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Al Jazeera English - Africa - Ethiopia rejects Egypt Nile claims Ethiopia's prime minister has rejected a threat by Egypt to prevent the building of dams and other water projects upstream on the Nile river. Meles Zenawi told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Egypt will not be able to stop his country from building dams on the river. His comments came nearly a week after Ethiopia joined Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania in signing a new treaty on the equitable sharing of the Nile, despite strong opposition from Egypt and Sudan who have the major share of the river waters.

Yellow Press § Elvis Costello It is after considerable contemplation that I have lately arrived at the decision that I must withdraw from the two performances scheduled in Israel on the 30th of June and the 1st of July. One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament. Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent. I must believe that the audience for the coming concerts would have contained many people who question the policies of their government on settlement and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.

Noam Chomsky Barred From Entering Israel -- News from Antiwar.com Israeli officials did not provide any specific reason for Chomsky’s ban, but the Interior Ministry suggested that once it was revealed that Chomsky only intended to visit the occupied West Bank and not Israel itself they contacted the military to try to get the ban rescinded . According to Chomsky the border guards told him the Israeli government “doesn’t like the kind of things I say.” The 82-year-old, a self-described anarchist, says he told them no governments like anything he says .

Iran’s Uranium Deal a Serious Blow to War Party -- News from Antiwar.com The deal was announced last night but details were only made available this morning. According to the announcement, Iran will ship 1,200 kg of its 3.5% enriched uranium to Turkey , exactly the amount sought in the P5+1 enrichment deal, and will receive fuel rods for its medical reactor one year later, again the amount of time given in the P5+1 deal.

Factbox: A look at costs of Afghan war to U.S. taxpayers | Reuters About twice as much money -- $708 billion -- has gone to the war in Iraq so far, CBO says. But Afghanistan is becoming the more expensive battleground, as the pace of U.S. military operations slows in Iraq and quickens in Afghanistan. The current fiscal year, which ends September 30, is the first year that more money has been allocated to Afghanistan ($72.3 billion) than Iraq ($64.5 billion), according to the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan budget research group that examines congressional appropriations.

Gold stones, glass houses: Israel's relationship with apartheid South Africa by Sasha Polakow-Suransky | The Middle East Channel More importantly, Ayalon's and Rivlin's moralism conveniently ignores Israel's history of arming the apartheid regime from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. By serving as South Africa's primary and most reliable arms supplier during a period of violent internal repression and external aggression, Israel's government did far more to aid the apartheid regime than Goldstone ever did. The Israel-South Africa alliance began in earnest in April 1975 when then-Defense Minister Shimon Peres signed a secret security pact with his South African counterpart, P.W. Botha. Within months, the two countries were doing a brisk trade, closing arms deals totaling almost $200 million; Peres even offered to sell Pretoria nuclear-capable Jericho missiles. By 1979, South Africa had become the Israeli defense industry's single largest customer,...

Chicago rail boss commits suicide by train: reports | Reuters Last week, Phil Pagano was put on paid leave by the board of directors of Metra, where he had been executive director for 20 years. A spokeswoman for the cash-strapped agency said Pagano's bonus on top of his $270,000 salary was improper. Metra's board canceled a scheduled meeting and issued a statement announcing Pagano's death. The sheriff in suburban McHenry County said a man had walked in front of an oncoming train in an apparent suicide. Pagano's death follows some recent high-profile suicides of Illinois political figures. Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Michael Scott shot himself to death along the Chicago River in November; and Christopher Kelly, an aide to ousted former state governor Rod Blagojevich, committed suicide in September before he was due to begin a prison term.