Brooke Bellah

INTERNATIONAL: One killed in Paris explosion

A parcel bomb was mailed inside of a letter addressed to an office building in Paris. It exploded after a secretary opened it, and killed the secretary and badly injured those around her. No one knows why that particular office buildig was attacked. It does contain President Sarkozy's old law firm and a Holocaust Memorial office. Theoffice that the bomb was placed in handled civil and commercial work. Apparantly there was another bomb inside the letter, but fortunatetly it did not go off.

Opinion: Because of the randomness of the attack, and the fact that the building wasn't an important one, I am not sure whether this was a terrorist attack. It could have been a disgruntled employee...people do crazy stuff like that sometimes. It did contain Sarkozy's old law firm, but this may have merely been a coincidence. It's a good thing only one bmb went off, otherise the damage could have been a lot worse.

NATIONAL: Shooter placed in mental facility 5 years ago
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/06/omaha.shooting/index.html

The "Nebraska mall shooter", Robert Hawkins, had apparantly had lots of problems with depression and sibstance abuse throughout his life. He was sent to a mental health facility after threatening his stepmother. There he was diagnosed with ADD, mood disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder. He may have had a substance abuse problem. We know that he was on anti-depressants but had stopped taking them because they made him "feel weird". He left a suicide note, saying that he didn't want to be a burden anymore, and that now he would be famous.

Opinion: Obviously you have to have problems to go into a mall and shoot 8 strangers nd then kill yourself. It sounds like the problems were a result of a chemical imbalance and a hard childhood. The report also states that he spent a lot of time in foster homes and juvenile correctional facilities. I feel sorry for him a little bit, because he must have been very disturbed and depressed, but it's hard to sympathize with someone when they've taken 8 other people's lives.