India Express reports that authorities on the Indian side of divided Jammu & Kashmir state are on "red alert" as Hindus prepare for protests following yesterday's attack by presumed Islamic militants on Ayodhya, the disputed holy site in Uttar Pradesh. A July 6 report in India Express also notes that Hindus displaced from the Pakistani side of the line, organized in the Panun Kashmir Movement (PKM), are demanding a seat at the dialogue table over the divided region's future. They call themselves the Kashmiri Pandits (pandit literally meaning a scholar of Sanskrit, underscoring their religious identity), and call their homeland (now occupied by Pakistan) Panun Kashmir.

Edinburgh's constabulary mixed it up with anarchists at the G8 summit protests in Edinburgh yesterday, resulting in about 100 arrests and 20 injured (including two police) in six hours of street clashes. Stay tuned for more fun, as environmentalist protesters plan to blockade the nearby BP oil refinery at Grangemouth today. Meanwhile, the Scottish countryside seems intensely militarized. Writes CNN:

Al-Qaeda's supposed top man in Saudi Arabia has been killed. Will it mean any de-escalation of violence in the desert kkingdom? Or is this a hydra-headed monster? This July 4 AFP account from Qatar's Gulf Times:

Qaeda chief killed in Riyadh shootout

By Lydia Georgi

RIYADH: Al Qaeda’s suspected frontman in Saudi Arabia was killed in a shootout with security forces in the capital yesterday only five days after authorities put him at the top of a new list of wanted militants.

Has anyone noticed the unsubtle political jockeying over which country gets to host the new fusion energy research facility offically known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)? It finally went to France, over the predictable objections of Washington. Writes The Economist, June 30:

More reports of unspeakable horror, courtesy of the leader of the free world, and its junior partner. Thanks to TruthOut for passing this along.

UK Aid Funds Iraqi Torture Units
By Peter Beaumont and Martin Bright
The Observer UK

Sunday 03 July 2005

British and American aid intended for Iraq's hard-pressed police service is being diverted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings, The Observer can reveal.

OK, is it the Serbs or Albanians who are behind this one? From the AP, July 2:

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro — At least three blasts rocked the centre of Kosovo's capital late Saturday and one targeted the UN mission headquarters. At least three UN vehicles were set ablaze in the parking lot of the mission headquarters. There were no immediate reports of any injuries after at least two near-simultaneous blasts, said Hua Jiang, chief UN spokeswoman.

The Kurdistan Bloggers Union notes the recent killing of Muhammad Mashouk al-Khaznawi, a Kurdish leader in Syria, providing this July 1 account of his death (refering to northern Syria as "West Kurdistan"):

A Kurdish Sunni Muslim cleric in Syria who was reported missing last month has died after being tortured, Kurdish party officials said Wednesday. Sheikh Mohammed Maashuq al-Khaznawi had not been heard from since May 10 and was believed to have been detained by Syrian police.

Surprise, surprise! None other than Karl Rove has been named as the source who leaked that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, a crime for which two journalists may yet do time, even though they didn't commit it. Time magazine has now gone over the head of its own reporter Matt Cooper—who took a principled stance in refusing to name his source despite a federal subpoena—and released his e-mails regarding the case to the Justice Department, so he may be off the hook in terms of prison time. (Not so Judith Miller of the New York Times, whose own shameless pom-pom waving for Bush's military escapades makes her an unlikely hero.) The e-mails apparently confirm that he at least discussed the story with Rove, and allegations are mounting that Rove was in fact the source. So this is a convenient little double-whammy for the Bush administration. First they got to discredit Plame's husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson when he was claiming (correctly, it turns out) that Saddam did not seek uranium from Africa. Then, it uses the case sparked by the leak to erode the principle of journalistic privilege. Pretty Machiavellian. One wishes their hubris would catch up with these guys already, as it did for Machiavelli in the end. From the July 2 Editor & Publisher: