U.S. Refuses to Give Visa to Sick Orphan

JOPLIN, Mo. - Melvin Karges and his wife Cheryl know about helping southeast Asian orphans. Their daughter Claira, now 2 1/2 years old, was adopted from Cambodia with a hole in her heart that was successfully treated here in the United States.

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The U.S. government has refused to issue a medical visa or a humanitarian waiver for 6-year-old Tuan Van Cao. The couples are confused and frustrated, saying they have lined up private funding to cover treatment for a botched operation on the boy's diseased left hip that left him with a potentially fatal bone infection.

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At least 19 killed in attack on Iraq town

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen raided a small town near Baghdad and shot dead at least 19 people in what police said on Friday was a sectarian attack by Sunnis on Shi'ites, latest in a string of killings since a Shi'ite shrine was bombed last week.

Among the dead were Shi'ite migrant laborers shot down at a brick factory in a dusk raid on Thursday by a suspected al Qaeda-linked group. One local politician said at least 25 died, among them three children.

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