27 die as new wave of attacks hits Iraq

“Two suicide bombers struck in Iraqi towns yesterday, claiming at least 27 lives, in a return to the grim familiarity of insurgency just a week after millions of Iraqis flocked to the polls. It was the most violent day since the January 30 elections."
“Yesterday's first bomber struck at the main police headquarters in Baquba, a mixed Shia and Sunni town 40 miles north of Baghdad. At least 15 people were killed and 17 injured. Witnesses said the bomber had tried to drive a car laden with explosives through the gate of the police station but instead hit a concrete blast wall and detonated near a crowd outside.
“In the second attack a man apparently wearing a vest of explosives walked into a crowd of police standing outside the Jumhuri hospital in the northern city of Mosul. At least 12 people were killed and four injured. The blast blew a crater into the ground.
"Four Egyptian telecoms engineers were kidnapped from their house in Baghdad on Sunday.
The Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was kidnapped in daylight on Friday at Baghdad University, was still missing. Two groups have claimed responsibility for her kidnap and both have threatened to kill her. Sgrena had been to interview refugees from the city of Falluja who are camped near a mosque inside the university."

After the doubts over who kidnapped Margaret Hassan, I can't help feeling concerned about the future of this journalist. If she is in the hands of a CIA black ops group, then I suspect that she's dead already.