Snooki Weight Loss Photos: Through the Years


You gotta hand it to Snooki.

Since she first burst on the scene and out of her pants in late 2009, the girl has gotten progressively thinner, an impressive feat considering she's a full-blown drunk.

Fortunately, inhaiing Deena's face means fairly low caloric intake. That's gotta count for something. And working out helps too of course. She does her GTL.

Take a look at Snooki pictures from last month, late 2010 and early 2010:

Thin Snooki PicSnooki Pre-Weight LossSnooki Poof

Finally, to truly illustrate how far she's come, take a look back to 2009, before she was famous, during the filming of Season One of Jersey Shore. Words fail us:

Jabba the Snooki

Snooki: Would you smush it?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/snooki-weight-loss-photos-through-the-years/

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Wave of bombings across Iraqi capital kills 60 (AP)

BAGHDAD ? A wave of at least 14 bombings ripped across Baghdad Thursday morning, killing at least 60 people in the worst violence in Iraq for months. The apparently coordinated attacks struck days after the last American forces left the country and in the midst of a major government crisis between Shiite and Sunni politicians that has sent sectarian tensions soaring.

The bombings may be linked more to the U.S. withdrawal than the political crisis, but all together, the developments heighten fears of a new round of Shiite-Sunni sectarian bloodshed like the one a few years back that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the bombings bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaida's Sunni insurgents. Most appeared to hit Shiite neighborhoods, although some Sunni areas were also targeted. In all, 11 neighborhoods were hit by either car bombs, roadside blasts or sticky bombs attached to cars. There was at least one suicide bombing and the blasts went off over several hours.

The deadliest attack was in the Karrada neighborhood, where a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle blew himself up outside the office of a government agency fighting corruption. Two police officers at the scene said the bomber was driving an ambulance and told guards that he needed to get to a nearby hospital. After the guards let him through, he drove to the building where he blew himself up, the officers said.

Sirens wailed as ambulances rushed to the scene and a large plume of smoke rose over the area. The blast left a crater about five yards (meters) wide in front of the five-story building, which was singed and blackened.

"I was sleeping in my bed when the explosion happened, said 12-year-old Hussain Abbas, who was standing nearby in his pajamas. "I jumped from my bed and rushed to my mom's lap. I told her I did not to go to school today. I'm terrified."

At least 25 people were killed and 62 injured in that attack, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Figures gathered from Iraqi health and police officials across the city put the death toll at 60, and 160 injured. The spokesman for the Iraqi health ministry put the death toll at 57 and said at least 176 people were injured. But conflicting casualty figures are common in the aftermath of such widespread bombings.

For many Iraqis and the Americans who fought a nearly nine-year war in hopes of leaving behind a free and democratic country, the events of the past few days are the country's nightmare scenario. The fragile alliance of Sunnis and Shiites in the government is completely collapsing, large-scale violence with a high casualty toll has returned to the capital, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is displaying an authoritarian streak and may be moving to grab the already limited power of the Sunnis.

Al-Maliki's Shiite-led government this week accused Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the country's top Sunni political leader, of running a hit squad that targeted government officials five years ago, during the height of sectarian warfare. Authorities put out a warrant for his arrest.

Many Sunnis fear this is part of a wider campaign to go after Sunni political figures in general and shore up Shiite control across the country at a critical time when all American troops have left Iraq.

Because such a large-scale, coordinated attack likely took weeks to plan, and the political crisis erupted only few days ago, the violence was not likely a direct response to the tensions within the government. Also, al-Qaida opposed Sunni cooperation in the Shiite-dominated government in the first place and is not aligned with Sunni politicians.

The Sunni extremist group often attacks Shiites, who they believe are not true Muslims.

U.S. military officials worried about a resurgence of al-Qaida after their departure. The last American troops left Iraq at dawn Sunday.

Al-Qaida in Iraq is severely debilitated from its previous strength in the early years of the war, but it still has the capability to launch coordinated and deadly assaults from time to time.

