QE2 is put out of commision in Dubai

The famous cruise ship the QE2 made her final voyage on November 11th. She left her home in Southhampton on a final two week cruise. She was bought by Nakheel, who is a big real estate developer in Dubai. Plans for the ocean liner involve transforming her into a fancy floating hotel. They plan to make the rooms larger and remodel them to fit today's standards. What kind of standards require them to remodel an already very prosperous and luxurious ship I have no idea, but it is going to be in Dubai, which is the most desireable and lavish vacation destination. They want to rip off the red smoke stack and use it as a large entrance. In place of the smoke stack, they want to create a four story room out of frosted glass. Their intent is to make this room the most luxurious and desireable room in Dubai. The ship was bought for £50 million.

Stunt Bikers in Iraq?!

Recently, a group of stunt-bikers practiced and performed their stunts in closed streets in front of a number of spectators. The event was put on as something fun to do. Not only was this cool to watch, but it was meant to demonstrate that perhaps there is some hope of freedom in Iraq. They wanted to show the world that fun can still be had in Iraq. With all the violence going on, its nice to have something fun and enjoyable.

Roadside Bombings in Iraq

At least 13 people died in a roadside bombing on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq. Many of these people were Iraqi government officials on their way to a meeting. The bomb completely blew up the bus that was carrying these officials.
Seprate from this attack, a women blew her self up, taking with her five other people. Two of these five people were Iraqi intelligence agents. Chaos countinues in the middle east. It's obvious some people are not very happy.

Brawl In the Iraqi Parliment

Choas erupted during a discussion, in the Iraqi parliment, on the security pact the will soon be voted on by Iraqi legislators. In this security pact contains the agreement that the U.S will stay through the year 2011. Even before the dicussion started legislators and lawmakers alike, felt the apprehension. It grew from raised voices to actual physical confrontation. Guards were already in the room because of the almost sure voilence that follows such a huge decision. Many different sects that hold seats in the parliment are fundamentally agaisnt dealing with Americans such especially followers of Cleric Moktada Al-Sadr (a very anti-American cleric) who hold 32 seats out of the 275 overall seats. The Parliment may vote on the Security Pact as soon as next week. After yesterdays showing in Parliment there is much to be worked out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20iraq.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast

Meeting of Two Sides On a Bridge

The Aimma Bridge has just recently been reopened for public use, since the numerous deaths that occurred on the bridge when there were rumors spread that there was a suicide bomber during a religious ceremony. The preceding stampede killed nearly one-thousand people; most were trampled on but many drowned when they jumped of the bridge and into the tigris river. This bridge is symbolic because it divided the Shiite neighborhood from the Sunni neighborhood. Now since reopened the two sides are symbolically linked. This is one event that makes Iraq look a little less bleak.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html?ref=world

Three blasts kills 28 people in Iraq

This morning on November 10, 2008, three synchronized bombs went off in the north of Baghdad. The attack was carried out in a mixed Sunni and Shi'a neighborhood. First there were two car bombs planted near a market, they went of five minutes apart. After this explosion a crowd appeared looking at the damage; at this time, a suicide bomber ran into the crowed and detonated his explosives. This is the deadliest attack in Iraq since June. This attack came after weeks of calm and peace.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Iraq gives religious miniorites less seats then what U.N suggested

The Iraqi executive council just ratified a bill that would guarantee only six out of four hundred and forty seats. This is less than half of the number of seats the the U.N suggested. Out of the Iraqi population there are seven-hundred and fifty thousand Christians, and mathatically they will most likely by underrepresented. Christian leaders in the country are threating to boycott the election believe that this is unfair. Christians are not the only religious minorities that are being underrepresented, there are also the Yazidis, Sabeans and Shabaks. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani hinted that he may veto the bill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/world/middleeast/09iraq.html?ref=middleeast

Iranian Minister voted out of power by parliment

Minister Ali Kurdon, a high ranking minister in the Iranian theocratic government was dismissed by the parliment by a 188 to 45 vote. Ali was charged with dishonesty, after it surfaced that he lied about a fake honorary diploma from Oxford. This looks poorly upon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is up for reelection in just eight month. This dismissal coincides with Iran's inflated economey, and falling oil prices. Things aren't looking up for the Incumbent President who is said to be becoming more unpopular by the day in Iran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/world/middleeast/05iran.html?ref=middleeast

Israeli's strike in Gaza

Since the since the ceasfire set in June, last night (tuesday November 4), Israel carried out an air strike in Gaza. Five Hamas militants were killed. The attack coming after a clash between Israeli soldiers and Hamas gunmen shot along the Gaza border. The truce between both sides have been generally kept, with the execption of some renegade hamas soldier launching mortars into Israeli territory. Also, Israel has accused Hamas of taking advantage of the ceasefire to stock up on arms and personel. However, both sides have expressed content with the ceasefire and seek to extent it longer than its original six month term.

Ben

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/world/middleeast/05mideast.html?ref=middleeast

Saddam Hussein owned some cool things

The Ocean Breeze, a 270 foot yacht formerly owned by Saddam Hussein is now up for sale. It is docked in Nice, France and is on the market for purchase. This isn't just your run of the mill gigantic luxury yacht, oh no. Saddam, being the elusive guy that he was had an escape tunnel built in to the yacht which led to an escape submarine. Even James Bond would have been impressed with that I would think. Saddam had the yacht built in 1989. Saddam reportedly never stayed on the yacht because he feared if he left the country, the country would become politically unstable. The yacht is an older one, it only has one helipad and doesn't have a gym. The brokers are not worried however, they thinks it's history will be a good selling point. They predict the yacht will go for around 35 million.

No no no! The civilians are negative points!

This is tough to swallow. In an effort to shut down terrorist cells and cell leader Abu Ghadiya, American troops attacked the small village of Sukkiraya in Syria. The attack lasted only a couple of minutes said some witnesses. And during those couple of minutes seven men, all supposedly innocent civilians were shot dead. A mother was shot as well, she said "I went outside to get my son and the Americans shot me, they were very close, five metres away. I was screaming, terrified."
Understandably, the nation of Syria was upset. So they decided to vent, and the government organized a rally of about 7,000 people who were all waiving around pictures of their president and burning United States flags. In response to all this, the Americans said that they have a right to self-defence, even if that means crossing international boarders.
No terrorists were said to be killed, and the leader was not found. In fact, the villagers said that there were never any terrorists there in the first place. Oops.

Just when you felt better about filling your car...

As I'm sure you've noticed, the price of gas has significantly decreased since summer. Oil has dropped from $375.00 a barrel to $287.00 a barrel. This is great...while it lasts. It has just been said that the heads of OPEC, the worlds larges oil exporting countries, decided to reduce the production of oil. They are doing this in efforts to combat the sliding oil prices around the globe. They have decided to cut production by 1.5 million barrels a day (about 5%). Upsetting, yes? The Prime Minister of the UK, Gordon Brown criticized OPEC's decision to pull back production. We will just have to watch the prices at the pump and hope for the best.