AP News In Brief

Obama met with advisers at the White House as developments in Iran grew more ominous.

"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo, Egypt, this month.

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Truck explodes near Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, killing more than 60 people

BAGHDAD (AP) — A truck bomb exploded as worshippers left a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq on Saturday, killing more than 70 people and wounding nearly 200 in the deadliest bombing this year.

The blast near Kirkuk — a city rife with ethnic tensions — came hours after the prime minister warned Iraqis to expect more violence as U.S. troops withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of this month, but he insisted the deadline will be met "no matter what happens."

The Americans already have begun pulling back combat troops from inner-city outposts in Baghdad, Mosul and other urban areas ahead of the June 30 deadline set in a security pact that calls for a full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq by 2012.