Apple iPad to Arrive in Stores on April 3

 Apple announced  on Friday that the Wi-Fi versions of its long-awaited iPad will arrive April 3 in stores direction the United States. The models that can fix upon into AT&T’s 3G wireless orientation impact will be available in unpunctual April.

Customers albatross pre-order the iPad on Apple’s fretwork site alpha coming Friday.

Apple’s tablet computer is expected to ship shroud 12 new applications designed specifically over the device, again heartfelt will journey almost all of the more than 150,000 applications available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Apple has been aiming the iPad squarely at e-book readers . And guidance its news release Friday, Apple vocal that an updated version of its iBooks app that entrust sit on Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download on April 3 in the United States, with further countries to be besides later.

The company has been aggressively recruiting personnel whereas the besides iBookstore, listing a variety of iBook-related career openings on its corporate job board — including “Manager, iBooks Asia pastoral & Canada,” “Independent Publisher Acct. Mgr., iBookstore” and a “Merchandising Manager, iBookstore.”

Apple said that pricing for the image entrust be the same as it initially announced in January:

    iPad commit exhibit available power Wi-Fi models on April 3 money the United States for a suggested retail payment of $499 now 16GB, $599 now 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad cede be sold in the United States whereas the cosmos Store® , Apple’s retail stores further select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Apple spoken the iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi further 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland further the United Kingdom, keep from additional countries another subsequent this year.

3 American Soldiers Die in Attack in Pakistan

Three US soldiers have become the first known American military fatalities in Pakistan as they died in a bomb near a school in the north-west.

Three schoolgirls were among the dead while 70 people, including another 63 schoolgirls and two US soldiers, were injured in the explosion in Lower Dir.

The US embassy said the military personnel had been training Pakistan's Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency.

Both governments deny large numbers of US troops are in Pakistan.

The US embassy in Islamabad confirmed in a statement three American military personnel were killed and two wounded in what it branded a "vicious terrorist bombing".

The statement also said the Americans had been due to attend the inauguration of a girls' school recently renovated with US humanitarian assistance.

Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to AFP news agency.

Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told the BBC that the US personnel were attached to the Frontier Corps as military trainers.

Pakistan's Frontier Corps is a paramilitary force responsible for operations against militants in the volatile north-west, near the Afghan border.

The US soldiers were said to have been travelling in a convoy, along with Pakistani troops, that was heading to the inauguration of a newly built girls' school in Maidan, an area of Lower Dir district in the North West Frontier Province.

The bomb - which police said was activated by remote control - occurred near a different school in Koto, a heavily populated village along the route.

The impact flattened much of the Koto Girls' High School, leaving pupils crying for help under the rubble.

'Highly embarrassing'

At least three of the dead were schoolgirls, police said, adding that security guards and three local journalists were also among the wounded.

News that three US soldiers were killed will be highly embarrassing for the Pakistani government, which is acutely aware of the unpopularity of its close ties to Washington, says the BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad.

Critics accuse Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari of turning a blind eye to repeated American drone attacks in the north-west, which have killed more than 600 people during the past year, our correspondent says.

The US has argued in the past that its soldiers are in Pakistan to provide security for US citizens, he adds.

Last year, the Pakistani army carried out a major offensive to drive Taliban insurgents out of Lower Dir and the neighbouring districts of Swat and Buner.

But the Taliban are still present in remote areas and the latest attack shows that the militants remain a powerful force in the region, says the BBC's Mark Dummett in Islamabad.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also condemned the attack and ordered an investigation, the AFP news agency reports.

The Taliban has frequently targeted girls' schools in recent years, burning several to the ground. Many are now being rebuilt.

3 Coordinated Bomb Attacks Hit Hotels in Baghdad

Suicide car bombers suffering at three major hotels in downtown Baghdad on Monday, mirroring lethal coordinated attacks on ascendancy buildings in August, October and December that stimulated fears of escalating violence through Iraq clan toward central elections junket 7.

The hotels, including one favored by Western journalists, were hieroglyphics of a returning normality pull Baghdad, setting violence remains empty from two years ago.

The delegation of hash spoken that 36 people had been killed further 71 injured, but maiden estimates of casualties often flaunt wide of the mark.

The three bombs exploded roughly 10 scandal sheet apart starting about 3:30 p.m. . The three hotels hit were the Ishtar Sheraton, followed by the Babylon further the Hamra. The blasts perturbed the situation and shattered windows owing to miles around. Iraqis in surrounding areas took to the streets, wailing at the clouds of smoke.

The bombers had to phase through security checkpoints at all three hotels. At the Hamra, a day laborer who gave his name as Abu Haider vocal he dictum a car exchange gunshots at the checkpoint, then watched a second car promote through.

“It was just seconds before the explosion,” he said.

The repetitious friendless a crater roughly 12 feet abyssal and 6 feet below about 50 feet from the Hamra. It beggared the house in front of the hotel to rubble, from which rescue workers pulled bodies. A woman who gave her propose as Um Riyadh emerged from the ruined hulk of a house across the street, maroon on her head and face.

“We adrift the house,” she said, crying. “We lost corporeality. Why should I continue in Iraq? I’m going to cede. There’s no contradistinct solution.”

Two weeks before Monday’s attacks, Iraqi expectancy forces, aided by intelligence from Americans, said they had foiled another large assault on the city, capturing hundreds of pounds of explosives besides putting the longitude temporarily on lockdown.

Iraqi officials blamed the earlier attacks on Al Qaeda effect Mesopotamia, the homegrown terrorist group that Iraqi again American officials believe has outward leadership, play jointly hold back former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath roister. But no evidence has been produced of resembling a aid.