Guardian - "Three British soldiers have been killed in an apparent friendly fire incident involving US aircraft in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today. ¶ Two other soldiers were injured in the incident... The casualties brought to 73 the total number of deaths of British forces in Afghanistan since operations began in November 2001." These deaths come a day after US Gen Jack Keane blamed the British for the chaos around Basra, Iraq.

Guardian - "Fresh allegations that British airports were secretly used by the CIA to 'render' Islamist terror suspects to be tortured in secret prisons or held in Guantánamo Bay are to be investigated by Scottish prosecutors."

Miami Herald - Padilla convicted based on a single phone call
By Jay Weaver

Padilla's guilt wasn't as clear-cut. Despite prosecutors' portrait of him as a ''star recruit'' for al Qaeda, jurors viewed the former Broward County resident as a ''pawn'' in the international terror network.

But on the second day of deliberations, the federal jury zeroed in on an 18-page transcript of a 1997 phone conversation between Padilla and his mentor, who he met at a Fort Lauderdale mosque. That single call sealed Padilla's guilt as a jihad recruit, jurors told The Miami Herald...

Despite the FBI agent's conflicting testimony about Padilla's intentions, the jurors ultimately convicted him based on the July 28, 1997, phone call -- coupled with his Mujahedin application. The form had detailed information about Padilla's life.

''As you can see, Padilla's participation was minimal,'' said the second juror. But the juror stressed that his colleagues had a legal responsibility to convict him even if he played ''only a minor part'' in the conspiracy.

A single phone call?

CS Monitor - "Convicted Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla is seeking to hold former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and 59 other US officials responsible for what his lawyers say were abusive and unconstitutional tactics used against Mr. Padilla while he was held in military custody as an enemy combatant from 2002 to 2006. ¶ Lawyers working on Padilla's behalf filed the civil lawsuit earlier this year in federal court in South Carolina. It was publicly disclosed by the lawyers this week... ¶ The defendants have been ordered to respond to the suit by Oct. 15."

NY Times - "The Bush administration has confirmed for the first time that American telecommunications companies played a crucial role in the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program after asserting for more than a year that any role played by them was a 'state secret.'" ¶ Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, "made the remarks apparently in an effort to bolster support for the broadened wiretapping authority that Congress approved this month, even as Democrats are threatening to rework the legislation because they say it gives the executive branch too much power. It is vital, he said, for Congress to give retroactive legal immunity to the companies that assisted in the program to help prevent them from facing bankruptcy because of lawsuits over it." Will the Congressional Bush Dog Democrats capitulate again and give retroactive immunity?

LA Times - Well Rep. Harman is shocked, just shocked over McConnell's revelations. "The disclosures stunned members of Congress. They were not allowed to discuss those details publicly during an intense debate this month on legislation sought by McConnell that granted the government significant new powers to eavesdrop on e-mails and phone calls that pass into or through data networks in the United States. ¶ 'I'm shocked,' said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), chairwoman of an intelligence panel on the House Committee on Homeland Security. 'It is stunning to me to read that he has decided to share these details with a small-town newspaper.'" Do you ever get the feeling that nearly everyone in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, is lying to us? Every. Single. Day.

NY Times - "The government has issued a rare written apology in a case involving an Iraqi refugee who was improperly imprisoned and pushed toward deportation by federal agents in Montana, the American Civil Liberties Union branch in Seattle announced yesterday... ¶ The refugee, Abdulameer Habeeb, 41, had been in the United States for 10 months on April 1, 2003, when he stepped off an Amtrak train near the Canadian border in Havre, Mont., to stretch his legs, according to court papers... ¶ He spent three nights in the county jail, underwent a strip search... He was taken through the airport in handcuffs and flown to Seattle, where he spent four more days in detention, the group said." Good that the government apologized. Make sure it never happens again.

