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On Monday the Iraqi Army launched a large-scale offensive in Diyala north of Baghdad to wipe out al-Qaeda’s last remaining hideouts in the country. Since the tide of the war turned last winter, thousands of al-Qaeda jihadists have fled Iraq.

Some returned home and resumed normal life. Others, looking for new places to pursue their holy war against “Zionists and Crusaders”, ended up in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Thailand and helped to reignite the fires of jihad. for more click here

The world’s financial storm has swept through Australia and New Zealand this week amid mounting signs of contagion across the Pacific region. for more click here

It is not just in the United States that aggressive counterterrorism measures have raised serious human rights concerns. This month, the U.K. House of Lords began debating a draft counterterrorism law that would institute a number of harmful proposals, including granting police the power to detain terrorism suspects for up to six weeks without charge. While the bill garnered a narrow government majority of only nine votes, the government managed to get it passed last month in the House of Commons (the lower house of Parliament). for more click here

(Geneva, July 29, 2008) – The Iranian judiciary should immediately halt all executions of juvenile offenders and Iran’s parliament should move swiftly to ban such executions, a group of human rights organizations said today. for more click here

Should cartoonists get danger pay? Maybe it’s time. Canada’s own Barry Blitt has gone to ground after his infamous, satirical New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as gun-toting Islamic militants. Obama fans hated it. Other cartoonists hated it. But Muslim groups hated it even more. The Council on American-Islamic Relations declared it “inflammatory.” A commentator for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram called it “racist” and Islamophobic. for more click here

Belgrade - Thousands of Serbs rallied Tuesday for war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic’s freedom, chanting nationalist slogans and cheering speakers who denounced the country’s pro-Western government. for more click here

Voters are increasingly writing off Labour as fewer people believe that a change of leader or policy would help the party to win the next general election.

A Populus poll for The Times, undertaken over the weekend after Labour’s defeat in Glasgow East, suggests that its dramatic slide in popularity is being driven by a collapse in economic confidence. for more click here

BACK IN the days when the Indochina wars were on everyone’s mind, a droll newspaperman, Martin F. Nolan, observed that “when the American people have to know when a country’s rainy season is, we are already in too deep.”

I remembered that recently when I read about Saddam Hussein’s tattoo. Hussein had three dots tattooed on his wrist to identify himself as a member of the Albu Nasir tribe. It was once all important to be an Albu Nasirman as the tribe dominated the government of Iraq in Hussein’s era. His inner circle was made up of fellow tribesmen and family, for in Iraq tribe and family are often the only entities you can trust. for more click here

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Stocks ended higher in Europe, erasing earlier losses as Wall Street gained in afternoon trade on improved consumer confidence and as several earnings reports in Europe were mostly well-received. for more click here

The former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, has been flown from the Serbian capital Belgrade to the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague.

He was moved from the court building where he had been held since his arrest last week after 13 years on the run. for more click here