A BRITISH soldier was killed and four others injured yesterday in Iraq as security forces launched a high-profile crackdown against terrorists in Baghdad.The troops were travelling in the Maysan region on their way to a planned meeting with Iraqi security officials when a roadside bomb exploded near the flashpoint town of Amara.The latest death brings the number of British soldiers killed in Iraq since the start of hostilities in March 2003 to 88.As insurgents used suicide bombings and ambushes to kill at least 17 people and al Qaeda said it had launched a new offensive of its own across the country, a US Marine also died in a bomb attack north-west of Baghdad.
Tori e-mailed the above from Scotland's The Herald. It's an excerpt from Billy Briggs' "Roadside bomb claims 88th British soldier."
Kara e-mails Martin Patience's "In unsettled times" from Scotland's Sunday Herald:
The mother-of-five has relatives who live a five-minute walk away, but because she cannot cross the road that leads to the settlement, Hassanat has to take a two-hour round-trip to see them.
But all that could change following the unilateral disengagement plan by Ariel Sharon’s government to withdraw from the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, scheduled to start by mid-July. Nehaya Hassanat and her husband Jaber would then be able to take the short stroll to their relatives' homes.
The Salah al-Din road that runs in front of their house means all Palestinians will be able to drive from the top to the bottom of the Gaza Strip in less than an hour.
"For sure, the people will be happy when they [the Israeli settlers] leave," said Jaber, who works for the Palestinian security services. "It will be easier for me to travel south."
In the past, the couple says, the orange groves behind their house have been used as a launch pad for attacks on the Netzarim settlement. Less than two weeks ago, members of the Islamic group Hamas had fired homemade Qassem rockets at the settlement. But Nehaya Hassanat said that she and her family had nothing to do with the attacks, and pleaded with the militants to stop firing the rockets from near her house, for fear of a reprisal attack by the Israeli army.
From Al Jazeera, we'll note "Ex-Sudan rebel warns of new crisis:"
UN chief Kofi Annan has met anex-rebel leader who told him thatthe post-war return of hundreds of thousands of refugees to their homesin southern Sudan is mushroominginto a humanitarian crisis.
John Garang, chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, told Annan at Rumbeik on Sunday that more than a quarter-million refugees have returned to homes around this former rebel stronghold since the signing of the January peace agreement with the Sudanese government in Khartoum. Now, Garang said, the war-ravaged region needs help feeding the returnees, who have not yet been able to go back to farming. "The UN food pipeline is empty," Garang told Annan.
There are some more entries for world news coming but I know a few people aren't on vacation and are waiting for something to go up here.
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