January 18, 2004

Occupation of Iraq: At around 8 am local time (5 am GMT) in Baghdad, Iraq, an insurgent suicide bomber driving a car filled with explosives blows himself up while attempting to enter "Assassin's Gate." Early reports say that about 18 people, including 16 Iraqi civilians and two United States Department of Defense workers were killed, while another 56 Iraqi civilians were wounded. [1]
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praises the Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, for vandalising the artwork entitled "Snow White and The Madness of Truth" displayed at a Stockholm museum. The piece, created by an Israeli-born composer/musician, consists of a white float carrying a picture of a Palestinian suicide bomber in a pool of blood-coloured water. Mazel was caught on surveillance video disconnecting the electric power from the display and throwing a lamp into the water. Mazel says, "This exhibit was the culmination of dozens of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish events in Sweden." [2]
Ex-Australian cricketer and current Victorian coach David Hookes is rushed to hospital after being hit from behind during a brawl outside the Beaconsfield Hotel in St Kilda, Victoria. He is "technically dead" by the time paramedics arrive, but is revived, and is placed in Melbourne's Alfred Hospital in a coma and on life support. [3]