Washington, D.C. leads U.S. in attracting new residents

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Among those who moved last year, the nation's capital was once again the most popular destination.

According to a United Van Lines annual migration study, which took into account 146,000 interstate moves, nearly twice as many Americans moved to Washington, D.C. than moved out, making it the most migrated to destination in the nation for the fourth year in a row.

Often, people go where the jobs are. As unemployment soared throughout most of the nation over the past four years, jobs were being created in or near D.C., thanks to one big employer: The government.

The federal government hired about 150,000 workers, not including postal employees, since 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of the new jobs were in D.C. and the surrounding areas in Northern Virginia and Maryland. And government salaries have been increasing, sometimes dramatically, drawing in many affluent professionals -- the kind likely to hire a large, full-service mover like United -- to the area.

Other states that attracted far more people than they lost included North Carolina, Florida, Oregon and Nevada.

Illinois saw the biggest exodus, according to United's survey, with 61% of its moves going outbound. New Jersey, New York, Michigan, West Virginia and most of New England -- Maine Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island -- also saw big net losses.

One surprise was North Dakota, where 56% of United interstate moves were outbound. That was despite the oil-fueled boom that helped keep the state's unemployment rate the lowest in the nation.

United's annual study has shown to be a good predictor of the more precise migration data that comes out later in the year from the Census Bureau and Internal Revenue Service.

"The United Van Lines' study has been shown through the years to accurately reflect general migration patterns in various regions of the country," said Carl Walter, vice president for the company.

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CNN Student News Transcript - January 3, 2012

(CNN Student News) -- January 3, 2012

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Vietnam surgery removes tumor twice man's weight

(CNN) -- A Vietnamese man is recovering in the intensive care unit Friday, a day after surgery that completely removed from his right leg a tumor twice his body weight, according to the hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

The growing tumor had rendered the patient, Nguyen Duy Hai, virtually immobile until his surgery.

The excised tumor weighed 180 pounds (82 kilos), according to the hospital, a bit less than the 200 pounds (90 kilos) estimated before surgery.

Hai, 31, of Da Lat City, has Von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis, said Dr. Jean-Marcel Guillon, chief executive officer of FV Hospital, where the 12-hour procedure was performed.

The autosomal dominant hereditary disorder is the same disease that contributed to the extraordinarily large head of Joseph Merrick, whose story was dramatized in the 1980 film, "The Elephant Man," explained Guillon.

The tumor "may return," Guillon wrote in an e-mail to CNN, "but we can operate him again, and it won't never reach such a size anymore."

Doctors expect that Hai's cardiac and pulmonary functions will return to normal during the next 10 days. After that, Hai faces rehabilitation, physical therapy and possible help from the hospital's clinical psychologist to deal with issues pertaining to body image, Guillon said. "This patient lived all his life with this tumor. It was part of him."

Hai also needs to learn how to do things that his body had forgotten, including using the leg he had never used normally, Guillon added.

The tumor was first discovered when Hai was four years old and had grown to its enormous size since then.

Hai had undergone a surgery to amputate his leg -- and with it the tumor -- in 1997, but in 2001, the tumor grew, and no doctors agreed to operate on him, according to the hospital.

Furthermore, his family could not afford surgery, and very few surgeons in Vietnam can treat neurofibromas, Guillon said.

The surgery was considered risky with a 50% success rate for a number of reasons, Guillon explained. "First, such a giant tumor has developed its own blood system with huge arteries branched out from the normal vascular system. Therefore, one of the main risks was abundant bleeding."

Doctors used a "cell saver," which suctions and filters the patient's blood before re-injecting it into the body, along with extra blood for the surgery.

The second and third risks lay in heart function ("How would a heart react when a tumor with twice the weight of a patient is removed?") and the effects of a long -- more than 13 hours -- anesthesia, Guillon said.

Leading the surgical team was Dr. McKay McKinnon, a specialist in plastic and reconstructive surgery from Chicago.

