Cowards and barbarians

Taliban Militants Attack Pakistan School: More Than 140 People, Mostly Schoolchildren, Are Killed at Military-Run School in Peshawar

Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in northwestern Pakistan and killed at least 141 people, methodically shooting schoolchildren in the head and setting fire to some victims in a horrifying 9-hour rampage.

Shahrukh, a 17-year-old survivor of Tuesday’s attack in Peshawar, said many students were assembled in the school auditorium when the gunmen burst in and started spraying bullets. He was shot in both legs and fell to the ground.

“I saw them set one of our teachers on fire in front of me,” he said.

That's the only way I can describe those who would do this, particularly in the name of God.

Horrific acts of violence continue in the Congo

UN reports massacre of 100 villagers in Congo

The young woman with the hacked-off lips and stitches where one ear used to be shakes her head when asked why rebels did this to her, then whispers that the attackers who came from across the river were angry because she kept crying for mercy and calling on God for help.

Cornelia Yekpalile, a 23-year-old mother of four children, was mutilated 18 days ago when she went to the fields near her village of Kpizimbi, set in dense forest in northeast Congo, to collect spinach-like pondu leaves to cook for lunch.

A potentially interesting read, especially given my interest in genocide studies

The World's Bloodiest History - Massacres, Genocide, and the Scars They Left on Civilization by Joseph Cummins

(The link to the review at the World History Blog wasn't working when I posted, so I'm hoping they get the kinks out of things soon. In the meantime, there's always Amazon.) I'm hoping the Lexington Public Library either has or will get this. It includes incidents from ancient, mediaeval, and modern history.

So sad, even after five years

Russians recall Beslan school tragedy: ‘We live with this every day of our lives,’ says mother of slain son

Militants herded over 1,000 people into the building on the first day of school, and 334 people died, the majority children.