Blasts kill dozens at cafe and restaurant north of Baghdad

A day of high drama was marred by a pair of explosions that ripped through a cafe and a restaurant in a violent town north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 43 people and wounding at least 65 others, the authorities said. The blasts in the Diyala Province town of Khalis occurred hours before the government released the results of the country's March 7 parliamentary election, which showed the former interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, posting a narrow victory over the incumbent prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. Victims of the bombing quickly overwhelmed health care facilities in Khalis, and many of the wounded were taken to a hospital in Baquba, the provincial capital.