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Ron Paul Is Right About Pakistan - by David T. Beito and Scott Horton The conventional wisdom among presidential candidates is that the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has proved the importance of continued American meddling in that land. Both Republicans and Democrats are rushing to mumble incoherent platitudes before the cameras, while several have even proclaimed their next big idea for how Pakistan ought to be run. Democratic candidate Bill Richardson made his first headline in months by proclaiming that President Bush ought to give former general – now just "president" – Pervez Musharraf his pink slip. Most of the rest simply say we should "support democracy" there. This "wisdom" of interference is so conventional that CNN's Wolf Blitzer expressed shock when Republican candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said that the tragedy proved his case for nonintervention in the affairs of other nations. We should not, Paul said,...

How Bhutto Won Washington - New York Times : "BENAZIR BHUTTO always understood Washington more than Washington understood her. Ms. Bhutto, the Pakistani opposition leader and two-time prime minister, who was assassinated in Rawalpindi on Thursday as she campaigned for the office a third time, had a more extensive network of powerful friends in the capital’s political and media elite than almost any other foreign leader. Over the years, she scrupulously cultivated those friends, many from her days at Harvard and Oxford. She was rewarded when her connections — at the White House, in Congress and within the foreign policy establishment — helped propel her into power in Pakistan."

Al Jazeera English - News - Fierce Fighting Rocks Mogadishu : "At least eight civilians have been killed in fierce fighting that erupted between government forces and anti-government fighters in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, witnesses say. Six members of one family - mother and five children - were killed when a mortar shell struck a refugee camp on Sunday as fighting escalated in the area."

BBC NEWS | Africa | Ethiopia leaves key Somali town : "Ethiopian troops have withdrawn from a key town in central Somalia. Islamist insurgents say they now control Guriel, where Ethiopia had a big military base to secure the road linking the two countries. A BBC correspondent in Somalia says it is not clear why the Ethiopian troops withdrew without any fighting."

Al Jazeera English - News - Palestinians Die In Israeli Raids : "Six Palestinians have been killed and 11 others wounded in the Gaza Strip in three Israeli raids on the Hamas-run territory, medics and witnesses said. Three men, two of them from the Islamic Jihad group, and a third from the armed wing of Hamas, were killed around the southern town of Khan Yunis on Thursday."

Al Jazeera English - Focus - Daughter Of Tragedy : "What ever else the mind-numbing killing of Benazir Bhutto in Thursday’s suicide attack will mean for Pakistan’s future, there is little doubt that politics in this south Asian country will never be the same again. Bhutto's death was like a chronicle foretold. She had escaped a bigger suicide attack upon her return from exile in Karachi two months ago - a manifestation of the threat to her life, which extremists had pledged to carry out before her arrival. These threats emerged after much publicised talks of a power-sharing deal with General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, which would enable her to return home and participate in the elections in exchange for allowing the beleaguered general to get himself re-elected as president."

Scoop: Ethiopia/Eritrea: Restraint Urged After Shooting : "The United Nations peacekeeping mission monitoring the ceasefire between Ethiopia and Eritrea today called on both sides to show maximum restraint after a shooting incident in the border area where the two countries fought a two-year war that ended in 2000"