A view of the damage to a shopping mall caused by an explosion in Ankara, Turkey.
The Middle East is unstable. Iraq is a massive mistake. The USA presence in the region has brought escalating violence including a Shia nation intent on destroying itself instead of having the potential of being another Iraq. The USA under Bush and Cheney have placed Israel as an icon of extremist ideology and caused greater danger than it can ever resolve.
If Bush wanted to have the USA military involved with "The Central Front on Terror;" he should have stayed in Afghanistan to rebuild there before the Taliban were able to regroup. Bush is incompetent. Cheney is worse. We need new leadership in the Executive Branch of the USA. Desperately.
UN probing DRC smuggling claims (click here)
The UN says it will seek to discipline anyone who has compromised peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo by trafficking in gold or guns.
The vow came after the BBC found that an inquiry into claims that Pakistani UN troops were smuggling may have been blocked for political reasons.
The UN said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation, but would recommend action once it was complete.
Pakistan has said the relevant authorities would look into the matter.
But a spokesman for the Pakistani army, Maj-Gen Wahid Arshad, would not say whether his force planned its own investigation.
Tensions high at Pakistan mosque standoff (click here)
Pressure is mounting in Pakistan's government on Wednesday to end a lengthy standoff between police and heavily armed radical Islamic students at an Islamabad mosque.
Clerics at the Red Mosque have been at odds with Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, since their followers launched an anti-vice campaign in March reminiscent of the tactics of the hardline Taliban government.
Pakistan troops raid militant training camp, four killed (click here)
Published Date: May 23, 2007
MIRAN SHAH: Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked a militant training camp near the Afghan border yesterday, killing four suspected militants, security officials said. After receiving reports about the training facility in North Waziristan, tribal elders were sent to the area to tell its organizers to close it down, but came under fire, triggering a gunbattle, said army spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad.
"When they opened fire, we had to start an operation," Arshad said.
Troops seized arms, ammunition, tents and unspecified training material from the camp, Arshad said. The clash took place about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the main town of Miran Shah.
Militant leader vows to fight to death at Lebanese refugee camp (click here)
May 23, 2007 04:41 PM Associated Press
NAHR EL-BARED REFUGEE CAMP, Lebanon – Leaning against a pillow, his assault rifle at his side, a militant leader warned Wednesday that Lebanon's army faced a hard, bloody battle if it tried to enter this Palestinian refugee camp where the fighters are holed up.
Abu Hureira, who identified himself as deputy leader of Fatah Islam, said the militants would never surrender and would fight to the death if attacked.
"If they advance toward the camp, we will open fire. They will not enter except over our dead bodies," he told The Associated Press during an interview in the basement of a building deep inside the camp.
Many Lebanese soldiers also would die, Abu Hureira said. "If they enter, we are ready. They can try but they won't be able to. They will face a massacre."
Fatah Islam's seeming determination to stand fast and the Lebanese government's ultimatum Wednesday for the militants to surrender could make a major military showdown inevitable.
IDF: Hamas behind drop in Qassam attacks (click here)
Less rocket attacks from Gaza? IDF officers aren't quick to declare victory, say Hamas making tactical decisions when to launch 20 or 2 Qassams. Meanwhile air strikes continue on Wednesday as Israel goes after terror money trail
The drop in Qassam attacks against Israel in recent days isn't due to the IDF but rather internal tactical decisions within Hamas – said military sources on Wednesday.
Israel could buy Palestinian gas (click here)
A deal would reportedly provide 10% of Israel's annual gas needsUK energy firm BG Group has confirmed it is in talks to agree a contract to supply Palestinian gas to Israel.
BG discovered the Gaza Marine field, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, off the coast of the Gaza Strip in 2000.
Any deal would represent a landmark in Middle Eastern relations, but BG said it would first require agreement between both governments.
Israel has previously vowed never to buy gas from its neighbour.
Lengthy negotiations
"We have been in negotiation with Israel for many, many months," said a BG spokeswoman.
20 killed in Iraq suicide bombing (click here)
Agencies
Baghdad: Twenty people were killed by a suicide bomber in a crowded cafe northeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, while the US military reported the deaths of nine more soldiers in the past 48 hours.
The suicide bomber was wearing an explosives vest when he walked into the cafe in Mandali, a mainly Shi'ite Kurd town about 100 km northeast of Baghdad near the Iranian border, and blew himself up.
Mandali Mayor Abdul Hussein al-Qaralusy put the death toll at 11, with 24 wounded.
Controversy brewing over US-backed Arabic TV (click here)
WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US-funded television network designed to boost America's image in the Arab world is embroiled in controversy for airing the views of Islamist groups and giving a voice to Holocaust deniers.
Al Hurra television, which in English means "The Free One," has drawn the wrath of several US lawmakers who say the Arabic language channel's news director should be fired for airing an unedited speech by the leader of the Lebanese group Hizbollah and interviews with a Hamas official as well as an alleged Al Qaeda operative.
Critics also accuse Larry Register, a former CNN producer who joined Al Hurra in November and who doesn't speak Arabic, of giving extensive coverage to a conference in Iran of Holocaust deniers.
Editorial: A Lost Opportunity24 May 2007 (click here)
The decision by Democratic congressional leaders to abandon their demand that Bush set a date for the withdrawal from Iraq is a grave error. The only good argument against setting a deadline is that it would give the insurgents a date to aim for and might indeed cause them to redouble their attacks on US troops while they had the chance. But such a consideration never outweighed the now stark truth that US soldiers are no longer — if indeed they have ever been — part of the solution. They are now completely and squarely part of the problem.
They have become the magnet drawing the forces of evil. So long as they remain, so long will the flow of malevolence that is devastating the land and people of Iraq. The Democrats have abandoned the timeline demand in the face of obdurate White House insistence that the president will veto the second attempt to get the American military out of Iraq. The sop that appears to have been flung the Democrats is extra funding for domestic causes dear to their hearts. But that is going to do nothing to help Iraqis.
Afghanistan: 3 killed in blasts (click here)
A bomb blast in northern Afghanistan killed a Finnish soldier and an Afghan civilian on Wednesday, while a suicide attacker in the capital killed two people, including a policeman, officials said.The blast in the northern city of Maymana just 100 meters outside a Norwegian-led base killed a Finnish soldier and slightly wounded four Norwegian officers, the Norwegian military in Oslo said.The soldiers had been on their way to a hospital for the opening of a project, said Lt Col John Inge Oegl nd, a spokesman for the Norwegian joint command. A civilian was also wounded in the blast, said provincial police chief Khalil Ziyaeehe.Northern Afghanistan is relatively calm compared with the country's south and east, but the region has seen an increasing number of attacks in recent weeks. A suicide bomber in the northern city of Kunduz on Saturday killed 10 people, including three German soldiers walking through a market.
