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11. april 2007
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An al-Qaeda associated terrorist group, the notorious GSPC, has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on Algeria's government today.
Bombs killed 30 people in Algeria's capital on Wednesday, attacks claimed by al Qaeda that raised fears the north African oil exporter was slipping back into the intense political violence of the 1990s.
One of the blasts, believed to be a suicide bombing, ripped part of the facade off the prime minister's headquarters in the centre of Algiers. A second bomb hit Bab Ezzouar on its eastern outskirts, the official APS news agency said.
The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the bombings in an Internet statement, which also included a claim of responsibility for attacks in neighboring Morocco and pictures of three "martyrs."
The claim could not be immediately verified but the group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has taken responsibility for a number of deadly attacks on security forces and foreigners in Algeria since January.
Hospital sources put the toll from the two bombings at 30. Earlier, APS put the toll at 23 dead with 162 wounded.
In February, a French anti-terrorist judge warned that the GSPC was strengthened both in Algeria and in Europe, and this bold terrorist attack certainly confirms the worst fears. Back in 2004, when a significant number of its top leaders were killed by Algerian security forces, the group appeared to be seriously wounded. If the pressure is not kept up, however, the salafists have the ability to regroup and attack again.
This is a threat not only to Algeria, which has suffered a lot from the extremists' bloodthirsty campaign for power and religious purity, but to Europe as well, especially France.
6:46:32 PM 
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Moqtada al-Sadr asked for millions of anti-US protesters in Najaf. The mainstream media are now being accused of covering up a major failure by the Shia extremist by falsely claiming "tens of thousands" of protesters (without mentioning the higher target), but the Multi-National Force Iraq website says the protesters only numbered between 5,000 and 7,000.
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for the protest on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, when Coalition forces toppled the Saddam Hussein regime.
The number of participants that took part in the event ranged from 5,000 to 7,000, based on aerial photographs, said U.S. Army Col. Steven Boylan, a military spokesman with Multi-National Force-Iraq.
During the era of Saddam Hussein the people could not voice their opinions or freely express how they felt about the government. This changed in Dec. 2005 when millions of Iraqis voted for a democratic future during their general election of a new government.
The gathering is part of the right to peaceful assembly and for the Iraqi people to voice their views, said Boylan. This is an example of the changes occurring in Iraq, he added.
Since the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime by the Coalition, and with the continued security efforts of the Iraqi security forces, citizens here can take part in their young democracy through peaceful assembly and protest.
Sheesh. You can probably get 5,000 protesters out in the streets to protest bad teeth in any major Middle East city. If this is even remotely correct, al-Sadr's protest totally flopped. Lucky for him he has the international media on his side to cover it up.
PS: It would of course help the credibility of the MNFI report if the photo their web page supplied was from Najaf, and not from another demontration in Baghdad. I assume, optimistically, that Col. Boylan counted demonstrators in the correct city.
6:51:56 AM
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In what may be the biggest breakthrough for the practical application of stem cell research, in a trial 13 of 15 type 1 diabetes sufferers was cured and didn't need insulin shots after stem-cell therapy.
Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again.
In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.
The results show that insulin-dependent diabetics can be freed from reliance on needles by an injection of their own stem cells. The therapy could signal a revolution in the treatment of the condition, which affects more than 300,000 Britons.
People with type 1 diabetes have to give themselves regular injections to control blood-sugar levels, as their ability to create the hormone naturally is destroyed by an immune disorder.
All but two of the volunteers in the trial, details of which are published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), do not need daily insulin injections up to three years after stopping their treatment regimes.
For whose interested in the implications of this quite astonishing breakthrough on the ongoing embryonic stem cell debate in the USA, it is worth noting that this therapy was based on the patients' own stem cells, so both sides will find arguments here.
6:44:32 AM
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Saudi Arabia is not exactly known for women's empowerment, but when one Judaie Ibn Salem got into an argument with his two wives about dividing his house and jokingly said he'd resolve it by marrying a third woman, his unnamed wives took it into their own hands. The man almost lost his nose in what must have been a pretty rough and well-deserved beating by the ladies.
"I swore that I would do it because ... they were impolite and that's when I came under an even bigger attack," Ibn Salem told Shams newspaper after having seven stitches inserted.
"I never realized they would get so worked up. But the only way to restore my dignity is really to take a third wife.
"I don't know what I'm going to lose next if I do that."
Watch out, Ibn! I think I have an idea exactly what body part you'll lose next.
5:04:59 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.05.2007; 04:52:28.
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