Read this and this and...

There's been a recent flurry of articles explaining the Sunni-Shia divide in Islam. This is usually as a background to the civil/sectarian war being waged between the Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq. There is, in effect, a war being waged on the U.S. forces, on Shia by Sunnis and by Sunnis on Shias. Eventually, the Americans will have to leave Iraq and neither the Sunnis (long in charge of Iraqi politics) nor the Shias (always at the short end of any stick) want to be left out of power.

The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent article explaining the Sunni-Shia divide in the Islamic world.

Seymour Hersh...The world's best know investigative journalist has written an article for the New Yorker on what he is calling the Redirection in U.S. policy vis-a-vis the Middle East. Hersch contends that the U.S. is using the age old strategy of divide-and-conquer in view of the sectarian divide amongst the Muslims in Iraq. Even more importantly, his article shows just how callous the American government is in its need to make sure the oil flows continuously out of the Middle East.

Foreign policy offers a possible explanation why we don't respond more compassionately when faced with a tragedy with large numbers such as the one unfolding in Darfur.

And finally, National Geographic Magazine, has an article on the Bahama Islands which are rife with sharks! Including Hammerheads and White Tip sharks! Why am I always the last to hear about the dangers of diving half-naked in a 100 feet of water!