could "lead to more blood-shed." he added.
Qassim Dawoud, who became the first Shiite politician to publicly call for al-Jaafari to step aside, warned of "a political and security vacuum."
Shiites politician get first crack at the prime minister's job because they are the largest bloc in parliament.
U. S. officials have made little effort to conceal their desire that al-Jaafari leave office because of his close ties and strong backing from radical Shiite cleric Mujtada al-Sadr.
A week ago, Shite officials said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad brought a letter from President Bush objecting to a second term for al-Jaafari to a meeting with the Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Praving in the street
Mukhtar Khan/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kashmiri Muslims offer prayers outside the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Naqashbandi in downtown Srinagar, India, Sunday. Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims congregated at the shrine on the death anniversary of the saint and offered prayers in a three-day festival that concluded Sunday.
HEALTH
Nicotine fights chemotherapy
BY RANDOLPH E. SCHMID THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Lung-cancer patients who use nicotine supplements such a patch or gum to help them quit smoking may undermine their chemotherapy.
Nicotine is not known to cause cancer, but it can protect cancer cells from some of the most widely used chemotherapy drugs, researchers reported Sunday at a cancer meeting.
Srikumar Chellappan of the University of South Florida and colleagues studied the effects of nicotine on lung cancer cells that were treated with three commonly used drugs in cancer therapy — gemcitabine, cisplatin and taxol.
sure to the chemicals causes cancer cells to self-destruct in a process called apoptosis.
The laboratory research focused on human non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for 80 percent of all lung cancers. In chemotherapy, expo-
When nicotine was present, the cells increased production of a pair of proteins, XIAP and survivin, that protected the cells from apoptosis.
"Our findings are in agreement with clinical studies showing that patients who continue to smoke have worse survival profiles than those who quit before treatment," the researchers said.
"They also raise the possibility that nicotine supplementation for smoking cessation might reduce the response to chemotheraputic agents," they added in a report appearing in next week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington.
Our findings are in agreement with clinical studies showing that patients who continue to smoke have worse survival profiles than those who quit before treatment."
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
For smokers with lung cancer, "the best thing is to stop as soon as they can," Chellappan said in a telephone interview. They should avoid nicotine in all forms, not just smoking, he said, adding "that is easier said than done."
"There are a lot of smoking cessation programs, behavioral rather than chemical based," he noted. "That would be the best thing to quit smoking."
Kansan Classifieds... 20% discount for students
Free Golf Clinic!
Wednesday, April 5th 1:00-4:00P.M.
Learn tips on improving your performance and preventing injury. Come to the south entrance of Watkins Memorial Health Center.* (Please wear golf attire.) Open to KU students, faculty and staff. Call 864-9592 for more information, or to make an appointment. Appointments preferred - allow 30-45 minutes.
*Inclement weather site: Physical Therapy Dept. 2nd floor KU Student Health Services
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