The attacks ratchet up tensions at a time when many Iraqis are already deeply worried about security. The real test of whether sectarian warfare returns, however, will be whether Shiite militants are resurgent and return to the type of tit-for-tat attacks seen at the height of sectarian warfare in 2006-2007.

Iraqis are already used to horrific levels of violence, but many wondered when they would be able to enjoy some measure of security and stability after years of chaos.

"My baby was sleeping in her bed. Shards of glass have fallen on our heads. Her father hugged her and carried her. She is now scared in the next room," said one woman in western Baghdad who identified herself as Um Hanin. "All countries are stable. Why don't we have security and stability?"

While Baghdad and Iraq have gotten much safer over the years, explosions like Thursday's are still commonplace.

Al-Maliki's tactics are another source of concern, especially for Sunnis. He is also pushing for a vote of no-confidence against another Sunni politician, the deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlaq.

Ayad Allawi, who heads a Sunni-backed party called Iraqiya, laid the blame for Thursday's violence with the government. The Iraqiya coalition also includes al-Hashemi and al-Mutlaq, and Allawi has been one of al-Maliki's strongest critics. Allawi warned that violence would continue as long as people are left out of the political process.

"We have warned long ago that terrorism will continue ... against the Iraqi people unless the political landscape is corrected and the political process is corrected, and it becomes an inclusive political process and full blown non-sectarian institutions will be built in Iraq," Allawi told The Associated Press, speaking from neighboring Beirut. __

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

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17 dead in Sunday's Russian oil rig accident (AP)

MOSCOW ? The deathtoll from Sunday's oil rig accident off Russia's east coast has risen to 17 people.

A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said rescue teams on Thursday recovered six bodies from the Sea of Okhotsk where the floating oil rig capsized and sank Sunday.

Of the 67 men aboard, 14 were rescued from the icy water; 36 men are still missing and chances of finding them alive are negligible.

The Kolskaya floating platform was being towed back to a Sakhalin Island port in a fierce storm when a strong wave broke some of its equipment and portholes, and it capsized in the choppy water.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_oil_platform

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Move over, Magneto (The Newsroom)

Amir Hekmati. (Courtesy of his family)

The family members of an Iranian-American man being held in Iran as an alleged spy said Tuesday they are shocked by the accusations, which they said are untrue.

Amir Hekmati, 28, a former U.S. Marine linguist from Flint, Michigan, was given permission by the Iran interests section in Washington, D.C. to travel to Iran to visit his elderly grandparents and relatives there, his family said in a statement emailed to journalists covering the case Tuesday.

Hekmati entered Iran on August 14th, and was detained more than two weeks later.

"The Iranian government detained Amir on August 29, 2011 without any charges, and urged our family to remain silent with the promise of an eventual release," the family said in the statement. They have not heard from him directly in 100 days.

But on Sunday, Iranian television broadcast a video of Hekmati allegedly "confessing" to having been a CIA agent sent to infiltrate Iran.

Hekmati's family said Tuesday the charges are outrageous and untrue.

Amir's family was "shocked by the recent broadcast aired on Iranian TV with false information and a forced confessions," the statement said. "Amir has never had any affiliation with the CIA, and these allegations are untrue."

Amir's family "hopes that this misunderstanding can be resolved peacefully with Iran, and that Amir can be reunited with his family and friends in the US who miss him dearly, and are praying for his safe return," the statement said.

The family--Amir's father Ali Hekmati works as a professor of biology at a community college in Flint, Michigan--said in the statement that Hekmati served in the U.S. Marines from 2001 until 2005.

Another former U.S. Marine, Jared Bystrom, told Yahoo News Tuesday that he and Hekmati had been posted by the Marines to the defense language school in Monterey, California in 2001. Hekmati had studied Arabic, Bystrom said. Hekmati later served as a linguist in Iraq.

Read More ?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/yahoonewsroom/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20111221/od_yblog_newsroom/move-over-magneto

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