The Quadrangle

Issue date: 1/26/05 Section: News

Car Bombings Hit Baghdad
According to CNN.com, four car bombings that took place within an hour and a half of each other left at least 25 dead in Baghdad on Wednesday, January 19th.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the culprit terrorist group leader, admitted that they were responsible for the suicide bombings on the internet. The group is also known to have links to al Qaeda.
At 7 a.m., the first bomb went off in southern Baghdad, close to the Australian Embassy, killing at least one civilian and wounding more. A half-hour later, a second bomb went off in central Baghdad close to the al-Alahi hospital, resulting in at least 18 dead and another 15 wounded. The third attack was in a control point in the Baghdad International Airport 45 minutes later, resulting in two dead and three wounded. The final bombing was in the Al-Muthana airport 15 minutes later, killing four.
U.S. soldiers detonated another car bomb headed toward Baghdad's airport, according to Col. Mike Murray, who commands the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry.
Murray said, "Out of the four car bombs in Baghdad...in every case, there was an Iraqi soldier either from the Iraqi army or the Iraqi national guard or an Iraqi policemen that prevented the car bomb from getting to its intended target... As tragic as it is, there were some Iraqi security forces that paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect their countrymen, the same way that they're going to do on election day."

Chinese Hostages Held Captive in Iraq
According to CNN.com, a video was released on Friday, January 21 by a group called The Islamic Resistance Movement. The video threatened to kill eight Chinese hostages if the Chinese government did not stop Chinese citizens from working for Americans in Iraq.
Three days earlier, January 18, the same group released a video that stated they had captured the eight men.
In the video released on Friday, an Arabic speaker stated, "We would like to inform you that the Chinese ambassador has defended his position in Iraq and said that he is not working with the Americans...Iraq is a battlefield and no mercy will be given to those who work with our enemies...the occupiers."
"We ask that your government to issue a statement forbidding the Chinese citizens from entering Iraq and this will be considered as a positive gesture and will make us look mercifully on these hostages," the speaker added.
The video showed the eight hostages in front of a wall, four were standing and the other four were kneeling. Hooded guards were standing on both sides of them. The video also showed each hostages passport, revealing that three of them were teenagers, ages 17, 18, and 19.
"After interrogating them, we learned that they are Chinese working for a Chinese contracting company in Iraq. This company is carrying out the task of rebuilding one of the American bases," the speaker said.

Soviet Union-Nazi Germany Pact May Be Renounced
According to CNN.com, on Thursday, January 20th, Estonian President Arnold Ruutel revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was going to repudiate the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939.
The pact divided most of Eastern Europe amongst Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Named after Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, the furtive pact placed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania under Soviet control.
According to President Ruutel, "[Putin] said that Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, supports annulling the pact and considers this the right thing to do...I believe it's very important for us and the Russian society to note that Russia has done this."

Elephant Poaching in Congo
According to CNN.com, the police and army of the Democratic Republic of Congo were accused of being involved in elephant poaching. The poaching could result in the extinction of the forest elephants in a world heritage site, which is located in the eastern part of the former Zaire.
A study by the Congolese Institute for Conservation of Nature has revealed that an estimated 17 tons of elephant has been stolen from the Okapi Wildlife Reserve during the past six months.
Reuters initially saw the report. The report stated, "Although a significant number of people are implicated in the trade, our investigations have identified just 12 people who played the role of main poachers...they are all linked to the military and the national police....Unless this poaching is controlled immediately, the elephants in the OWR, which represent the last large population in the country, will soon be threatened with almost total extinction."
According to the Wildlife Conservation Society's senior scientist John Hart, "This is the worst poaching we have seen in 30 years...If this population is wiped out, about half of Africa's forest elephants will have been depleted. There are some others in Gabon and the Republic of Congo, but this population is the last major bastion of these elephants.
Hart also stated that the elephant population had dropped by over 1,000 since 2003. The population at that time was around 7,500.
Senior policeman General Daniel Katsuva said, "I have asked the provincial police inspector to go and speak to those accused to establish what is going on out there."

Iran Not Scared of U.S. Attack
According to CNN.com, Iran's Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani stated that Iran has the military power to fight off any attacks against them. These statements were made after United States President George W. Bush said that military actions against Iran were not discarded.
"We are able to say that we have strength such that no country can attack us because they do not have precise information about our ability to implement flexible strategies...We can claim that we have rapidly produced equipment that has resulted in the greatest deterrent," Shamkahani said, not fearing an attack.
President Bush stated that he would not rule out an attack on Iran if they were not more enlightening about their alleged nuclear weapons program. He also stated that there were military units searching Iran to try and find any concealed nuclear and chemical sites.

CNN.com contributed to this article.

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