McKinnon has been credited with removing a 200-pound tumor from a woman in the U.S. state of Michigan in 2000, as well as a 176-pound (80 kilo) tumor from a Romanian woman in 2004.

Aside from McKinnon, no one else on the team had any prior experience with Hai's condition or performed such a surgery before, Guillon said. "Though the surgical techniques used by Dr. McKinnon are usual and routinely used by our surgeons, the difference lays in his experience: he knows what to expect and what to do at specific crucial moments."

Finally, the team of Vietnamese surgeons and anesthetists had never worked with McKinnon before, and communication issues could turn dangerous in an operating theatre, Guillon said, adding that two of the three Vietnamese surgeons also go by "Dr. Thai."

Nonetheless, the communication among all in the operating theatre went "extremely well," Guillon said.

During the surgery, FV Hospital set up a live video feed for other doctors and hospitals to watch.

Video during the surgery showed five people assisting in the disposal of the excised tumor from its own gurney into a yellow container, which was then sealed.

A small piece has been sent for examination; the rest will be incinerated as with all biological waste, Guillon said.

The cost of the surgery was estimated at $20,000, but the hospital said it will charge 60% of the cost, which will be covered jointly by the Red Cross of Da Lat City and sponsors.

The hospital said it is financing all the traveling costs and accommodation for McKinnon, who is performing the surgery free of charge.

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Singer Etta James leaves hospital

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Terminally ill singer Etta James was released Thursday from a Southern California hospital, her manager said.

"She is home with her husband and family by her side," said Lupe De Leon. "Her condition remains stable."

James, 73, was hospitalized two weeks, battling the final stages of terminal leukemia and suffering from dementia.

The "At Last" singer spent New Year's Eve watching the ball drop with her sons, Donto and Sametto James, in her hospital room, said Donto James, who played drums in his mother's Roots band for 15 years.

Paul Wright, a lawyer who represents the sons in their dispute with Etta James' husband over who makes decisions for her, said Sunday that the singer is "nearing the end of her time, but she's a tough lady."

The judge overseeing James' conservatorship approved an agreement last month in which husband Artis Mills is the conservator, but he must equally share "end of life" decisions with the sons, Wright said.

Mills is also limited in how much of her estate he can spend and he cannot "encumber her music catalog," Wright said.

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Olympics ticket holders can return unwanted tickets

London (CNN) -- Unwanted tickets for the 2012 Summer Olympics can be sold back starting Friday, organizers said Thursday.

Those who have already bought tickets directly from organizers will be able to sell unwanted seats for full face value.

Some of the tickets were sold more than a year before the events and may no longer be wanted.

"The resale process will allow those who are no longer able to attend or no longer want their tickets to sell them to other sports fans and help ensure that venues are full at Games time," the London Organizing Committee (LOCOG) said in a news release.

LOGOC hopes to cut down on unwanted tickets being sold through third parties or illegally at inflation prices.

The tickets will not become immediately available, however. The tickets indicated for resale will go into a pot and be released at a later date.

Tickets already bought through authorized third parties are not eligible to be resold through LOCOG's website.

Ticket allocation has been one of the few problems facing organizers. Complaints poured in after many people said they had missed out on tickets to top-tier events during the early rounds of sales opened to British residents.

Also, on Wednesday organizers admitted "human error" last year led to 3,000 people being sold 10,000 tickets to synchronized swimming events that simply did not exist. It said it discovered the mistake after comparing final seating configurations with the number of tickets sold for the events.

Over the Christmas period, those people were contacted by mail and automated phone messages to give them the opportunity to get tickets to other top-tier events as compensation, at no extra cost.

Local media have reported that some of those allocated only synchronized swimming tickets will be now be in the stadium for the finals of some of the main track events, at a fraction of the face value of those seats.

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Bombs kill 2 Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad (AP)

 
AP - Roadside bombs killed two Shiite pilgrims amid a string of explosions in Baghdad on Friday, the day after the country's deadliest sectarian violence in more than a year left scores dead, officials said.

