Morning News Roundup (22 Feb)

• Oh crap... one of the holiest Shia shrines in Iraq had its golden dome blown up, killing many as well (BBC). It's sparked riots numbering in the tens of thousands, and is potentially a flashpoint for the real civil war to begin. Here's some more from the NYTimes:
  

  The golden-domed shrine housed the tombs of two revered leaders of Shiite Islam and symbolized the place where the Imam Mahdi, a mythical, messianic figure, disappeared from this earth. Believers in the imam say he will return when the apocalypse is near, to cleanse the world of its evils.
  
  The blast took place at about 7 a.m. and shook the city of Samarra, a Sunni-dominated area that is nevertheless sacred to Shiites. The gunmen entered the shrine and handcuffed guards in the building, then set about planting the explosives, an official of the provincial governorate said.

• Consumer prices shot up in January--rising by 0.7 percent--at the fastest pace in four months as the cost of gasoline and electricity posted big gains. [AP/Yahoo]
  
  
• Gangs of rioters armed with machetes and shotguns poured through the streets of the mainly Christian southern city of Onitsha on Wednesday as the death toll from days of Christian-Muslim violence across Nigeria rose to at least 76. Sectarian violence first erupted Saturday in the northern city of Maiduguri, where Muslim protests against cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad turned violent, razing 30 churches and claiming the lives of 18 people, mostly Christians. [AP/Salon]
  

• A $400 million campaign by the Bush administration to enroll low-income seniors in prescription drug coverage that would cost them just a few dollars per prescription has signed up 1.4 million people, a fraction of the 8 million eligible for the new coverage. At this rate, by some calculations, the government is on track to spend about $250 for each person it enrolls. [WaPo]