Shiite holiday marred by violence
Hundreds of thousands of frenzied Shiites beat their heads and chests in unison and whipped themselves with chains Saturday across Iraq to honor the martyrdom of one of their most revered saints. The processions were marred by violence with a deadly bombing in northern Iraq and clashes south of Baghdad.

Violence increases and tensions rise among Iraqi Shiites
BAGHDAD — A police raid Saturday on an extremist Shiite Muslim mosque thought to be the headquarters of an extremist cult capped a weekend of violence in southern Iraq, while elsewhere tensions between Iraq’s Shiite-led government and renegade Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr continued to escalate.

About 60 rebel targets destroyed in Turkish air strike in Iraq
Turkish warplanes destroyed about 60 Kurdish rebel positions in neighbouring Iraq in a bombing raid earlier this week, the military said Friday. The targets in three regions along the Turkish border included two anti-aircraft posts, four ammunition depots as well as training and logistical bases.

US backs Turkey’s nuclear plans, seeks partnership
The US has expressed support for Turkey’s plans to develop nuclear energy and encouraged Ankara to become a member in an international partnership facilitating the worldwide expansion of nuclear energy in a safe manner, US officials said.

Israel strikes Gaza as lockdown sparks fuel fears
Israel kept up strikes against Gaza militants on Saturday, killing at least two in a new raid, as its lockdown of the impoverished Palestinian territory started to take its toll on residents. As news of the new measures spread, residents across the Gaza Strip stocked up on diesel fuel, leaving several service stations empty.

Israel urged not to punish Palestinian people over militant attacks
The UN’s humanitarian affairs chief, John Holmes, says Israel should not collectively punish the people of the Gaza Strip for rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian militants.

U.S. says Iran still training Iraqi militias
The U.S. military said on Sunday there had been a dramatic drop in the number of Iranian weapons being smuggled into Iraq but no let-up in Tehran’s training and financing of Iraqi militias.
Bush is still spoiling for another war.

Afghanistan war is just beginning: report
The Taliban has seriously rejoined the fight in Afghanistan, an NGO security group said in a report that concluded the country was at the beginning of a war, not the end of one. The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) said the Taliban’s “easy departure” in 2001, when a US-led invasion drove them from power, was more of a strategic retreat than an actual military defeat.

Defence seeks dismissal on grounds Khadr was child soldier
Lawyers for Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr are asking a U.S. military judge to dismiss war crimes charges against their client on the grounds he was a child soldier whose prosecution breaks international law.

Chavez warns banks on farm lending
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez threatened on Saturday to take control of banks that fail to meet state-imposed loaning requirements designed to benefit Venezuela’s farmers.

Britain ‘as inept as US’ in failing to foresee postwar Iraq insurgency
The government’s top foreign policy advisers were as inept as their US counterparts in failing to see that removing Saddam Hussein in 2003 was likely to lead to a nationalist insurgency by Sunnis and Shias and an Islamist government in Baghdad, run by allies of Iran, the Guardian has learned. The revelation undermines the British claim that it was US myopia which was to blame for the failure to foresee what would happen in postwar Iraq.

Spanish police arrest 14 in anti-terror raids: interior minister
Spanish police have smashed a suspected Islamist terror cell, arresting 14 people and recovering bomb-making equipment in overnight raids in Barcelona, the interior minister said on Saturday. “During our searches, we found various materials which could be explosives or be used to make explosives,” Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a press conference in Madrid.

Switzerland suspends Abu Omar CIA rendition investigation
Switzerland has suspended an investigation into US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents allegedly involved in the 2003 abduction and rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a spokesperson from the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office said Friday.

Kenyans hacked to death with machetes
NAIROBI, Kenya – Several people were beaten and hacked to death with machetes in a Nairobi slum Sunday in renewed ethnic fighting over Kenya’s disputed election, residents said.