Scores killed in suicide attacks in eastern Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Suicide bombers killed 74 worshippers at two Shiite mosques near the Iranian border Friday, while a pair of car bombs targeting a Baghdad hotel housing Western journalists killed eight Iraqis. The suicide attackers targeted the Sheik Murad mosque and the Khanaqin Grand Mosque in Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, as dozens of people were attending Friday prayers, police said. The blasts near the Hamra Hotel in Baghdad knocked down concrete walls and blew out windows but caused no structural damage.

Chief Vatican astronomer says ID isn't science

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms. The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong." "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

Nine boat migrants drown trying to reach Sicily

ROME -- Nine migrants drowned Friday while trying to reach shore after their boat hit rough weather off Sicily's southern coast, and more were feared dead, port authorities said. More than 170 migrants survived. The boat washed up before dawn just off the coast near Ragusa after rescuers were unable to reach it because of bad weather, said Giuseppe Giacobbe, an official from the port authority in the Sicilian town of Catania. The nine men were thought to have drowned trying to swim ashore, authorities said.

Al-Zarqawi purportedly threatens Jordan's king

AMMAN, Jordan -- An audiotape in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq threatened on Friday to chop off King Abdullah II's head and bomb more hotels and tourist sites. The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also said the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week. "Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al-Zarqawi said, referring to the king. He underlined that al-Qaida in Iraq is not targeting fellow Muslims.

-- From wire reports