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Al Jazeera English - News - Islamic Courts Claims Somali Gains : "The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) claims it has taken control of several towns in Somalia, including the provincial town of Jawhar. The government in Mogadishu, 90km to the south, has denied the claims. It is the third time in two months that the ICU have taken over the town. The ICU say they returned to Jawhar at the request of local tribal leaders who asked them to step in to restore order following the withdrawal of government forces."

allAfrica.com: Somalia: 13 Killed in Capital After Insurgents Attack Military Post (Page 1 of 1) : "At least 13 people were killed in Somalia's war-battered capital Saturday night after Islamist guerrillas attacked a military post, witnesses reported. Among the dead were nine government soldiers and two insurgents. A mother and her child were killed when a mortar slammed into their home, according to neighbors."

Afghanistan's insurgency spreading north | csmonitor.com : "The insurgency in Afghanistan has not been 'contained,' Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell testified before a Senate subcommittee in February. 'It's been sustained in the south, it's grown a bit in the east, and what we've seen are elements of it spread to the west and the north.' A recent study by Sami Kovanen, an analyst with the security firm Vigilant Strategic Services of Afghanistan, echoed this assessment. He reported 465 insurgent attacks in areas outside the restive southern regions during the first three months of 2008, a 35 percent increase compared with the same period last year. In the central region around Kabul there have been 80 insurgent attacks from January through March of this year, a 70 percent jump compared to the first three months of last year."

A Corrosive Stain On The US Soul : Information Clearing House - ICH : "I grew up believing that Americans did not torture prisoners, as Hitler's and Stalin's agents did. There were rogue episodes of American brutality, but to make torture a national policy? Unthinkable. No one should be in any doubt that torture was what President Bush had in mind. No one should be fooled by Orwellian talk of 'enhanced interrogation techniques.'"

: Information Clearing House - ICH : "Reverend Jeremiah Wright appeared on PBS Bill Moyers Journal on Friday night and delivered a knockout punch to the bully-boys in the corporate media. It was an impressive performance that left the political assassins over at FOX News choking on their sausage-rolls. Wright showed that he is neither a fanatic nor an “America hater”; just an extremely well-read and principled man with an unshakable commitment to justice. Wright has also paid his dues; he's an ex-Marine who served in Vietnam when most of his critics were either hiding behind their student deferments or languishing in the 'Champagne Unit' of the Texas National Guard. He's earned the right to say whatever he chooses. Rev. Jeremiah Wright: 'And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, s...

Weeping schoolgirls wish happy birthday Saddam : "AWJA, Iraq, April 28 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqi schoolchildren were brought to the modest mausoleum of Saddam Hussein on Monday to celebrate the birthday of the executed dictator in the village where he was born." Saddam, who was hanged in late 2006 for crimes against humanity, is hated in much of Iraq. But in parts of his native Salahuddin Province, especially among his fellow Sunni Arabs, he is still revered. "Bush, Bush you low-life! Saddam's blood is not cheap!" a crowd of pupils in white uniforms from a nearby girls' school chanted while standing around Saddam's grave in the mausoleum where he is buried among displays and photos of his reign. "There are two things we will never give up: Saddam and Iraq!" the girls chanted. Several of them wept.

Israeli strike kills 7 Palestinians An Israeli tank shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home Monday, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they prepared to sit down for breakfast, officials and relatives said.