WaPo - "The head of the Justice Department's embattled Civil Rights Division is to resign at the end of August, officials said yesterday, making him the latest in a series of senior political appointees to leave the agency amid continued controversy over Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. ¶ Wan J. Kim, the assistant attorney general for civil rights since November 2005, has been closely questioned by congressional Democrats about the administration's policy decisions and allegations by former career officials of improper hiring within the division, mostly under his predecessor." And yet, Gonzales still remains...

Chicago Tribune - "Bush plans to return to New Orleans next week, for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. He will return to a city still rebuilding from a hurricane and flooding... ¶ The Democrats also will be marking the anniversary of an event which they maintain revealed the ineptitude and lack of compassion of the Bush administration. A series of town hall-styled events are planned, featuring Democratic congressmen from the region."

AP - "Increased U.S. military use of bullets and higher demand for lead, brass and copper by China have law- enforcement agencies in Idaho and eastern Washington concerned about running out of ammunition, officials say."

AP - "U.S. women are dying from childbirth at the highest rate in decades, new government figures show. Though the risk of death is very small, experts believe increasing maternal obesity and a jump in Caesarean sections are partly to blame."

Oregonian - In eastern Washington, "the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is on the federal government's short list of sites for storing radioactive waste that could include contaminated metal from more than 100 U.S. nuclear plants."

Guardian - "Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, today failed for a second time to win sufficient parliamentary support to be elected president."

Spiegel - "The European Union wants more competition in the energy sector, but the large energy companies aren't playing ball. Now Brussels is planning to take on the big boys with a far-reaching new law which will break up the giant energy suppliers into separate production and distribution companies. ¶ European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs and European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes have put together a draft package of regulations which would force large European energy companies to completely give up control of their distribution networks."

Economist - "Over the two terms of Mr Putin's presidency, that 'group of FSB operatives' has consolidated its political power and built a new sort of corporate state in the process. Men from the FSB and its sister organisations control the Kremlin, the government, the media and large parts of the economy--as well as the military and security forces. According to research by Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, a quarter of the country's senior bureaucrats are siloviki--a Russian word meaning, roughly, 'power guys', which includes members of the armed forces and other security services, not just the FSB. The proportion rises to three-quarters if people simply affiliated to the security services are included. These people represent a psychologically homogeneous group, loyal to roots that go back to the Bolsheviks' first political police, the Cheka. As Mr Putin says repeatedly, 'There is no such thing as a former Chekist.'" Meet the neo-KGB. Oh and corporate state is the polite way of saying fascist state.

Independent - "Britons have racked up so much debt on loans and credit cards that the total borrowed now exceeds the entire value of the economy, new research shows today. The financial consultant Grant Thornton is forecasting that gross domestic product (GDP) will hit £1.33 trillion this year, less than the £1.35trn which was outstanding on mortgages, credit cards and personal loans in June. ¶ The symbolic overtaking is the first time that the country's 60 million people owe more to the banks than the value of everything made by every office and factory in the country."

FT - "The global market turmoil unleashed by the US subprime collapse is threatening activity levels at banks in the City, and London property agents are warning that high-end residential prices could suffer as result." Trouble with the high-end homes that the denizens of The City purchase... driving up housing costs everywhere in Britain.

DW-World - "After 100 days in office French President Nicolas Sarkozy appears to be losing some of his popularity, according to an opinion poll. However he still has the best rating since Charles de Gaulle."

Telegraph - "Nicolas Sarkozy is rude and self-obsessed, but a political genius with a touchingly childlike side according to a book on the French president by Yasmina Reza, the country's most feted playwright... ¶ Miss Reza warned Mr Sarkozy that it may be unwise to allow a writer into his den, but he had calculated the risk, replying: 'Even if you demolish me, you will make me greater,' he said. ¶ But despite his tough side, she clearly fell for his childlike enthusiasm, political prowess and power to seduce. ¶ 'Did he try and seduce you?' asked Le Nouvel Observateur. 'No. He wanted to seduce France,' she replied." Just more evidence that Sarkozy is out to screw France. The Guardian has more.

Spiegel - "Immigrants to Denmark have to learn how to become Danish. And if there is one thing the Danes do a lot of, it's ride bikes. Classes to teach newcomers how to cycle have proven popular."

