Suicide bombers targeted a popular Sufi shrine in Lahore, Pakistan today, killing 37 people. Amir Ahmed Khan, head of BBC's Urdu service joins us with the details; headlines.

The Al-Qaida branch in Yemen has reportedly launched an English-language magazine, called Inspire. The group, which has been linked to the failed Christmas airline bombing attempt over Detroit, posted a few pages of the magazine on jihadist websites, including a front cover tease on how to "make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."

This Fourth of July, many of us will be enjoying a hot dog or three. But if you’re one of a few select Major League Eating athletes in Coney Island, you’ll more likely be eating forty, fifty, or sixty — in the space of only ten minutes. We refer, of course, to the competitors in the crown jewel of all competitive eating events: The Coney Island Nathans Hot Dot Eating Contest; which, since 1916, has taken place on July 4th, Independence Day.

Boston University scientists believe they may have uncovered the secret to why some people live to be 100 years old. According to a new report, published in Science by the New England Centenarian Study at Boston Medical Center, scientists may have have pinpointed the gene for long life. Researches found that 40 percent of those who live to be at least 110 shared three genetic signatures. The director of the study, Dr. Thomas Perls, talks to us about the findings and how they may change medicine.

Larry Talvy, city marshall in Tombstone, Ariz. talks about how officers are training for the new immigration law in order to avoid racial profiling; headlines.

Scott Turow, legal scholar and author of classics like "Presumed Innocent," and "One L," is well-versed in the culture of Harvard Law, and met Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan while at Harvard. He shares with us his own insights into what kind of justice the former Harvard Law School Dean might make.

“The Last Airbender” is the live-action feature film based on the highly successful animated series on Nickelodeon. It’s also the center of a growing controversy about casting and race. The series features Asian settings, costumes, architecture, and character and location names that incorporate Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian phonemes — such as “Aang,” “Fong” and “Sing.” And yet, when casting the motion picture, the studio chose four white actors to play the leads. When one of the actors dropped out, he was replaced by Dev Patel of “Slumdog Millionaire” fame, but it’s still the case that three of the four leading actors are white.

When Arizona's controversial immigration law goes into effect at the end of this month, police officers will be under close scrutiny in their enforcement. A new video hopes to make Arizona's police force equal to that scrutiny. The video was required by Jan Brewer at the law's signing on April 23, and it's been mailed out to all 170 police districts the state. We speak with Larry Talvy, a marshal from Tombstone, Arizona, who has watched the video, about what anxieties it reveals and what situations it hopes to prevent. 

On January 1, 2009, a white officer shot a black subway rider in the back, on California's BART train. Multiple passengers captured the shooting on their cell phone cameras and that footage was part of the evidence in the trial. The officer told jurors that he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his electric taser while he struggled to handcuff Oscar Grant and shot him by accident. The case has divided Oakland, Calif., and was tried in a Los Angeles court in order to find an impartial jury.

House Democrats worked late into the night to push ahead legislation to add $37 billion to war funding in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill also boosts domestic spending for teachers, student loans and U.S.-Mexico border security. Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, has the details on the bill. He says that it's becoming clear that the war in Afghanistan is getting harder to support, and that last night's voting reflected that.

One of the accused in an apparent Russian spy ring arrested earlier this week by the F.B.I. has confessed to working for that country's secret intelligence service. Federal prosecutors say the confession from a man who called himself Juan Lazaro is the first. The case has captured the country's attention, not only for the number of people involved, but the Cold War era techniques used in passing off information. Why did this man choose to confess? 

This week, moviegoers are can choose from abstinent vampires (again), a mamma's boy, and some racially questionable martial arts kids. We refer of course, to: "Twilight Eclipse," "Cyrus," and "The Last Airbender." Rafer Guzman, Takeaway contributor and Newsday critic, shares his opinions on the big releases, and lets us know what we should see and what we should avoid.

We've been compiling a summer soundtrack for The Takeaway. We're calling this our summer mixed tape series. Who has given us their summer jams so far? MTV's Sway, and SNL's Fred Armisen, who used to play drums in the punk band Trenchmouth. This week, we've got a guest who surely can hang with the best mixtape auteurs: Grammy-winning 80's rocker Pat Benatar.  

New figures out this morning show the unemployment rate dropped to 9.5 percent, it's lowest in almost a year. But this was driven mostly by a drop in people looking for work. Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, which was the most since last October. New York Times finance reporter, Louise Story, breaks down the numbers. Louise reminds us that 8 milllion jobs have been lost since 2007 and that a real recovery will take years. She also looks at the effects of these numbers on the markets.