hey, here's a few stories Bill O'Reilly didn't report on today. Vol. CXXXVI No. 356

BAGHDAD -- Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in Amarah on Wednesday, killing at least 41 people and injuring 128 in what has been a relatively calm Shiite Muslim city, police and hospital officials said.

The blasts ripped through the main market of the southern Iraqi city, where British forces in April turned over full responsibility for security to the provincial government. Within days, Britain is expected to hand over responsibility for neighboring Basra, the last province under its control, raising the specter of escalating bloodshed throughout oil-rich southern Iraq.

The blasts, which occurred within a 15-minute period, blew out shop doors and shattered windows. Shoes, clothing and torn body parts lay amid the blood.

It was the deadliest attack since August in Iraq, where U.S. officials have reported a 60% decline in violent incidents since they completed a 28,500-troop buildup in June. In recent days, there has been a spate of bombing attacks across the country that have caused double-digit casualties.

Major bombings have been rare in the overwhelmingly Shiite south, which has been spared the worst of the sectarian clashes that have beset Baghdad and other parts of the country.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but synchronized bombings are a hallmark of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. U.S. commanders recently warned that Sunni extremists forced out of Baghdad and surrounding areas were moving elsewhere and could strike where security was less robust.

Violence also flares periodically between rival Shiite militias vying for political influence and control of the oil wealth in the region. Two southern governors were assassinated in August and a number of senior security officials have been slain, including Babil province's popular police chief, who died in a roadside bombing Sunday.

The explosives-rigged cars in the latest attack were parked in a lot opposite the main market in Amarah, the capital of Maysan province, a stretch of marshland and desert bordering Iran.

The blasts reverberated across the city, said Mohammed Alaq, a barber who came running to look for his mother. She left home in the morning to go shopping and had not been heard from since.

LEESBURG, Florida (CNN) -- Samuel Snow thought when he got a check from the Pentagon that the Army was finally ready to give him the apology and the compensation he'd been denied for 63 years. He was wrong.

The Army imprisoned Snow in 1944 for a crime he says he couldn't have committed. The military overturned his conviction this year and sent him his back pay for the 15 months he spent in prison: $725.

Snow is one of just two defendants still alive from one of the biggest military trials of World War II.

Twenty-eight black soldiers were sent to prison after an Italian prisoner of war, Guglielmo Olivotto, was found hanged to death following a night of brawling at Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington.

At a time when the military forces were segregated, 41 black soldiers were tried in one large group and were provided two attorneys to defend them all.

According to the Army, 28 of the soldiers were convicted of rioting, including Pvt. Samuel Snow, who spent 15 months behind bars.

Two of those soldiers also were convicted of manslaughter in the death of the POW and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Thirteen of the men were acquitted.

After being released from prison, Snow returned to the segregated South. He arrived home with a criminal record, a bad conduct discharge and no benefits such as those provided by the GI Bill of Rights. He became a janitor.

In October, the Army Board for Corrections of Military Records determined the defendants were denied a fair trial. The board said the prosecutor refused to give defense attorneys access to confidential evidence.

BAGHDAD - A series of attacks on Iraqi police and volunteer patrols killed at least seven people in Baghdad and neighboring provinces on Saturday, including Diyala, where clashes erupted in villages ringing the provincial capital, officials said.

The U.S. military also announced the death of an American soldier shot Friday in northern Ninevah province.

Early Saturday in eastern Baghdad, a pair of synchronized roadside bombs targeted a passing police patrol, killing two civilians. The second bomb detonated about two minutes after the first, hitting bystanders who had gathered at the site, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details of the attack.

In the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah, a member of a U.S.-backed volunteer patrol was killed by an explosives-rigged bag he received from a stranger who claimed to have found it in the street, according to Iraqi army Col. Riadh al-Samaraie. The explosion wounded a second security volunteer, al-Samaraie said.

Sunnis have been turning against al-Qaida in significant numbers and signing up for the volunteer security forces — partly in disgust at the militant group's brutal tactics, and partly to seek American protection against what they see as government-backed Shiite militias. American officials say the volunteers now number about 72,000 nationwide, and as their numbers grow, they are increasingly targeted.