Independent - "The [British] Government is likely to miss its latest target for cutting back greenhouse gas emissions by a wide margin, a report said yesterday. ¶ Instead of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2020, as it pledged to do earlier this year, on current policies it will succeed in cutting them back by no more than 15 per cent, according to the Cambridge Econometrics think-tank (CE). ¶ The report also says that it is likely to miss targets for boosting electricity derived over the next decade from renewable energy sources. However, according to CE, Britain is on course to meet its internationally-binding target, under the Kyoto climate change treaty, of cutting a 'basket' of six greenhouse gases by 12.5 per cent by 2010."

Spiegel - "Wind turbines continue to multiply the world over. But as they grow bigger and bigger, the number of dangerous accidents is climbing. How safe is wind energy?" Answer: A lot safer than energy from nukes or fossil fuels. Just look at Kashiwazaki nuclear plant in July on a fault line in Japan or the dead miners in China and Utah last week. Anyways... "After the industry's recent boom years, wind power providers and experts are now concerned. The facilities may not be as reliable and durable as producers claim. Indeed, with thousands of mishaps, breakdowns and accidents having been reported in recent years, the difficulties seem to be mounting." Bleah.

WaPo - "Recent photographs purportedly showing Sudanese soldiers in the Darfur region moving containers from a Russian-made Antonov cargo plane onto military trucks reinforce suspicions that Sudan continues to violate a U.N.-imposed arms embargo, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International said. ¶ The photographs, taken in July and released today by the rights group, also purportedly show Russian-supplied Mi-7 and Mi-24 military helicopters in the town of Geneina in Darfur."

Telegraph - "A troop of monkeys has been making 'lewd signs' at women and children trying to harvest crops south of Nairobi, and the farmers feel so harassed that Kenya's Wildlife Service is sending in animal-control teams to confront the animals. ¶ The monkeys in the Kabete area even earned a mention in parliament last month when the local MP Paul Muite said his constituents feared the monkeys would sexually harass them."

Guardian - "The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, chided critics of his handling of the political upheaval in Zimbabwe today, saying his efforts to mediate between the government and opposition were 'on track' and would deliver a resolution to the crisis. ¶ A meeting of Mr Mbeki's cabinet rejected reports in the South African press that the talks were failing after Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF failed to turn up for the first round and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said there was no progress at subsequent negotiations."

Guardian - "Russia's Gazprom is trying to muscle its way into the American energy market by encouraging BP to share a stake in its liquefied natural gas operation in Trinidad, which supplies the US. ¶ Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, has already secured a 25% share of the wholesale gas market in Europe - something that has caused widespread political unease - and wants to increase its influence in the US. ¶ Trinidad supplies around two-thirds of America's imported LNG and although the volumes remain relatively small they are expected to grow."

LA Times - "Hurricane Dean saved some of its worst for last, killing eight people after shrinking to a rainy tropical depression over central Mexico, authorities reported Thursday... ¶ The storm toll in Mexico brought the number of fatalities associated with Dean to 28, mostly in the Caribbean. The hurricane had reached its full strength, Category 5, when it struck a relatively isolated stretch of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday. So far no deaths have been reported there, though property damage was extensive."

LA Times - "Last week's 8.0 magnitude earthquake smashed a broad swath of Peru, collapsing thousands of buildings from the coast to the high Andes. The adobe homes of all 46 families in Las Palmas were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable... ¶ Much of the public attention since the Aug. 15 temblor has focused on the devastated city of Pisco, where most of the more than 500 fatalities occurred. ¶ But, as inspectors have edged out into the countryside, it has become clear that the damage there is overwhelming, even though the number of casualties is lower. Reaching many hard-hit rural areas on buckled, debris-laden roads can be a challenge."

Washington Post - After a Long Trek Across Colombia, Hostage Advocate Not Ready to Rest

Gustavo Moncayo's small-town life of quiet anonymity was marked by daily church services and a two-block walk to the public school where he taught social studies. On special days, he said, he'd play his flute.

