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BAGHDAD (AP) — More than 40 Indian nurses who were trapped in territory captured by Islamic militants crossed into Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region Friday and will be under the protection of local security forces until flying home later in the day, authorities said.

The nurses had been stranded for more than a week at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, which Sunni militants, including fighters from the Islamic State extremist group, captured last month. Officials say the nurses were moved this week to the militant-held city of Mosul farther north.

Nawaz Hadi, the governor of Irbil province in the self-rule Kurdish region, said the nurses arrived at a checkpoint and were being cared for by the Kurdish militia fighters, known as peshmerga.

"All the nurses are safe with the peshmerga in Irbil," Hadi told The Associated Press. "After this, they will travel to the airport in Irbil and return home. They are very tired."

Earlier Friday, chief minister of Kerala state in India, Oommen Chandy, said the nurses would return to the southern Indian city of Kochi on a special aircraft arranged by the Indian government.

It remained unclear whether the nurses had been held by the extremist group or were just stranded in their territory. Neither Indian nor Iraqi officials have offered details.

According to the Indian Foreign Ministry, 39 Indian construction workers were abducted two weeks ago near Mosul and were being held by the militants, but were safe and unharmed.

About 10,000 Indians work and live in Iraq, but only about 100 are in violent, insecure areas.

On Thursday, the Islamic State group released 32 Turkish who were captured in Mosul. The group still holds nearly 50 people who were seized at the Turkish consulate in the city last month.

Also Friday, Iraqi government troops captured the village of Awja — the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein — south of Tikrit, military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.

The push through Awja is part of an ongoing military offensive that ultimately aims to retake Tikrit.

North of the city, government airstrikes targeted Islamic militants trying to capture the country's largest oil refinery, reportedly killing as many as 30 insurgents, authorities said.

Fighters from the Islamic State group have been trying for weeks to capture the Beiji facility, located some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The group appeared on the verge of taking the refinery last month, but military troops managed to hold on and have since received reinforcements to help bolster their defenses.

A government plane targeted around eight vehicles attacking government forces at the facility north of Baghdad early Friday morning, said Sabah al-Nuaman, the spokesman for Iraq's counterterrorism services. He said up to 30 militants were killed.

Al-Nuaman also said a helicopter gunship hit a house in the town of Qaim near the Syrian border where a gathering of the Islamic State group's local leaders was taking place. He said there were several casualties, but did not have a concrete figure.

The militants took control of Qaim, which controls a border crossing with Syria, last month during their blitz across Iraq, and now control a vast stretch of territory straddling the two countries.

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Naqvi reported from New Delhi.

LONDON (AP) — It may not destroy your soul, but it turns out heavy metal music can be hazardous to your brain. At least in some rare cases.

German doctors say they have treated a Motorhead fan whose headbanging habit ultimately led to a brain injury, but that the risk to metal fans in general is so small they don't need to give up the shaking.

Last January, doctors at Hannover Medical School saw a 50-year-old man who complained of constant, worsening headaches. The patient, who was not identified, had no history of head injuries or substance abuse problems but said he had been headbanging regularly for years — most recently at a Motorhead concert he attended with his son.

After a scan, doctors discovered their patient had a brain bleed and needed a hole drilled into his brain to drain the blood. The patient's headaches soon disappeared. In a follow-up scan, the doctors saw he had a benign cyst which might have made the metal aficionado more vulnerable to a brain injury.

"We are not against headbanging," said Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, one of the doctors who treated the man. "The risk of injury is very, very low. But I think if (our patient) had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened."

Islamian said the violent shaking of the head in headbanging can sometimes be enough to cause damage as the brain bumps up against the skull and noted a handful of previous injuries, also in heavy metal fans. The latest case was described in a report published online Friday in the journal Lancet.

Motorhead is a British metal band known for helping create the "speed metal" genre, which inspires extremely fast headbanging. Islamian described the band as "one of the most hard-core rock 'n' roll acts on earth."

Doctors said headbangers shouldn't be discouraged from enjoying their favorite bands.

