Tuesday has been a day of multiple terrorist attacks stretching the globe and some good news on the terrorism front as well. Good news first.

- Associated Press

PARIS (AP) - France intensified efforts Tuesday to save two journalists held hostage in Iraq, convening crisis talks in Paris and around the Arab world as a 24-hour execution deadline set by militants neared.

The official Jordanian news agency, Petra, reported from Iraq that it expected the release of the journalists “within the next few hours.” The agency said its report was based on “well-informed” sources.

French President Jacques Chirac said every effort was being made to free the journalists - although his government has steadfastly refused to bow to kidnappers’ demands that a new law banning Islamic head scarves in French public schools be revoked.

This is great news that terrorists released the two French journalists who are guilty of nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is interesting to note that these journalists have been involved in anti-war rhetoric and are strongly against the war in Iraq. The troubling news to this case is that Chirac stood stead-fast on his country’s decision to ban head scarves. I applaud Chirac, I’ll hate myself ater, for not swaying the rules of his country due to terrorists’ demands, however what is the point of this law? It seems much like a discrimination case and much like an unjust law. I do not however live in France so I cannot fully comment on France’s policy.

Now on to the bad news.

- Associated Press

BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) - Palestinian suicide bombers blew up two buses almost simultaneously in this southern city Tuesday, killing at least 16 passengers and wounding more than 80 in the first major attack inside Israel in nearly six months.

The explosions - for which the Hamas militant group claimed responsibility - ended a period of relative calm. Israel has attributed the lull to its crackdown on Palestinian militants and continued construction of a separation barrier in the West Bank. Palestinian militants have acknowledged they have faced increasing difficulties carrying out attacks.

The two buses blew up 15 seconds apart, about 100 yards from a busy intersection in the center of Beersheba. “People were screaming and yelling. Everybody was running,” said witness Tzika Schreter, a 50-year-old college lecturer.

Rescue workers scoured the scene, cleaning up body parts and scattered pieces of the wreckage as dozens of onlookers gathered nearby. A hand with a ring lay on a charred seat, and blood was splattered on the walls of the mangled buses.

I simply do not understand how the Israelis can carry on normal life knowing in the back of their minds that they might end up the next piece of carnage featured on world-wide television and print. I would assume just like in the past, Israel will fire a missle into a Hamas member’s house. It defies logic to me that these two groups, Israelis and Palestinians, live in such a mindset of hatred of the other all the while doing little to nothing to try to mend the differences and at the very least learn to co-exist. The Israelis are afraid of the Palenstinians and visa versa, which is of course understandable.

- Reuters (via Backcountry Conservative)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Eight people were killed and at least 20 injured by a female suicide bomber in a central Moscow parking lot Tuesday evening, Russian news agencies reported.

Local television footage showed a blazing car parked between a large shopping center and the entrance to a metro station, with several bodies lying on the pavement.

Tass said a number of children were among the injured.

Russian officials did not immediately attribute the blast to Chechen guerrillas but the attack bore some of the hallmarks of previous operations by militants from the independence-seeking region.

“It was like a big thunder clap. I was just coming out of the shop. There was one explosion, then another small one, probably from gas,” Alexei Borodin, 29, told Reuters.

“I saw five people who could not stand up. And there were other people who were in small bits. There was one man without a stomach shouting: ‘Where are the police?”‘

Interfax news agency quoted a source at the Interior Ministry as saying: “With a great deal of probability, we can state that what happened was a deliberate explosion caused by a female suicide bomber.”

If the source at the Interior Ministry is correct, you can count this terrorist act to the Black Widows, group of Chechens who lost their sons or husbands during the Chechen War. This makes three seperate terrorist attacks on Russian soil in less than two weeks (Bus stop, Airlines and car bomb). Putin’s reaction to this increased activity of terrorism on his soil will probably be drastic and could have world-wide consequences. He should react to these acts though and it will be interesting to see how this changes the world we live in and Russia’s support on the War on Terror.

Other Coverage:
Rusty Shackleford
Outside the Beltway

- Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A video purporting to show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese construction workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted Tuesday on a Web site linked to a militant group operating in Iraq.

Read the background of the story here.

mypetjawa v. 2.0 (beta) linked with 8 Killled in Moscow Metro Bombing
Backcountry Conservative linked with 8 Dead in Explosion near Moscow Metro Station