Death Toll

State health officials confirmed five more heat-related deaths Monday as a cool-down ended one of the longest heat waves on record for the region. The heat killed a total of 18 people during a 12-day stretch of 90- and 100-degree heat, state health officials reported Monday. The latest casualties include an elderly Baltimore County woman, a Baltimore man, two Prince George's County men and a St. Mary's County man. Three other people died during the derecho storm, characterized by powerful winds, on June 29. Many of the heat victims had underlying chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes, and many also may have lacked air-conditioning because of extended power outages, a state health official said.

Richard Vatz takes us on a meandering journey in his op-ed "Who will be our next profiles in courage?" (Jan. 15). He wonders "Where do our current leaders land on the courage criterion? ... Will they recognize, as one of my colleagues puts it, that outrage about the Newtown school shootings doesn't justify policies that cannot possibly stop or minimize such outrages?" It amazes me that leaders in our nation, which is rightfully proud of the contributions and enormous sacrifices made by "the greatest generation" in fighting World War II, go weak-kneed when confronted by the National Rifle Association.

A Baltimore City woman and Montgomery County man have been added to the tally of heat-related deaths this summer, bringing the total to 40. That makes this summer's heat the deadliest since 2005, according to state health officials. The fatalities were reported in a weekly update from state health officials released Tuesday. The deaths occurred earlier this summer but were just confirmed as heat-related in the past week. The casualties surpassed the total from 2006, when 39 heat-related deaths were confirmed.

State health officials confirmed two more cold weather-related deaths in Maryland over the past week, bringing the death toll to four in Maryland so far this winter. Hypothermia was a factor in the death of a Calvert County woman aged 45-64 some time between Jan. 1 and Monday. Cold weather also contributed to the death of a Carroll County man aged 45-64 some time earlier this winter but only confirmed since Jan. 1. Since New Year's Day, all but one day has dipped below freezing at BWI Marshall Airport and all but two days reached the 20s. In December, 13 days dropped below freezing.

MIAMI -- A physicians' group that took part in a recent study of the impact of an international embargo on the people of Haiti has challenged the study's projection that the sanctions may be killing as many as 1,000 children each month.The group, Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement yesterday that the estimated death toll was an unreasonable extrapolation of data from a small region. The report was drawn up by the Center for Population and Development Studies at Harvard University.

Baltimore's homicide toll has grown by two with the deaths of a 19-year-old man who was shot while on his way to visit a girlfriend and a 51-year-old man beaten to death while walking along a street.The latest killing occurred just before 2 a.m. yesterday as Wendell "Toby" Wilson left his home in the 4800 block of Poe Avenue in Northwest Baltimore to walk through a known drug trafficking area to visit his 17-year-old girlfriend, said Dennis S. Hill, a Baltimore police spokesman.The young man was approached by several people -- one of whom pulled out a long-barrel, .22-caliber revolver and fired six shots, striking Mr. Wilson once in the neck and hand.

HERAT, Afghanistan -- The number of civilians killed in bombing by foreign forces Tuesday night was much higher than the official figure of 21 and might rise as high as 80, residents reached by telephone said yesterday. The residents' tally differed from that given by Ezatullah, a government administrator of the Sangin region who uses one name. He said he had spent four to five hours in the village of Sarwan Qala yesterday and that the civilian death toll remained 21. The U.S. military has stood by its original statement, in which it said it called in the airstrikes on Taliban insurgents after a 16-hour battle and destroyed three militant compounds.

Not wanting to think about civilian deaths in Iraq has become almost universal. But ignorance of the Iraqi death toll is no longer an option. An Associated Press poll in February found that the average American believed about 9,900 Iraqis had been killed since the end of major combat operations in 2003. Recent evidence suggests that things in Iraq may be 100 times worse than Americans realize. News report tallies suggest that about 75,000 Iraqis have died since the U.S.-led invasion. But a study of 13 war-affected countries presented at a recent Harvard conference found that more than 80 percent of violent deaths in conflicts go unreported by the press and governments.

