Sectarian strife is renewed in Iraq in days of deadly bombings;  Palestinians break through a barrier that put Israel under a lot of criticism;  And no matter what you think of your hometown, at least your mayor isn’t accused of smoking crack. Unless you’re from Toronto, in which case, your mayor is accused of smoking crack.

At least 72 people have been killed in a series of bombings in Baghdad.  The attacks targeted majority Sunni areas in and around the Iraqi capital.  The worst bombing happened outside a Sunni Mosque in Baquba:  One bomb exploded as worshippers were departing, and the second went off after people gathered at the scene of the first blast.  This video purports to show the first blast.  Several bombings killed dozens of Shi’a Muslims in Iraq earlier in the week.

Human rights activists say they have evidence that Syria’s secret police is kidnapping and torturing opponents of the government.  Human Rights Watch has inspected the torture chambers, part of a Syrian state Security and Military Intelligence facility in the town of Raqqa, which is now under control of the rebels.  Inside, records of those kidnapped and why they were taken, as well as medieval-inspired torture devices.

Palestinians tore a hole through part of Israel’s wall of separation, called the “Apartheid Wall” by critics.  It happened near Abu Deis village near East Jerusalem.  The activists posted videos showing them using sledgehammers and bolt cutters to create a 4-meter opening.  Eventually, and after some back and forth through the broken barrier, Israeli troops showed up and fired rubber bullets.  A teen was seriously injured.

The conservative Mayor of Toronto, Canada is denying allegations he’s been caught on video smoking crack with drug dealers.  Some reporters who’ve seen the video say a man who appears exactly like Rob Ford is incoherent and smoking from a glass pipe.  Ford’s drunken exploits have alarmed critics for years; this would be a new level of substance abuse if true.  The video is in the hands of alleged drug dealers, who are shopping it around for media outlets.  Toronto is a major metropolis, Canada’s most-important city, with a population greater than 2 million. 

Jorge Rafael Videla died in his prison cell, he was the military dictator who conducted Argentina’s “Dirty War’ against suspected Leftists from 1976 to 1983.  Among Videla’s atrocities:  Kidnapping victims without due process and subjecting them to torture and murder;  Killing some by “Death Flights” in which they were drugged and tossed into the sea from Argentinean Navy Planes;  And holding pregnant prisoners until they gave birth, killing the women, arranging the illegal adoptions of the babies into military or police families.

A Greek politician was thrown out of Parliament as members of his fascist Golden Dawn party chanted “Heil Hitler”. Panagiotis Iliopoulos was ranting on the assembly floor, calling members of a rival party “goats,” “scoundrels,” and “wretched people.”  Golden Dawn became the shame of Greece after winning 18 seats in Parliament on its racist, anti-immigrant platform.