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Informed Comment: Bulldozer Attack in West Jerusalem : "Acts of violence such as this one are typically reported without context in the US. Aljazeera International notes that the bulldozer operator had been working on a controversial causeway connecting West Jerusalem to Arab East Jerusalem, which many Palestinians feel will further disadvantage them."

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Hezbollah affirms prisoner exchange : "Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has announced his group's agreement to a prisoner exchange deal with Israel. In a televised speech on Wednesday, the Hezbollah leader said he expected the swap to take place in one to two weeks. He said that the exchange should include the release of Samir Kantar, a Lebanese prisoner who is serving multiple life terms for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing three Israelis - a man, his 4-year-old daughter and a police officer. 'I will not set an exact date. The sooner it takes place the better,' he said."

Scoop: Ethiopia: Gov't Prepares Assault On Civil Society (New York, July 1, 2008) - Ethiopia's government should immediately abandon plans to impose strict government controls and draconian criminal penalties on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The two groups called on donor governments, whose behind-the-scenes efforts to see the bill reformed appear to have failed, to speak out publicly against the de facto criminalization of most of the human rights, rule of law and peace-building work currently being carried out in Ethiopia.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > World -- Venezuela's Chavez warns South American leaders that renewed U.S. 4th Fleet is a regional threat : "SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMAN, Argentina – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the U.S. Navy's decision to re-establish its Fourth Fleet is “a threat” to Latin America. Chavez wants the South American trade bloc Mercosur to ask the U.S. government why it is sending the military force to a peaceful region. AdvertisementWashington says the fleet will maintain security and carry out military exercises, humanitarian missions and drug operations. But Chavez sees darker purposes – such as an attempt to control the Amazon river and other interior waterways. The Fourth Fleet was active during World War II but dissolved in 1950. The U.S. Navy has decided to re-establish the fleet to direct naval forces in the Caribbean and Latin America."

Simon Tisdall: But what's the west's next move in Afghanistan? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The body of the executed Talib fighter lies sprawled across a dirt road. Behind him a barren mountain landscape stretches into infinite darkness. In the foreground, the man's life-blood runs out of him in a meandering silver river, to be swallowed by the parched earth. The setting is Afghanistan's Shamali plain in November, 2001. The context is the carnage accompanying the US-led rout of the Taliban after 9/11. And the black and white image, captured by photographer Seamus Murphy, speaks eloquently of the apparently endless violence, suffering and incomprehension, bordering on insanity, which continue to beset war-ravaged Afghanistan.

   'The US is Not a Republic Anymore'   : Information Clearing House - ICH Press TV:We hear that Michael Mukasey is going to become the latest of the President's Attorney-Generals to be subpoenaed, this time over his conversations with Bush and Cheney - does this show that Congress is serious about calling the executive to account? Gore Vidal: No, Congress has never been more cowardly, nor more corrupt. All Bush has do is to make sure certain amounts of money go in the direction of certain important congressmen and that's end of any serious investigation. After all, one of the bravest members of Congress is Denis Kucinich who brought the article of impeachment in to the well of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives must then try the president, and then after that it goes to the Senate for judgment. However, none of these things will happen because there's nobody there except for Mr. Kucinich who has the courage to take on a sitting president who...

   Iran Is Not The Belligerent Party : Information Clearing House - ICH In recent years Iran has become the target of a belligerent campaign against it, orchestrated by usual suspects the US, Israel and Britain. This aggressive nuclear-armed trio has badgered other nations to back anti-Iranian sanctions without even the flimsiest evidence that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Since 2006, Iran has been subjected to three rounds of ever-tightening UN sanctions while the European Union (EU) is preparing to freeze funds and assets of Bank Melli, Iran's largest bank. And what heinous crime has Tehran perpetrated to warrant this treatment? In truth, Iran hasn't done anything wrong. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which it is a signatory, it has an "inalienable right" to develop, research, produce and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, which includes the right to enrich uranium.