Four Dead in Iraq Retaurant Bombing.

A bomb killed at least four people and wounded 25 others in one of Iraq's holy cities Wednesday morning, an Interior Ministry official said.

The bomb detonated in a popular restaurant in Karbala in the morning, when it was packed with breakfast diners.

The restaurant is reported to be about 400 meters from the headquarters of the city's security forces, said Karbala police spokesman Abdul Rahman al-Meshawi.

The attack came as Iraq prepares for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, which begins Friday. Authorities have strengthened security measures for the five-day holiday, which has in the past served as an important occasion for insurgents to carry out their attacks.

Karbala, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad, is revered as the home to a shrine honoring Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and a venerated Shiite martyr.

Source CNN.

By Victor.

Fear in Film Part 1

There is an unusual amount of apocalyptic, pre- and post-apocalyptic movies on the way for Christmas that tap into the inchoate fears of the american psyche. The themes of our assured destruction are diverse:

2012

Building on the popular urban legend, according to the Mayans apparently, the solar system will align with blah, blah, blah and we all will die. whats interesting about this movie is that in the end billionaires and heads of state survive by paying to get on a ship that floats by and watches the world burn. We can see how this relates to the current perception by the public that bankers are giving themselves huge bonuses while the economy they created collapses around them. This feeds into a basic sense of unfairness and is sure to fuel ticket sales. Trailer although it's been impossible to miss the promotion for this movie:

Karzai's Promise of a 'new season' for Afghanistan.

President Karzai's inauguration was attended by many Western dignitaries.

Walking along a 100-metre red carpet, President Hamid Karzai's arrival for his inauguration ceremony was unhurried.

But there is a growing sense of urgency that the Afghan leader must deliver progress in his second term.

In the hall where the ceremony took place, there was a sea of Afghan dignitaries as well as Western officials - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, and the British, French and Russian foreign ministers.

President Karzai knows he must balance all their demands.
The West - particularly the Americans - have been pouring on the pressure in recent days, saying that President Karzai must do more to stamp out corruption within his own administration.

By Victor

Source BBC.

Three Injured in Israeli Air Strikes on Gaza.

Two smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza were hit early on Tuesday

Three Palestinians have been injured in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers have said.

The Israeli military said it had hit a "weapons-manufacturing facility" near Gaza City and two smuggling tunnels near Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

The strikes were carried out overnight in response to two rockets fired from Gaza into Israel on Monday, it added.

In a separate incident, the Islamist group, Hamas, said two of its fighters were killed in an accidental explosion.

The Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades members had been carrying a rocket in a neighbourhood to the east of Gaza City when it blew up, it said.

There are unconfirmed reports that four others were injured by the blast. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of the incident.

Rocket attacks from Gaza have decreased since Israeli forces undertook an offensive against Hamas, which controls the coastal territory, last December and January, but there have been sporadic attacks since then.

The Qassam rockets launched on Monday evening landed in an uninhabited part of the western Negev desert. There were no reports of damage or injury.

Source: BBC

By Victor.

Fort Hood Shooting

on November 5 an army colonel and psychiatrist Nidal Hasan shot and killed 13 soldiers at Fort hood in Texas. His main responsibility had been to treat post-traumatic stress in those returning from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had repeatedly tried to break doctor patient privilege and turn over information about those under his care to be prosecuted for war crimes. It is believed that he had frequently corresponded to radical imams in the US and abroad via the internet. This has raised worries (as expressed in this WSJ article) that protection of expression could inhibit law enforcement agencies from addressing the self-radicalization of home-grown terrorists through increasingly accessible outlets of extreme ideology. This has also led some populists like Sarah Palin to call for more profiling of Muslims working in government positions. That liberal "political correctness" led to officials ignoring warning signs before this tragedy, has become a major talking point for some conservatives