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as al-Halqi's car drove by. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
• The state-run Al-Ikhbariya station said al-Halqi went into a regular weekly meeting with an economic committee straight after the bombing and showed him sitting around a table in a room with several other officials.
• ___

• BAGHDAD (AP) -- Five car bombs exploded Monday in public areas in predominantly Shiite cities and districts in central and southern Iraq, killing 26 civilians and wounding dozens, officials said.
• The blasts come amid a week-long spike in sectarian violence following clashes at a Sunni protest camp in the north of the country. No one has claimed responsibility, but coordinated bombings in civilian areas are a favorite strategy used by al-Qaida in Iraq.
• Two parked car bombs went off simultaneously Monday morning in the city of Amarah near a gathering of construction workers and a market, killing 13 civilians and wounding 42, according to police.
• Another police officer said a parked car bomb exploded near a restaurant in the city of Diwaniyah, killing eight civilians and wounding 25 others.
• Amarah, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad and Diwaniyah, 30 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, are heavily Shiite and normally comparatively peaceful.
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• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The most complete account of Michael Jackson's final months is about to unfold in a cramped Los Angeles courtroom nearly four years after the pop superstar's death.
• Lawyers for Jackson's mother will attempt to convince a jury that the company promoting the pop superstar's 2009 comeback concerts is responsible for his untimely death. The attorneys will try to prove that AEG Live hired and controlled the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter over Jackson's demise.
• AEG Live denies any wrongdoing and contests that they hired the physician who

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