2 Italian military personnel missing in western Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two Italian military personnel on a weekend patrol have disappeared in western Afghanistan, and police said Sunday they were searching for the pair and their two Afghan staff.
In northeastern Afghanistan, meanwhile, NATO helicopters fired on a group of suspected insurgents in response to a rocket attack. Four Afghans died and 12 […]

Another Democratic Iraq Amendment Goes Down

(The Politico) The Senate will adjourn for the weekend after a long week of tense debate over Iraq in which Democrats failed to move the ball and Republicans decided to stick with the White House in backing an unpopular war.
Yet another Democratic amendment on Iraq failed Friday morning, and this one didn’t even earn a […]

Muhammad cartoons in Scandinavia

Is it déjà vu all over again?
FOR the past few weeks Sweden has been poised for a replay of the Muhammad cartoon row in Denmark in 2006. Nerikes Allehanda, a provincial newspaper, published a crude sketch of the head of the prophet on the body of a dog. But despite a few flag-burning incidents in […]

Somaliland official says al Qaeda suspects arrested

HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops arrested six men believed to be members of al Qaeda during a cross-border operation in the breakaway republic of Somaliland, a senior Somaliland official said on Saturday.
There was no immediate word from Addis Ababa, which has sent thousands of soldiers to support an interim government in neighboring Somalia threatened […]

Al Qaeda: Kill Swedish cartoonist

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq offered money for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist who recently produced images deemed insulting to Islam, according to a statement carried by Islamist Web sites Saturday.
In the half hour audio file entitled “They plotted yet God too was plotting,” Abu Omar al-Baghdadi […]

Two U.S. soldiers die in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The U.S. military on Friday reported the deaths of two U.S. soldiers in northern Iraq.
hursday in Diyala province when an explosion occurred near his vehicle, the military said. A second soldier was wounded.
Another Task Force Lightning soldier also died Thursday in a noncombat-related incident in Tameem province, where Kirkuk is located.
The […]

Iraqi sweet pickles spark anthrax scare in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian diplomat has apologized to the Iraqi government after he mistook a box of sweet pickles sent to him as Ramadan gift for anthrax powder, a newspaper said on Saturday.
The incident has sparked a protest from Baghdad, with its envoy to Malaysia expressing displeasure over the diplomat’s “panic-stricken behavior”.
“It is […]

Iran warns West against attack

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran told Western powers on Saturday that they would regret launching any attack over Tehran’s nuclear activities and it rolled out a display of missiles and other hardware that underscored its warning.
“Our message to the enemies is: Do not do it,” the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said, […]

Qaeda-led group executes five Iraqi officers

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi al Qaeda-led group, the Islamic State in Iraq, has shot dead five abducted Iraqi army officers and posted a video of the execution-style killings on the Internet on Saturday.
The footage, posted on a Web site used by insurgents in Iraq, showed a masked gunman shooting the blindfolded officers in the […]

82 killed in Afghanistan violence

KABUL, Afghanistan - A bomb attack Friday against a convoy of French troops killed one soldier and injured many Afghans near the blast, while heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan killed about 75 Taliban fighters and six civilians, officials said.
The attack in western Kabul blew the windows out of a civilian bus and set at least […]