Iraq's Sunni-backed ministers return to Cabinet

BAGHDAD (AP) — Ministers from Iraq's Sunni-backed bloc ended their boycott of the Cabinet on Tuesday, a move that could restore some stability to the war-ravaged nation that has been mired in a security and political crisis since the U.S. completed its military withdrawal from the country.

The government of Shiite Prime Minister set off the political crisis in December by issuing an arrest warrant against the country's top Sunni official, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, charging him with running death squads.

Leaders of al-Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc accused the prime minister of sectarian bias and of trying to push the bloc out of the government to consolidate his …

Egypt: Leader of al-Qaida-inspired group arrested

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — A senior Egyptian security official says police have arrested the leader of al-Qaida-inspired group in the Sinai peninsula that was behind attacks on police and on a gas pipeline that transports fuel to Israel and Jordan.

The official said Mohammed Eid Muslih Hamad, also known as "El-Tihi", was arrested without resistance early Sunday in a seaside vacation house in the northern Sinai town of …

Jeff Gabel

Jeff Gabel

SPENCER BROWNSTONE GALLERY

YOUNG ARTIST THAT'S IN HIS SIUDIO RIGHT WHEN HE FIGURES OUT HE GAVE UP EVERYTHING HE HAS FOR ART + DOESNT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO MAKE HARDLY ANY MORE WORKS, AND HE'LL PROBABLY BE LONELY FOR A LONG TIME, SO HE JUST SAT DOWN IN A CHAIR AND STARTED CRYING. On a six-inch-square wood panel, Jeff Gabel pairs the scrawled caption of a 2006 pencil drawing with a fuzzy sketch of the titular sad sack slumped in despair against a blank white ground. The Brooklyn-based Gabel specializes in just this sort of compact but devastating personality profile, summing up in run-on sentences exactly what makes the individuals he pictures so obnoxious, …

`Sunday in the Park with George' sings with heartfelt intensity

Artistic commitment may not be the most likely subject for musical theater but in "Sunday in the Park With George," its painter-hero burns with such heartfelt intensity that he and the show have to sing.

And sing they do _ quite wonderfully _ at Studio 54 where the Roundabout Theatre Company has opened a stunning revival of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical.

"Sunday" is Sondheim's most personal score, an artful juggling of the cerebral and the emotional, a delicate balancing act perfectly captured here in a production that first earned cheers at a tiny London theater in 2005.

Much has been made of director Sam …

Tenn. may honor Isaac Hayes with section of I-40

Legendary late soul musician Isaac Hayes may get a commemorative stretch of highway in his home state of Tennessee.

A measure to designate a section of Interstate 40 the "Isaac Hayes Memorial Highway" passed the state Senate unanimously Thursday. The House approved it without opposition in April.

The commemorative stretch would be near Memphis, where Hayes had a home until he died of a stroke in 2008 at the age of 65. He was raised in Tipton …

Services set for Rick Dal Corobbo, 52

Funeral arrangements have been announced for Rick Dal Corobbo, 52,a former press aide to two Chicago mayors and a town manager inMerrillville, Ind.

Visitation will be from 1 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Pruzin BrothersFuneral Home, 6360 Broadway, Merrillville, where a service will beconducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Burial will be in Maplewood Memorial Cemetery in Crown Point.

Mr. Dal Corobbo was press aide for former Chicago Mayors JaneByrne and Harold Washington, assistant to former Crown Point MayorJames Metros and director of administration for the town of Lowell,Ind., before taking the Merrillville post two years ago.

He died early Saturday after the Ford Explorer he was drivingcrashed into a semitrailer in the southbound lanes of Interstate 65in Indiana, police said.

Ditka's Artificial Hip Repaired

Mike Ditka was resting comfortably Tuesday following surgery toreplace part of his artificial right hip.

The former Bears coach and Hall of Fame tight end underwent athree-hour procedure at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Centerin which parts of his artificial hip that had loosened since hisoriginal surgery in 1984 were repaired.

The procedure, called revision surgery, is more complex thanreplacing the entire hip because it requires customizing new,replacement pieces to fit into sections of the remaining, originalartificial hip.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mitchell B. Sheinkop, who performed theoriginal surgery and also 1992 surgery replacing Ditka's left hip,performed the operation.

"The coach told me then that he'd wait to have the surgeryuntil (the problem) affected his golf game," Sheinkop said. "Wescheduled surgery now because his golf handicap increased from 1 to8, and medication can no longer control his pain."

Officials expected to release more information on Ditka'scondition today.