Terror Attack in Moscow

At the airport killing 31 and injuring at least 100:

Moscow (AP) — Russian officials say an explosion caused by an apparent terrorist attack ripped through the international arrivals hall at Moscow’s busiest airport, killing 31 people and wounding about 130.

President Dmitry Medvedev told officials “from the preliminary information we have it was a terror attack,”

The state RIA Novosti news agency, citing sources in law enforcement, said the explosion Monday afternoon at Domodedovo Airport may have been caused by a suicide bomber…

CNN is blogging live here.

And this video is out:

The news is still breaking.

Pope Benedict XVI to Bloggers: It's Not Just About Hits

Vatican City (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI told Catholic bloggers and Facebook and YouTube users Monday to be respectful of others when spreading the Gospel online and not to see their ultimate goal as getting as many online hits as possible.

Echoing concerns in the U.S. about the need to root out online vitriol, Benedict called for the faithful to adopt a “Christian style presence” online that is responsible, honest and discreet.

“We must be aware that the truth which we long to share does not derive its worth from its ‘popularity’ or from the amount of attention it receives,” Benedict wrote in his annual message for the church’s World Day of Social Communications.

“The proclamation of the Gospel requires a communication which is at once respectful and sensitive.”…

Benedict didn’t name names, but the head of the Vatican’s social communications office, Archbishop Claudio Celli, said it was certainly correct to direct the pope’s exhortation to some conservative Catholic blogs, YouTube channels and sites which, with some vehemence, criticize bishops, public officials and policies they consider not Catholic enough…

In his message, Benedict echoed many of the same themes he has voiced in years past about the benefits and dangers of the digital age, saying social networks are a wonderful way to build relationships and community. But he warned against replacing real friendships with virtual ones and warned against the temptation to create artificial public profiles rather than authentic ones.

“There exists a Christian way of communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others,” he wrote. “To proclaim the Gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms, but also to witness consistently, in one’s own digital profile and in the way one communicates choices, preference and judgments that are fully consistent with the Gospel.”…

Google News has the whole report here.

Yes, wise counsel… I can think of a number of bloggers who would do well to heed this his call…

Armageddon Illustrated

At CNN:

It’s the end of the world: Terrorists release deadly gas in New York City, then set off a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, while an earthquake in the city of Jerusalem collapses the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. Then a million soldiers are killed in “the greatest single battle in the history of the world.”

At least that’s how it’s envisioned in a new graphic novel, “Armageddon Now: World War 3,”…

More here.

Oh dear!

Soldier Guarding Church Killed

By suspected Islamists in Nigeria.

Yahoo.com reports:

Kano, Nigeria (AFP) – Suspected members of an Islamist sect blamed for a series of attacks in Nigeria’s north shot dead a soldier guarding a church on Sunday and stole his rifle, an army spokesman said.

Attackers on motorcycles killed the soldier in the city of Maiduguri, army spokesman Lieutenant Abubakar Abdullahi said.

They attacked as he was on his way to buy a charge card for his mobile phone, Abdullahi said.

“He was among an army patrol unit stationed around the church to protect it from attack following spates of armed attacks on churches in the city in recent weeks,” he added.

Three such attacks on Christmas Eve killed six people and destroyed one church.

Authorities also said they suspected the sect known as Boko Haram, which launched an uprising in 2009, had been behind recent armed robberies. Officials said the group wanted the money to buy weapons.

Last week, police said three people were killed in an robbery in Maiduguri by gunmen suspected to be sect members, according to police. Residents said five people were killed…