Army declare victory over Fatah al-Islam
Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr declared victory over militant group Fatah al-Islam on Thursday, after a 33 day siege of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli. Having seized thirteen of the group's positions, including its headquarters as well as its command and control centre, Nahr al-Bared is to remain a military zone until all surviving militants, including Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi, surrender.
Fatah al-Islam announced, via Palestinian mediators, their intention to stop shooting soon after Murr's late-night announcement.
172 people were killed during the hostilities (76 soldiers, 60 militants and 36 civilians), while much of the camp - home to some 40,000 refugees - was destroyed. The confrontation was the worst fighting to grip Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.
Lebanon's security as well as its self-interest demands a policy of humanity and respect towards the Palestinians in its midst, says Zaid Al-Ali on openDemocracy.
Abbas loses UNSC declaration of confidence
Indonesia, Qatar, Russia and South Africa have blocked a United Nations Security Council declaration of confidence in the emergency government of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian observer to the UN proclaimed that such a measure would constitute intervention into the PA's internal affairs, while the South African ambassador has noted that it was the international community who exascerbated the Hamas-Fatah cleavages to begin with.
Video footage depicting the alleged Hamas preparations to assassinate Abbas has been released by the PA. Abbas is to consider calling a new election as a means of solidifying his standing among Palestinians, though it is doubtful that Hamas will allow such a step in Gaza.
Director of the Middle East program at International Crisis Group Robert Malley criticises Western dualist policy of "sticks for Gaza coupled with carrots for the West Bank", in dealing with Palestine. Any such "West Bank first" strategy will only serve to rupture the body politic further, and undermine any future peace process.
IAEA warns of cash shortage
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohamed ElBaradei has said that the world's nuclear watchdog is severely under-funded, and thus would have great difficulty in responding to a nuclear accident. He also says the IAEA does not possess adequate equipment to detect covert nuclear activity or combat nuclear smuggling. Reliance on external verification systems, on the other hand, would serve to undermine the independence of organisation.
UN proposes end to WMD inspections in Iraq
A draft proposal has been submitted by the UN to suspend the monitoring of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. If approved, the allotted funds from the oil-for-food programme will be transferred to a development fund, a step long called for by the Iraqi government.
Pentagon reviews mental health trauma in Iraq
After the concern raised by a Pentagon mental health taskforce that the incidence of psychological trauma has been heightened in Iraq by the increased length of combat duty, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has pledged to improve the healthcare afforded to the rising number of troops with psychological injury in Iraq and Afghanistan.
1,200 US soldiers are engaged in an effort to secure the bank of the Tigris River near a Sunni insurgent haven known as Arab Jubour, south of Baghdad.
11 murdered in Kenya
At least eleven people have been killed in Kenya overnight. Eight were gunned down in a bar in a Nairobi suburb, while three others were murdered in Banana Hill, a town 30km from the capital. It is unclear whether the killings were related to the imprisonment one-day earlier of the ex-leader of the Mungiki sect, banned for allegedly beheading around 30 people - one of the Banana Hill victims was beheaded.
US seeks "more active partner" in Armenia
US charge d'affaires in Yerevan Anthony Godfrey is concerned at deepening Iranian-Armenian economic relations, forging as they are multimillion-dollar energy projects together. Washington is prepared to assist the South Caucasus nation to build a nuclear plant, he commented, and hopes that Armenia will become a "more active partner" in pushing Iran to comply with its ‘obligations' on nuclear non-proliferation.
Nazarian discusses the position of Armenia in the global economy, from IT to dried fruit.
CPI-Maoist economic blockade
Indian security forces have been put on high alert in several states after the national Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) called for a two-day economic blockade, apparently inspired by the "chakka jams" of Nepalese Maoists. The CPI-Maoist Polit Bureau had recently stepped up attacks on infrastructure in opposition to central government economic policies, which it considered to play "into the hands of multi-national companies".
Secular education appears to be under increasing pressure from Islamists in northern Kashmir. On 16 June a mob ransacked and burnt down a law college in Sopore, after two disciplined staff members falsely accused the school of insulting Islam.
Call for ex-PMs to stand down in Bangladesh
Former prime ministers Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Awami League (AL) respectively, have been told to resign as party chiefs by two senior leaders, amid mounting accusations of graft and abuse of power from the army-backed interim government. The interim govenment took charge in January in an effort to stabilise the country and clean up politics. Earlier this week the two parties concluded internal reforms set to curb the powers of the party chiefs.
CIA to declassify dark secrets of past
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is set to declassify hundreds of documents detailing a quarter-centuries worth of domestic spying, kidnapping, infiltration of leftist groups and foreign assassination attempts by the US agency - the so-called "family jewels", long demanded released by historians, journalists and conspiracy theorists.
National Security Archive Director Thomas S. Blanton expressed scepticism at the way the move serves to draw "a bright line with the past", however, obscuring how the CIA continues to dip into "the black bag" of illegality in its operations.
AP: Guantánamo facility to close
Associated Press has reported that President George W. Bush is close to shutting down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, and relocating detainees to prisons on US soil. The White House has refused to comment on the claim.
Net tightens around narcotics traffickers
Former governor of Quintana Roo, Mario Villanueva Madrid, awaits the ruling of a Mexican judge as to whether he is to be extradited to New York City to face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering. He would be the highest-ranking elected official to stand trial in the US. The move comes amid a crackdown on elicit smuggling by President Felipe Calderón, who has shipped 21 people - among them four high-level cartel leaders - to the US this year alone.
Guatemalan national Otto Roberto Herrera Garcia, one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers, has been arrested in Bogotá. He escaped custody in Mexico City two years ago.
