Big, Bad…Barbie?

And now the most scintillating two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

Iraqis Hopeful for Future

A new poll, described as the first scientific survey of Iraqi public opinion, shows 69 percent of Iraqis expect their country and their personal lives to improve over the next five years.

What's more, according to the Zogby International survey, the most popular country for Iraqis to model their new government after is the United States, more popular than Syria, Egypt and Iran combined.

Nevertheless, the poll shows that only 35 percent of Iraqis believe the United States will ultimately help them in the coming years. Nearly half of Iraqis have confidence that the United Nations will end up helping them.

U.N. Loses Credibility

Speaking of the United Nations (search), more Americans now say the U.N. is doing a "poor job" than ever before in the last 50 years.

According to a new Gallup poll, 60 percent say the U.N. is doing a "poor job." Thirty-seven percent of Americans say the United Nations is doing a "good job," down from 58 percent…the U.N.'s best Gallup ratings ever…a few months after the 9/11 atrocities.

When split by gender, the United Nations is said to be doing a "good job" by 45 percent of women and only 28 percent of men.

Friendly Funds to Syrians?

Six days after Arab TV network al-Jazeera said allegations that it’s war correspondent Tayssir Alouni had ties to Al Qaeda (search) were, "baseless," Alouni now admits he transported suitcases with as much as $4,000 inside them to Syrians living in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Turkey.

However, Alouni says his five or six trips to those countries between 1995 and 1999 were gestures of friendship and solidarity toward Arabs in exile, not efforts to fund terrorists.

But, according to London's Independent, that hasn't stopped a judge from keeping Alouni under house arrest in Spain while the investigation continues.

Big, Bad…Barbie?

Saudi Arabia (search) has now identified a new threat to its security…Barbie dolls. Saudi Arabia says the…"Jewish toy" with its "revealing clothes ... and developed body" will poison girls' minds against Islam and then, presumably, the Islamic leadership.

And so the Desert Kingdom has banned the doll from inside its borders, relegating it to the Saudi black market with such threats as Valentine's Day gifts and body-shaped perfume bottles.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report