Dangerous gun battles have interrupted a major religious festival in Iraq this week which draws hundreds of thousands to the holy city of Karbala. The fighting has left over 50 dead with another 200 reportedly wounded. Troops have been called into Karbala to establish order while worshipers have been ordered to leave the city for their own safety. Miltias loyal to the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr, have been accused of causing the violence while Sadr has denied any involvement and asks for calm. Sadr City in Baghdad has also seen increased violence with reports of five dead.

President George W. Bush warned Tuesday that retreating from Iraq could embolden Iran to develop atomic weapons and therefore begin a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Just hours before his announcement, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad (the President of Iran) stated that his country was ready to fill a “power vacuum” that was being created with the growing U.S. influence within the region. President Bush went on to accuse Tehran of destablishing Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to establish the “shadow of a nuclear holocaust. Bush went on to threaten that “We will confront this danger before it is too late.”

The Taliban has agreed to release the South Korean hostages that it has held for more than a month following negotiations with Seoul. The leader of the militant group, Mullah Basheer, said that the group would announce the terms of their agreement on Wednesday. It is currently believed that the group of Christian missionaries are being held in multiple locations and that their release will mark “some time” before they are allowed to return home. A spokesman for the Taliban told press today that the hostages would be released in various groups in the next several days.

The International Association of Fire Fighers have announced that they are officially endorsing Senator Christopher J. Dodd for the 2008 presidential race. The group’s choice to throw their weight behind Dodd as opposed to any other top-tier candidates shows an effort to add heft to the Connecticut lawmaker’s campaign. Dodd’s contributions to John Kerry’s 2004 campaign have also been heavily emphasized:

“The endorsement of America’s firefighters isn’t just a great validation for Senator Dodd’s leadership, but also is going to provide the boots on the ground in the early states that are going to make the difference,” said Hari Sevugan, the campaign’s communication director. “One of the reasons we’re so excited about this endorsement is because firefighters have proven that they know how to win.”

Dodd is expected to accept the endorsement tomorrow.

George Hotz, a seventeen-year-old college freshman has officially been the first to unlock the iPhone completely, allowing most of the phone’s features to be used on any network. Hotz owned two iPhones which he unlocked and then traded one for a Nissan 350z that he wanted in order to leave for college today. Hotz has been interviewed by most major news outlets his his announcement last week that he had been the first to break into the phone completely, a feat many hackers had been attempting for months since the phone’s release.

SAT scores across the US have fallen to the lowest ever since 1999. The College Board, the non-profit agency behind the SAT, explains the fall in scores as a correlation among the demographics and language of the test takers. “A fluctuation of one, two or three points happens probably two out of every three years,” said Wayne Camara, vice president of research and analysis at the College Board. Camara went on to explain that long-term trends are more important than short-term ones. He is quick to point out that reading and math scores are rising over the past 20 years.