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60 slain in Iraq bombings

Baghdad (CNN) -- Attackers killed at least 60 people in Iraq on Thursday in strikes that targeted Shiites and renewed fears of sectarian violence, authorities said.

The deadliest attack was a suicide bombing targeting Shiite pilgrims just west of the southern city of Nasiriya. It killed at least 36 and wounded 72 others, police and Interior Ministry officials said. A series of blasts in Baghdad left 24 dead and dozens wounded, an Interior Ministry official said.

The violence raged as Shiites made a pilgrimage to the city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, leading up to Arbaeen, one of the holiest days of the Shiite calendar. It arrives next week and marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, who was killed in a seventh century battle in the Iraqi city.

Gen. Qassim Atta, the Iraqi commander of Baghdad security operations, said that "terrorist groups take every chance they get to incite sectarianism."

Martin Kobler, the U.N. special representative in Iraq, condemned the strikes and urged Iraqis to "remain steadfast in the face of those who are using violence" and trying to undermine the country's efforts to succeed as a democracy.

"These casualty figures are people, women and men, the youth of the country and its children. These are mainly civilians, and one life taken per day is one life too many. And this has to be stopped," Kobler said.

Violence raged for years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq between members of Iraqi's Sunni minority, who held power during the era of Saddam Hussein, and its Shiite majority, which gained power after his ouster. Iraqis have been concerned about an increase in Sunni-Shiite violence after the U.S. military withdrawal from the country last month.

Sunnis in Iraq have felt marginalized by the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite. That anger intensified after he ordered the arrest last month of Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who was charged with ordering bombings and assassinations, a charge he denies.

The bomber in Nasiriya struck an Iraqi Army checkpoint where buses carrying pilgrims were parked. Most of the casualties were pilgrims, police and an Interior Ministry official said. The city is located in Thiqar province.

A triple bombing in Baghdad's Sadr City area Thursday morning killed at least nine people and wounded 35, an official with Iraq's Interior Ministry said.

The first bomb -- attached to a motorcycle -- detonated near a group of laborers who were searching for day jobs in the Shiite neighborhood, according to the official. Shortly after that, two other bombs detonated in quick succession nearby.

The sprawling neighborhood of Sadr City is a Shiite enclave.

Car bombs exploded successively in northern Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Kadhimiya district on Thursday morning, killing 15 and wounding 31, the Interior Ministry official said. The bombs exploded in two busy squares that were about 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) apart.

Kadhimiya is busy with many Shiite pilgrims who started their pilgrimage walking to Karbala, and security has been jacked up accordingly.

Atta said it was too soon to tell who was behind what appeared to be coordinated attacks in Baghdad. However, he said he believes it was "what remains" of terrorist groups trying to incite sectarian rifts.

Iraq has a large Shiite population in the capital and across southern Iraq.

Iraq has been engulfed in political turmoil that has threatened to unravel the government.

Al-Hashimi said al-Maliki's charges against him were politically motivated and fled to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

His arrest warrant was issued just days after the Iraqiya bloc suspended its participation in parliament amid complaints it was being cut out of the political process. Iraqiya, a cross-sectarian as well as Sunni-backed bloc, castigated the al-Maliki government, saying it had shunned cooperation despite the power-sharing arrangement.

It said it is considering sending a request to parliamentary leaders to withdraw support for al-Maliki and come up with a new prime minister to form a post-occupation government.

There have also been mounting calls for federalism from at least three predominantly Sunni provinces. Al-Maliki has called federalism a recipe for the partitioning of Iraq.

The bloc loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a key ally to al-Maliki, has called for the dissolution of parliament and early elections.

Al-Maliki managed to forge a fragile coalition and secure a second term in office because of backing from followers of al-Sadr, the powerful leader of the notorious Mehdi Army that fought some of the fiercest battles against U.S. forces.

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