From the London Mirror, July 8:

WE CANNOT SURRENDER
States which shelter these killers will know no peace

by Christopher Hitchens

SOMEWHERE around London at about a quarter to nine yesterday morning, there must have been people turning on their TV and radio sets with a look of wolfish expectation.

Maryam Namazie of the Organization of Women's Liberation in Iran (OWLI) gave the following speech, "Political Islam in the Heart of Secular Europe," at the International Humanist and Ethical Union Congress in Paris the day before the London terror attacks:

* Sweet 16 year old Atefeh Rajabi was publicly hanged in the city centre in Neka in Iran on 15 August 2004 for "acts incompatible with chastity".
* In April this year, Amina was publicly stoned to death in Argu district, Afghanistan, after being accused of adultery by her husband.
* This month, physicians have been beaten for treating female patients and women have been brutally attacked for not being veiled in Basra, Iraq.

The list is endless.

Protesters are starting to leave Edinburgh, but at least four were re-arrested for violating bail conditions banning them from the city while actually trying to get out of town. Human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar told the court: "The situation with public transport out of Edinburgh [on July 7] was pandemonium after the bomb blasts in London. I find it impossible to see how people are able to leave Edinburgh if the bail restrictions say they are not allowed in Edinburgh. It seems they are getting arrested by overzealous police officers." (The Scotsman, July 9) In a proverbial case of strange bedfellows, World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz praised do-gooder rock star Bob Geldof for his campaign to pressure the G8 on African poverty. The G8 finally arrived at a deal for increased aid and debt relief for Africa. The leaders of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania attended the summit to lobby for the debt relief program. "I thought it was extremely positive," Wolfowitz said. "If you'd told me a couple of months ago that there would be a commitment to a doubling of aid and debt cancellation, I'd have said you were dreaming." But he emphasized that the aid and debt relief programs are conditioned on economic reforms. "It's a deal for a deal," he said. (London Sunday Times, July 10)

Following the July 5 attack by presumed Islamic militants at the disputed Indian holy site of Ayodhya, protests have broken out throughout India. Over 2,000 were arrested in Delhi, where police used tear gas, and critics charge the protests have been particularly violent in states controlled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A previously unknown armed group, the Fatherland is First Popular Revolutionary Command (Comando Popular Revolucionario La Patria es Primero), has claimed responsibility for the July 6 assassination of former Guerrero state government secretary Ruben Robles Catalan, whose driver was also killed in the attack.

A particularly chilling story from Iraq. From the UN news agency IRIN, and available on the website of the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), July 4:

IRAQ: Acid attacks on "immodest" women on the rise
For Sumeya Abdullah, a 34-year-old primary school teacher in the capital Baghdad, life will never be the same again. In late June she had her legs burned by corrosive acid in a street attack because, she believes, she was not wearing her veil and the traditional 'abaya' covering common in many Middle Eastern countries.

Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, July 5, the regional grouping known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) issued a statement that called on the US to establish a timetable for withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. Led by Russia and China, the grouping also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Six were killed today as unidentified militants attacked the bitterly contested holy site of Ayodhya in India's Uttar Pradesh. First, a likely suicide bomber in a jeep blew up an outer security wall; then a group of five others posing as tourists in a taxi stormed the complex, sparking a gunbattle with police in which all the attackers were killed. The site has occasioned much violence in the past, beginning in December 1992, when the Babri mosque that had stood there since the Mogul era was destroyed in a mass action by Hindu militants, who claimed it was built atop an ancient temple marking the birthplace of the god Rama. The question again exploded into violence in February 2002 when a train carrying Hindu militants from the site, where they had rallied for rebuilding the temple, was attacked by Muslim militants in Gujarat state, leaving 59 dead and sparking weeks of retaliatory violence in which over 1,000 Muslims were killed. Excavations are currently underway to determine if in fact the temple had existed, and a makeshift Hindu shrine has been erected there.