News In Brief: Obama, Mutilation and Hobbits

Obama

The situation in Libya continues to grow more tense as fierce fighting is being reported only 200km (130 miles) miles east of Libya's heavily populated capital city, Tripoli. In a conference today President Obama said that he will be 'playing down' the U.S' role in Libya until receiving a full recommendation from US military commanding officers, and then referred to the invasion of Iraq as the US military "acting unilaterally and without full international support" and had "ended up bearing the full burden"
- Will more Libyans suffer whilst Obama waits?

Mutilation
In regards to the previous story, US Military officials had to reduce their focus on Libya after horrific pictures were published in the German investigative magazine, 'Der Spiegel'. The pictures, said to be only a few of over 4,000, show US soldiers 'disrespectfully posing' with the corpses of Afghan civilians killed in conflict. Since the release of the magazine hundreds of the pictures have been anonymously uploaded to various image boards with reports of some pictures even showing soldiers pretending to have sex with an undressed female corpse and the mutilation and amputation of body parts from various civilian corpses.
- What effect will this have on Middle East relations with America?

Hobbits
Filming for the original J.R.Tolkien novel 'The Hobbit' officially started this morning after many set backs and delays regarding new filming legislation in New Zealand.. The movie's director Peter Jackson had even threatened to take production of 'The Hobbit' to Eastern Europe, but was finally given the go ahead after an 'army' of LotR fans from all over the world took to the streets of New Zealand demanding  production stay where it was. The film is expected to take over two years to complete and will have British comedian Martin Freeman playing the lead role of 'Bilbo Baggins'.
- What are your thoughts on the new film?