News & Notes: Iraqis looking for answers after mass kidnapping

Iraqis looking for answers after mass kidnapping

The mass kidnapping of dozens of government officials Tuesday in Baghdad has caused a major spilt in the Iraqi government, threatening to topple the already fragile administration. Higher Education minister Abd Dhiab, whose staff was kidnapped, criticized the Iraqi government for not providing adequate security for university officials, and questioned the government's integrity, pointing out that the mass abduction took place in broad daylight with government vehicles and stolen Iraq uniforms. Dhiab has stated that he will step down until all of the hostages are freed and the government provides adequate saftey. The exact number of kidnapped has not been established, with Dhiab claiming that over a 100 were kidnapped while the official government spokesman put the number around 40, 39 of which were released yesterday.

National

Fox News announced yesterday that it will air an interview with O.J Simpson in which Simpson will discuss "how he would have committed" the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend Ron Goldman. The interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air on Fox Nov. 27 and 29. Simpson has agreed to an "unrestricted" interview with book publisher Judith Regan. The interview will come days before the release of Simpson's new book If I Did It. The book will "hypothetically" describe "how the murders would have been committed." The interview comes 12 years after Simpson was acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife and Goldman.

Universities

Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford have been named the best universities in the world, in that order, according to new rankings released by The Times of London's Higher Education Supplement. It is the third year that the paper has released its classification of the 200 best universities of the world, and as in previous years, the United States and United Kingdom took the top slots. The rankings were determined by surveys of university professors, based on the quality of institutions' research, the quality of teaching, and the school's international presence. Among the top 20 universities, 11 were in the United States - Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, and the University of Chicago.

Starting in '07, LSAT to include comparative reading

In a move which will shift the requirements for pre-law students, two new changes will be introduced to the LSAT beginning in June 2007. The test will reflect The Law School Admission Council's new assessment that comparative reading skills are a "key for law school." One of the four reading passages will be replaced with a new comparative reading passage, while one of the two types of prompts from the writing section will be removed. The change comes as a result of the Council's extensive research on the skills needed in law school and is not aimed at changing the outcomes of the test. The change represents the most significant alteration to the test in the past decade. Even still, the LSAT will continue to be the bane of prospective law students' existence.

On Campus

In an effort to provide a better game-day experience for students left out of the Mods or the current tailgating around the stadium, the Resident Hall Association (RHA) will be hosting a tailgate before this Saturday's pivotal match-up against Maryland. Wanting to establish a tradition of tailgating and game day environment free to all students before football games - a tradition firmly establish at most other ACC schools - the event will include free food, drinks, prizes, and games. The tailgate, which will also feature a basketball ticket giveaway, will take place in the Dustbowl Saturday from 10 a.m. until the start of the game

Muslims unite with secular liberals against Bush, prof. says

Only five years after Sept. 11 and the resulting resentment of the American public's opinion toward Muslims, Keith Ellison became the first Muslim in Congress after last week's midterm elections. According to Peter Skerry, professor in the political science department, Ellison's victory shows the changing political alliances which were set in motion by the Sept. 11 attacks. Before the attacks, Muslim American leaders endorsed George W. Bush, siding with conservatives' ideology of government. But, according to Skerry, the events which followed Sept. 11 and Iraq have led Muslims to unite with secular liberals in opposition to Bush.

Local

Many Boston students lack basic science and math skills, according to a report published yesterday by the U.S. Department of Education. Only 43 percent of Boston's fourth graders and 38 percent of its eighth graders demonstrated a basic understanding of earth, physical, and life sciences. Fortunately for Boston, these results place Boston in the middle of the pack of the 10 cities which were tested, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Ohio, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Diego.

Under Reported

THAILAND-Sex ed is not only for high school students anymore - not after a Thai zoo will attempt to show two of its "shy" pandas how to mate. Zookeepers will show the two famously sexually-inactive pandas "animal porn" which "will show mating positions of male and female pandas" to encourage them to mate. The two pandas will be separated and reunited only when the female panda shows her "amorous" love for the male. Zookeepers hope the pandas will overcome their species' notoriously low sex drive, interested only in "eating, sleeping and playing," once they get a taste of panda porn.