"There are probably other higher risk events going on at rock concerts than headbanging," noted Dr. Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon and trustee of the British brain injury advocacy group Headway. "Most people who go to music festivals and jump up and down while shaking their heads don't end up in the hands of a neurosurgeon."

Islamian agreed heavy metal fans shouldn't necessarily skip the headbanging.

"Rock 'n' roll will never die," he said. "Heavy metal fans should rock on."

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Online:

www.lancet.com

LONDON (AP) — Television entertainer Rolf Harris, who for decades cultivated an image of the affectionate uncle with numerous children's television programs, was sentenced Friday to five years and nine months in prison for a string of abuses against young girls.

Judge Nigel Sweeney told London's Southwark Crown Court that the performer, a fixture on British and Australian screens for years, had abused the trust of millions. Ignoring the appeals of Harris' attorney that the trial had punished him enough, Sweeney ruled that he must spend time behind bars for the 12 counts of abuse that took place from the 1960s to the 1980s.

"You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all," Sweeney said. "Your reputation lies in ruins, you have been stripped of your honors. But you have no one to blame but yourself."

The sentence represents a spectacular fall from grace for the Australian-born celebrity who had been well respected in both countries. He was granted the privilege to paint an official portrait for Queen Elizabeth II to mark her 80th birthday, and performed at the monarch's Diamond Jubilee concert outside Buckingham Palace in 2012.

His conviction follows investigations into historic sex abuse by a number of British celebrities, including the late BBC TV host Jimmy Savile, who was a friend of Harris. After he died in 2011, police determined Savile had molested hundreds of young people.

Prosecutor Jenny Hopkins said Harris believed he could act without fear of consequences, using his status as a world-famous children's entertainer to assault girls.

Harris's high-profile trial shocked Britain and Australia and has prompted new allegations against him to emerge. Police are investigating the new claims.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa State University scientist pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges alleging that he falsified research for an AIDS vaccine to secure millions of dollars in federal funding.

Dong-Pyou Han, 57, entered his not guilty pleas to four counts of making false statements during his initial court appearance in Des Moines federal court. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Han was released on bond and his trial was scheduled for Sept. 2. Han and his attorney, Joe Herrold, declined to comment after the hearing.

Han, who was born in South Korea, was guided through the proceedings by an interpreter in California who attended the hearing by phone. The only time he addressed the court was to say "yes" when asked if he understood the charges.

The hearing was initially scheduled for last week, but Han was hospitalized after getting into a traffic accident in Ohio, where he has been living since resigning from Iowa State last fall. Magistrate Judge Celeste Bremer said Han has indicated he plans to move back to Iowa, where he'll be under the jurisdiction of federal probation officers, and she thanked him for managing to make it to the rescheduled hearing.

"I'm sorry to hear about your car accident and I'm glad you're out of the hospital," she said.

According to prosecutors, Han wrote a letter to university officials before he resigned last fall in which he confessed that he had spiked samples of rabbit blood with human antibodies to make an experimental HIV vaccine appear to have great promise. Han told them he started the fraud in 2009 "because he wanted (results) to look better" and that he acted alone.

"I was foolish, coward, and not frank," he allegedly wrote.

Han's actions raised hopes of a breakthrough in the scientific community. But the alleged misconduct was uncovered last year after scientists at Harvard University discovered the spiked samples.

According to the indictment, Han's misconduct caused colleagues to make false statements in a federal grant application and progress reports to NIH.

The NIH paid out $5 million under that grant as of last month. Iowa State has agreed to pay back NIH nearly $500,000 for the cost of Han's salary.

Experts say it is extremely rare for criminal charges to be brought in cases of scientific fraud, but that Han's alleged wrongdoing was extraordinary.

There have been only a handful of instances over the past 30 years in which criminal charges were brought in cases of alleged scientific fraud, Ivan Oransky, who co-founded of Retraction Watch, which tracks research misconduct, recently told The Associated Press.

Oransky said charges are rarely brought because the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, which investigates misconduct, doesn't have prosecution authority, and most cases involve smaller amounts of money. However, he said Han's case was "particularly brazen."