Government analysts downgraded the annual death toll from obesity yesterday in a study that is certain to bewilder a public already obsessed with dieting and nutrition. In fact, they inexplicably found that people who weigh a few pounds more than the ideal are less likely to die than those who weigh a few pounds less. Taken together, the findings will undoubtedly leave scientists and consumers arguing over obesity's true role in mortality - though no one argues that being overweight is good for you. The latest report by scientists with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that obesity kills about 112,000 people a year, only a third of the number estimated just four months ago. But Dr. Kathleen Flegal, who led the study reported in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, said the lower death estimate should not make consumers complacent about their expanding waistlines.

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico - Help arrived by the truckload in flood-ravaged neighborhoods of this border town yesterday, bringing relief to thousands of desperate residents who lost everything to the Rio Escondido over the weekend. The flood's death toll remained at 33, with dozens more missing and nearly 2,000 people getting help in shelters. About 400 people from the military and hundreds of government officials and volunteers, many wearing face masks to guard against health risks, worked through the night to restore power and clear away debris.

A Baltimore City woman and Montgomery County man have been added to the tally of heat-related deaths this summer, bringing the total to 40. That makes this summer's heat the deadliest since 2005, according to state health officials. The fatalities were reported in a weekly update from state health officials released Tuesday. The deaths occurred earlier this summer but were just confirmed as heat-related in the past week. The casualties surpassed the total from 2006, when 39 heat-related deaths were confirmed.

Health officials said Tuesday they have linked two more deaths to the heat wave and derecho storm that struck Maryland earlier this month, and heat contributed to three other deaths since that crisis ended. A Baltimore man and Worcester County man brought to 20 the total heat-related casualties from a 12-day stretch with temperatures 90 degrees and higher, which also included the powerful windstorm. Another three Marylanders died during the storm June 29. Two men from Montgomery and Harford counties and an elderly Prince George's County woman have died amid continuing heat, a spell of which is forecast to last through Thursday.

WEATHER The National Weather Service is calling for Tuesday to be mostly cloudy in the Baltimore area, with a high near 87 and east winds 5 to 7 miles per hour. There is a 30 percent chance of precipitation. There is a 30 percent chance of precipitation. Tuesday night is expected to be mostly cloudy, with a low around 72 and southeast winds around 5 miles per hour or less. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute.

Something's rotten on the Baltimore area waterfront. Fish are washing ashore by the thousands in a mass die-off that officials say appears to be caused by a weather-driven worsening of the pollution that chronically plagues the Chesapeake Bay. State investigators expanded their probe Wednesday into what they believe are algae-related fish kills in Marley, Furnace and Curtis creeks in Glen Burnie, raising the estimated death toll there tenfold, while...

Your editorial "No way out for Syria" (Jan. 24) catalogs a lot of facts about the bloody turmoil that engulfs Syria today. The editorial notes the disinclination of practically any party involved to act forcefully - apart from the Syrians risking their lives every day to oppose the tyranny of the Bashar Assad regime. But as one might expect in an editorial, it makes no recommendation. Moreover, it fails to explain why none of the interested parties is acting to punish Assad and his cronies for a blood-letting that is exceeded only by the blood-letting Bashar's father, Hafez, wrought on his own people.

BOMBAY, India -- Ward 1 of the Hinduja Hospital treats male patients with psychiatric and skin disorders, but not of the kind seen here yesterday. There was the man suffering such anguish that he emitted terrified, bone-chilling screams every few minutes. Propped up in beds around him were other dazed-looking patients with fragments of metal embedded in their skin - along their backs, in their arms and legs. This was the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in India in more than a decade, a series of synchronized explosions along a crowded commuter railway that killed as many as 200 people and wounded hundreds in the country's financial and entertainment capital.

BAGHDAD -- The wails of mourners reverberated yesterday across the Shiite Muslim city of Amarah, still reeling from three car bombs that ripped through its main market the previous day. The provincial Health Department lowered the death toll from 41 to 28, citing confusion in the immediate aftermath of the first major bombing to hit the southern city during the Iraq war. At the same time, the estimate of the number of injured grew to at least 180, said...