Author: David Piper

Iraqi gold shops are tempting targets in a country of high unemployment and easy access to guns.

There have been several similar attacks before but this was a particularly violent one because the robbers used bombs, grenades and automatic weapons to kill 15 people.

The Iraqi government blames a cash-strapped Al Qaeda in Iraq for the robbery.

They could be involved but the circumstances of the attack raises more questions than answers.

The Baiyaa neighborhood in south-west Baghdad is a predominantly shiite area.

It is also an area sources say is tightly controlled.

In order to get to the gold shops, the armed gang would have had to get through many security checkpoints coming in and coming out of the area.

Vehicles don’t usually get waived through any checkpoints in Baghdad.

It can take between 10 minutes to an hour to get through most checkpoints because the vehicles  and people are searched for bombs.

These robbers traveling in a minibus with their weapons and bombs managed to get in, launch their deadly attack, and get out of the area without any problems.

They were also masked and wore flak jackets.

Some people here in Baghdad are already questioning whether the robbers had help or were actually members of the security services. They have been implicated before in similar cases.

Last year several members of Iraq’s presidential guards, who protect senior officials, broke their way into a bank and stole nearly $5 million.

They tied up eight of the bank’s security guards and executed them.

Violent crime is on the rise here. Its become a major concern for the people of Baghdad who are still recovering from years of attacks.

Many of these armed robbers are indeed former insurgents.

Whoever is carrying out these robberies are finding easy pickings because the Iraqi security forces are still concentrating on dealing with the terrorists.

Until the security situation and the economy improves, it seems likely that these armed gangs will be able to operate with impunity.

They have a soft spot for tearful executives in Japan.

Footage of Toyota President, Akio Toyoda, choking up in front of American car dealers in Washington DC played well in Japan.

While many people in the U.S. may be bemused by a sobbing executive it is understood and appreciated in Japan.

In fact for most Japanese it is a way of showing genuine remorse and isn’t a sign of weakness as it would be seen in the States.

In what is a consensus oriented society its seen honorable to acknowledge ones mistakes and crying is seen as a good way of showing that.

And to do it abroad in front of foreigners is seen as a very difficult ordeal and should be appreciated.

People in Japan, as I know from living and working there, aren’t known for showing their feelings openly.

It sometimes takes a few glasses of sake before they express their true feelings.

But most questioned today hoped that Toyota will regain its international image as an automaker which makes reliable cars.

Toyota’s problems have, though, shaken Japan. For years its been seen as one of the real flagship companies for Japan Inc. Toyota’s fall has been sudden and unless it acts quickly to solve it problems it could all end in tears.

The Philippine military is claiming to have killed a senior leader of an Al Qaeda linked militant group. If it proves to be true then it will be a major boost in their fight against terrorism.

Philippine troops said they killed Albader Parad and five of his colleagues in a shoot out in jungle on the southern island of Jolo.

Abu Saayaf has been blamed for numerous kidnappings and bombings, which have caused terror and scared off international investors. There deadliest attack was on a passenger ferry in 2004 in which a bomb killed over a hundred people.

And Albader Parad has been one the key figures of the terror group for a decade and is on the State Department’s terrorist list.

He first came to public attention when he was involved in an Abu Sayyaf operation in which they abducted 20 Western tourists and Malaysian resort workers on Sipadan island near eastern Malaysia’s Sabah state in 2000.

All of them were finally released after a ransom was paid.

Parad was also the leader of a terror gang which kidnapped three members of the International Red Cross on Jolo Island in January of this year.

His threats to behead them caused public outrage and they were eventually released.

But not before the Philippine military claimed they had killed him but he then turned up on national radio the next day to deny it.

Since then Parad and his gang has been hunted by the Philippine military

If he has been killed this time then it will be a major boost in the fight against terrorism in the Philippines.