Here are some recent headlines worth checking out, compiled here for your convenience.
When Muntadhar al-Zeidi hurled his shoes narrowly missing George W. Bush at a press conference last December in Baghdad, he gained instant notoriety. Although he was arrested by the Iraqi officials, a sculpter has erected a statue commemorating his action. The statue of a shoe on a stand carved to look like a white sheet is located in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown approximately 80 miles north of Baghdad. For more information, please click here.
In other Iraq news, US Army officials announced that the suidice rate among soldiers has reached an all-time high. "Officials calculate the deaths at a rate of roughly 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers — which is higher than the adjusted civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War, officials told a Pentagon news conference," reports Pauline Jelinek of the Associated Press. For the rest of the article, please click here.
Blackwater Worldwide, a private security company, was officially booted out of Iraq today at the demand of the Iraqi government. Blackwater has been under harsh scrutiny for their lack of oversight and regulation, especially since September of 2007 when Blackwater employees allegedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians. For more, please click here.
Additionally, Reza Aslan, a renowned scholar on Islam and columnist recently published an article for The Daily Beast entitled "Obama's Nuclear Problem." In the column, Aslan stated that Barack Obama must clearly and publicly declare that a policy of regime change is no longer on the table. Aslan also writes that I.R. Iran may not actually want nuclear weapons for several reasons, but "only by convincing Iran that it has nothing to fear, either from Israel or from the US, or from the growing chorus of Arab states lined up against it, can we convince it to reign in its nuclear ambitions." For the full article, please click here.
In important domestic news, President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law today. The act effectively nullifys a 2007 Supreme Court decision on Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. that stated that an individual has a period of six months after the first instance of discrimination to file a pay-inequality lawsuit. Lily Ledbetter was employed by Goodyear Tires for 19 years and did not learn of the pay discrimination against her until the end of her career. About the signing, President Obama stated that "Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue, it's a family issue. And in this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month's paycheck to simple and plain discrimination." For the full article, please click here.
When Muntadhar al-Zeidi hurled his shoes narrowly missing George W. Bush at a press conference last December in Baghdad, he gained instant notoriety. Although he was arrested by the Iraqi officials, a sculpter has erected a statue commemorating his action. The statue of a shoe on a stand carved to look like a white sheet is located in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown approximately 80 miles north of Baghdad. For more information, please click here.In other Iraq news, US Army officials announced that the suidice rate among soldiers has reached an all-time high. "Officials calculate the deaths at a rate of roughly 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers — which is higher than the adjusted civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War, officials told a Pentagon news conference," reports Pauline Jelinek of the Associated Press. For the rest of the article, please click here.
Blackwater Worldwide, a private security company, was officially booted out of Iraq today at the demand of the Iraqi government. Blackwater has been under harsh scrutiny for their lack of oversight and regulation, especially since September of 2007 when Blackwater employees allegedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians. For more, please click here.
Additionally, Reza Aslan, a renowned scholar on Islam and columnist recently published an article for The Daily Beast entitled "Obama's Nuclear Problem." In the column, Aslan stated that Barack Obama must clearly and publicly declare that a policy of regime change is no longer on the table. Aslan also writes that I.R. Iran may not actually want nuclear weapons for several reasons, but "only by convincing Iran that it has nothing to fear, either from Israel or from the US, or from the growing chorus of Arab states lined up against it, can we convince it to reign in its nuclear ambitions." For the full article, please click here.
In important domestic news, President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law today. The act effectively nullifys a 2007 Supreme Court decision on Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. that stated that an individual has a period of six months after the first instance of discrimination to file a pay-inequality lawsuit. Lily Ledbetter was employed by Goodyear Tires for 19 years and did not learn of the pay discrimination against her until the end of her career. About the signing, President Obama stated that "Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue, it's a family issue. And in this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month's paycheck to simple and plain discrimination." For the full article, please click here.
