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off approach toward Iraq after withdrawing the U.S. military from the country in 2011 after nearly nine years of war, at least $767 billion spent in taxpayer funds and nearly 4,500 U.S. troops killed.
• But after hitting a low, if grim, level of violence immediately before the U.S. troops left, attacks have resurged in Iraq at a rate reminiscent of its darkest days. A wave of car bombs killed 33 people and wounded dozens others in Baghdad on Thursday, just the latest assault against a fearful public and a government staggering from sectarian political infighting.
• "The security situation in Iraq is deteriorating rapidly and is of significant concern," Sen. Bob Corker, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday, a day after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi officials during a trip to Baghdad and Irbil, the Kurdish capital in Iraq's north.
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California teen welcomed home after family killed mother and brother, fled with her to Idaho
• LAKESIDE, Calif. (AP) -- A 16-year-old girl got a warm welcome home reception five days after FBI agents killed a longtime family friend suspected of torturing and killing her mother and brother and escaping with her to the Idaho wilderness.
• Hannah Anderson was mobbed by reporters as she entered and left a restaurant that hosted an all-day fundraiser. News crews were told to wait outside while Hannah and her father stayed for hours. She did not make a statement.
• "I don't know what I want to say. I just want to give her a hug," said Alyssa Hawgum, a classmate of Hannah's in Lakeside, an east San Diego suburb of 54,000 people.
• Brett Anderson said his daughter was taking things one day at a time. He said he spoke with the horseback riders who saw the pair in the Idaho wilderness and alerted authorities, thanking them for saving Hannah's life.
• "Right now, she's with her family and, of course, with some friends, and she's just happy to be here," he told reporters outside the restaurant Thursday.
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AP Interview: Va. Gov. McDonnell's friendship with benefactor grew from a shared past
• MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- For four years, Jonnie R. Williams Sr. and Gov. (Continued on page 29)
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