Protesters in Iraq, bombings raise questions about country's stability

The protests, by followers of renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, came two days after a surprise visit to Baghdad by Vice President Biden, who praised the progress Iraqi leaders were making.

Supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attend a sit-in before leaving Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone on Sunday, May 1, 2016. (Photo: Karim Kadim, AP)

The incidents called into question Iraq's ability to effectively buffer and contain the Islamic State militant group and raised doubts about the country’s political stability 13 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Q: How did this happen?

A: The protests were the culmination of months of street demonstrations incited by al-Sadr, the popular cleric who launched an uprising in 2004 against U.S. troops in Iraq. The protesters demand government reforms to stop corruption, wanting politically appointed ministers to be replaced with nonpartisan technocrats.

The incident also underscores long-simmering sectarian tensions that continue to brew since the 2003 invasion, said Steven Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council of Foreign Relations. Al-Sadr took advantage of political gridlock among the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers, who share power, to forward his own agenda, Cook said.

“It’s not about this specific demand,” Cook said. “It’s about a seizing an opportunity.”

Q: Why this matters to the USA?

A: The U.S. military ousted former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003 and oversaw the formation of the current government. The U.S. wants a stable Iraqi government that will continue fighting the Islamic State, which has taken control of a swath of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Iraqi troops have been fighting the extremists in Mosul and other parts of Iraq.

Baghdad’s unraveling could also return the country to the sectarian conflicts that flared earlier this decade, sparking instability in the region and potentially staunching the flow of Iraq’s more than 4 million barrels of oil a day, said Kenneth Pollack, senior fellow with the Brookings Institute.

“If there’s civil war in Iraq, it could spread: Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,” he said. “These are scenarios that the United States does not want to see happen.”

Q: How can this impact the war on the Islamic State?

A: Iraq needs a stable political system in Baghdad to keep troops motivated in places like Mosul and Anbar Province in their fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. The military has made strong gains but the political system continues to be in disarray and could threaten the overall strategy, Pollack said.

As the U.S. continues to scale back its presence in Iraq, less pressure is put on Iraqi lawmakers to work out their differences, he said.

“We now have a military campaign that’s doing quite well,” Pollack said. “The problem is the political side of this whole campaign is not making nearly the same progress.

Report: N. Korea readies possible mid-range missile launch

This combo shows a file picture taken on April 15, 1992 of then-North Korean President Kim Il-Sung (L) during the celebration marking his 80th birthday at Kim Il-Sung stadium in Pyongyang and a file photo taken on April 15, 2012 of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as he watches a military parade to mark 100 years since the birth of the country's founder and his grandfather, Kim Il-Sung, in Pyongyang. (Photo: AFP/ JIJI PRESS; R-image, Ed Jones (R) JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images)

The Musudan or BM-25 missiles have a range of just under 2,500 miles, enough to threaten not only South Korea and Japan but also Guam, where U.S. military forces are stationed, Yonghap says. It would be the first test-launch of this particular version of the weapon.

The source tells the news agency that the fact that the missiles have remained in place since last month points to a possible launch Friday to mark the 104th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea and the grandfather of Kim Jong-un. The North has celebrated this so-called "Day of the Sun" in the past with elaborate military events.

Last month, the U.N. Security Council condemned North Korea's most recent latest ballistic missile launches, calling them "unacceptable," a clear violation of U.N. resolutions banning such tests, and a threat to regional and international security, the Associated Press reported.

The council met March 18 hours after the North fired a medium-range missile from a site north of Pyongyang that flew about 500 miles before crashing into the sea off the country's east coast. The resolution also condemned the North's firing of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on March 10, in response to new sanctions from South Korea.

Pyongyang usually notifies the International Maritime Organization, a global shipping regulation body, in advance of a planned test launch but had not as of Thursday, the news agency says.

How The Co-Founder of Sakara Life Gets Her Glow

beautiful skin from the inside out.

You’ve probably heard that about 60 percent of the human body is composed of water. So it’s no wonder hydration is so important — clearly, that beautiful body of yours needs plenty of water to do all the things it has to do to support you every day.

Hydration is key in supporting many of the body’s most essential functions. It helps your body assimilate the nutrients in your food; aids in cell regeneration; boosts your skin’s elasticity for a supple, youthful complexion; keeps your energy up; maintains healthy joints and muscles; and assists your kidneys in flushing out waste and toxins, to name just a few benefits.

It also helps you maintain your weight goals by staving off between-meal snacking (because we all know that sometimes when we think we’re hungry we’re really just thirsty) and is a key component of developing that connection to your body.

While we’re all for keeping a full water bottle on you at all times, sipping isn’t the only way to reach your daily H2O quota. In fact, guzzling too much water (especially cold water) could potentially disrupt your digestion. So what’s a health-conscious babe to do?

The most super superdelegate: President Obama

At the 2012 Democratic convention, President Obama was the candidate. This year, he will be a superdelegate. (Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP)
It is a bit of a challenge to comprehend Illinois Democrats' 91-page "delegate selection plan" for this year's national convention, but two words stand out among the list of officials who will be Illinois superdelegates: "The President."

That would be President Obama, the one-time U.S. senator from the Land of Lincoln, who also served as a superdelegate from the state in 2008, when he voted for himself. Then-Sen. HIllary Clinton was also a superdelegate that year and also backed Obama at the convention as part of her call for party unity.

Democrats have about 700 party leaders who serve as superdelegates who can cast their votes for whomever they like, regardless of the primary vote of the states they hail from. Members of Congress and other elected officials get to be superdelegates, as do former presidents. Bill Clinton is a New York superdelegate this year (guess which candidate he is backing) and Jimmy Carter is a superdelegate from Georgia.

Obama has remained non-committal about who he is backing this year, but one would have to assume he would be in Really Big Trouble if he backed someone other than Hillary Clinton after all they have been through.

It seems unlikely that Obama would put on a funny hat, wade into the crowd on the convention floor and caucus with the rest of the Illinois delegation, but he will have a ticket to do so if he so chooses.

Illinois has 26 superdelegates; Democrats vote Tuesday to select 156 other convention delegates from the state, which trivia buffs will recall is also where Hillary Clinton was born.

Weekend picks for book lovers

Jett, our broke Brooklynite heroine who moves in a world of impeccably cool vegans, discovers her neighbor’s corpse in this debut mystery.

USA TODAY says *** stars. “A hipster cozy! …funny.”

I dropped a $672 Samsung Galaxy in the toilet

NEW YORK—I intentionally dropped a $672 Galaxy S7 phone into the toilet. I wasn’t expressing displeasure over Samsung’s newest flagship phone—in fact I really like this latest handset, along with its pricier sibling the Galaxy S7 edge. I dropped it in the toilet, and separately in the sink, to test the phone’s resistance to water. It came through unscathed.

The two new Galaxy’s measure up to a certification standard known as IP68, which means they can be submerged up to 5 feet for up to a half hour. They’re resistant to dust too.

What’s more, the phones don’t have awkward protective flaps covering the USB port like a prior water resistant model, the Galaxy S5. But don’t get carried away. The phones are water resistant, not waterproof. I wouldn’t swim with the device, take a long hot shower with it, or necessarily drop it into your own toilet. Yes, the phone will do fine with the water. I just wouldn’t want it to get flushed down the drain.

Looking half of hospital bills don’t get paid

NASHVILLE — Hospitals and medical practices share a growing problem with those they treat: Patients aren’t paying their bills.

Working people are on the hook for an increasingly large portion of the cost of their care, as insurance policies pay for less. It’s a trend that is not reversing — and it’s causing financial distress for families and CEOs alike.

In health care, the billing process is called revenue cycle management. It’s a complex system of diagnostic codes, services, insurance benefit analysis, billing departments and software.

Hospitals and providers, historically, received 90% of the reimbursement from insurers, according to The Advisory Board. The patient portion was more of an afterthought.

That dynamic is shifting as more people come under high deductible health plans. The ratio could settle around 70-30 — with patients paying nearly a third of their bills, said Ken Kubisty, senior vice president at Advisory Board Consulting and Management.

For every patient dollar being billed, hospitals have historically failed to collect 65 cents.