47 dead, 100 missing in Congo boat accident

Twenty-seven people are known to have survived, said Mathieu Modeste Bella, district commissioner of North Ubangi province in the far north of the central African country.
The boat was carrying at least 182 passengers, mostly merchants but also women and children, Bella said. It sank Tuesday night after it left the Congo town of Mobayi Bongo, 700 miles northeast of Congo's capital, Kinshasa. It was navigating the Ubangi river, headed for the Central African Republic, which shares a border with Congo. Bella said 47 bodies had been recovered. "The rest of the passengers, more than 100, have disappeared," Bella said. "We do not know what happened to them." Because of bad roads, many people in the area prefer to take small boats even if they do not know how to swim. KINSHASA, Congo - At least 47 people died when a motorized boat sank on a river in Congo, and more than 100 people are missing, a district official said Friday.

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,124

As of Friday, July 25, 2008, at least 4,124 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,360 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.The AP count is three fewer than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

Iraqi Police Say Female Bomber Kills 8 U.S.-Allied Soldiers

BAGHDAD — Iraqi police say at least eight people have been killed in a female homicide bombing against a checkpoint manned by U.S.-allied Sunni guards northeast of Baghdad.
A police officer who read the report says the woman blew herself up about 8:30 p.m. Thursday near the so-called awakening council checkpoint in central Baqouba.The officer says at least eight awakening council members were killed and 24 other people were wounded. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

Math study finds girls are just as good as boys

WASHINGTON - Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science. Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believinHyde and her colleagues looked at annual math tests required by the No Child Left Behind education law in 2002. Ten states provided enough statistical information to review test scores by gender, allowing researchers to compare the performances of more than 7 million children.The researchers found no difference in the scores of boys versus girls — not even in high school. Studies 20 years ago showed girls and boys did equally well on math in elementary school, but girls fell behind in high school."Girls have now achieved gender parity in performance on standardized math tests," Hyde said.g it wind up avoiding harder math classes.