Weighting Curves

The hangings come at a time when interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari's bid to keep his position in a new government has been questioned by Iraqi political factions. "The prime minister is not soft," said Bassam Ridha, a Jafari advisor who witnessed the executions. He dismissed the timing as coincidence."The new Iraq will have to have a different flavor, harsh on the criminals," Ridha said. "Maybe Saddam will come soon." The executions, which were videotaped, took place at an undisclosed location in Baghdad and were witnessed by Ridha. Three additional prisoners were scheduled to be hanged but couldn't be brought because of security concerns. The 13 prisoners were given a last meal and time to pray before their execution, he said.
On Thursday, explosions and killings in Baghdad claimed the lives of at least 13 people. The attacks included a bombing that killed three people and injured 10 others near a Sunni mosque in a predominantly Shiite hood in southeastern Baghdad. A second explosion targeting an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad's Amiriya neighborhood killed six people including a child. Nine people were critically wounded. All were civilians. Outside a hospital in central Baghdad, a bomb killed two police commandos who had brought in four colleagues shot in a western Baghdad hood. Seven civilians were injured. A woman who worked for a human rights group in the Green Zone was gunned down as she left her west Baghdad home. Earlier in the day a teacher was shot by gunmen in Dora on Baghdad's southern edge. And Abu Ghraib is closing soon (for renovations). And those numbers don't add up either (ever), there must be a lot of Iraqis to be dying so many so often and so still climbing. And it sucks to be you.