The conservative Washington Times exploits the arrest of four Kosovar Albanian youth in the apparent Ft. Dix terror conspiracy, raising once again Slobodan Milosevic's specter of a Balkan jihad. Good timing, just as Kosova is poised to become Europe's first Muslim-led state. Perhaps the WT's perverse glee will be shared by their counterparts on the "left"—like Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky. Bill Gertz writes May 9:

What a bizarre irony. The international press are playing up the lovefest between the once-implacable enemies who have united to revive the "devolved" government at Stormont for the first time since the power-sharing assembly was suspended in October 2002: new First Minister Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) (who in 1998 was forcibly ejected from his Europarliament seat for calling Pope John Paul II the "anti-Christ"—to his face!) and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin (a former IRA commander who was convicted on "terrorism" charges in 1973). Meanwhile, protesters who gathered outside the Stormont parliament building to condemn the swearing-in ceremony as a sell-out included both veteran IRA militants who decried the betrayal of Republicanism and a group called "Justice for Protestants" made up of Ulster Defence Regiment veterans—paradoxically united by their mutual desire to avoid uniting with each other. Just to add to the fun, a group of anti-war protesters also showed up to protest Tony Blair's appearance at the affair. (Canberra Times, May 10; Belfast Telegraph, May 9; RTE News, May 8; BBC News Profile: Martin McGuinness)

From AFP, May 7 via iAfrica.com:

Riot squads fired tear gas on Sunday at protestors throwing stones, bottles and, in one instance, acid at police in cities across France after right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential victory.

Unknown assailants tossed a hand grenade and fired 17 rounds with a semi-automatic weapon into a police station in Athens April 30, damaging police cars and civilian vehicles but causing no casualties. A police official said: "It appears to be part of the anarchist attacks we have witnessed over the past few days, but we rule out nothing." (AlJazeera, April 30).

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed concern that construction of a US missile shield in Eastern Europe would heighten the "threat of causing mutual damage and even destruction." The proposed scheme "is not just a defense system," he exclaimed, "this is part of the US nuclear weapons system." [BBC, April 27]

The New York Times' March 24 review of a new exhibit on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at the Museum of the City of New York is a depressingly sinister and hypocritical piece of propaganda. Entitled "The Spanish Civil War: Black and White in a Murky, Ambiguous World" by Edward Rothstein, the piece pokes smarmy fun at the heroic and paints the critical precursor struggle to World War II with a bogus moral equivalism. Rothstein comes close to a fascism-wasn't-so-bad-after-all position, which is particularly frightening when so many of its characteristics (aggressive wars, secret prisons) are once again in evidence.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mamediarov and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation in Washington March 22. Azerbaijan announced it is seeking political support from the US to build new gas export pipelines, amid rising competition with Russia. Azeri news agency APA quoted US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza as saying the memorandum will express support for "new generation" pipelines to carry gas from the Caspian Sea to European markets.

British authorities have arrested three men in connection with the July 7, 2005 London bombings that killed 52. Police say they have long suspected that others were involved in the attack besides the four suicide bombers. Two of the suspects were arrested at Manchester airport en route to Pakistan, while another was detained in a raid on a house in Leeds. (Madrid11, March 23)