News: "A world I no longer want to live in"

Over the summer, I took many walks with my father. This is a man who's lived in four continents, who speaks three languages, who has worked with engineers from Beijing to Boca Raton. I love my Dad and trust his judgment, and so it scared me when we talked about dying.

"It won't be so bad to die," he said. "You grow up, and the world is a certain way. But now, with things happening the way they are, I think it'll be a relief to die. This world is not the same - it's changing for the worse." I said that he had a long way to go (and he does), but I couldn't help thinking how life will be when I'm in my fifties...

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum vowing to continue its holy war against the West. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.

The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."