That was before he became a household name -- a man who made a 600-mile, Forrest Gump-like walk across much of Colombia, finishing early this month, to draw attention to the plight of the estimated 3,000 people being held hostage in this country. Among those victims is his son, a soldier captured by rebels a decade ago.

The 46-day odyssey by Moncayo generated so much attention that it prompted Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to meet him in Bogota's central square for an impromptu debate. There, with the political theater televised nationwide, the two men argued about an intractable problem that afflicts thousands of Colombian families: how to free civilians and soldiers held hostage by the Marxist guerrillas who have been waging war here since 1964.

CBC News - "Engineers in Montreal determined Friday night that there is a real risk of a downtown road collapse, prompting police to seal off a larger area after the discovery of a gaping crack in an underground tunnel that connects malls to the metro. ¶ The large fissure, which is about seven metres long, is in the ceiling of a tunnel leading from The Bay department store to a subway station and shopping centres. ¶ The heart of Montreal's metro will remain closed indefinitely as safety inspectors continue to survey the damage."

CBC News - "Quebec provincial police are standing behind three officers who went undercover during protests at the recent Montebello summit, saying the men weren't there to provoke demonstrators... ¶ The police admitted Thursday afternoon that three masked men caught on video Monday afternoon pushing toward a line of riot police, despite protesters' efforts to stop them, were the force's officers."

Globe and Mail - "The Liberals accused the federal Conservatives yesterday of exceeding election spending limits by more than a million dollars in the final days of the 2006 campaign by passing off national advertising costs as money spent by local candidates. ¶ Elections Canada is now locked in a court battle with 37 of the candidates who want the government - which returns 60 per cent of the election expenses of candidates who get at least 10 per cent of the votes in their riding - to reimburse them for the costs."

The New York Times - More Iraqis Said to Flee Since Troop Increase
By James Glanz and Stephen Farrell

The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves.

Despite some evidence that the troop buildup has improved security in certain areas, sectarian violence continues and American-led operations have brought new fighting, driving fearful Iraqis from their homes at much higher rates than before the tens of thousands of additional troops arrived, the studies show.

The data track what are known as internally displaced Iraqis: those who have been driven from their neighborhoods and seek refuge elsewhere in the country rather than fleeing across the border. The effect of this vast migration is to drain religiously mixed areas in the center of Iraq, sending Shiite refugees toward the overwhelmingly Shiite areas to the south and Sunnis toward majority Sunni regions to the west and north.

Though most displaced Iraqis say they would like to return, there is little prospect of their doing so. One Sunni Arab who had been driven out of the Baghdad neighborhood of southern Dora by Shiite snipers said she doubted that her family would ever return, buildup or no buildup.

The New York Times - Number of Iraqis Held by U.S. Is Swelling
By Tom Shanker

The number of detainees held by the American-led military coalition in Iraq has swelled by 50 percent under the troop increase ordered by President Bush, with the inmate population growing from 16,000 in February to 24,500 today, according to American military officers in Iraq.

Nearly 85 percent of the detainees in custody are Sunni Arabs, the minority faction in Iraq that ruled the country under the government of Saddam Hussein, with the other detainees being Shiite Muslims, the officers say.

Of the Sunni detainees, about 1,800 claim allegiance to a group that calls itself Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, military officers said. Another 6,000 identify themselves as takfiris, meaning Muslims who believe some other Muslims are not true believers. Such extremists view Shiite Muslims as heretics.

Those statistics would seem to indicate that the main inspiration of the hard-core Sunni insurgency is no longer a desire to restore the old order -- a movement that drew from former Baath party members and security officials who served under Mr. Hussein -- and has become religious and ideological.

LA Times - "The Americans see the militia as a criminal organization engaged in racketeering and execution-style slayings of Sunni Muslims, but many Iraqis believe the militants offer the only protection against attacks by Sunni insurgents and are a reliable source for scarce fuel supplies. So many residents reject the American message of peace between Shiites and Sunnis and continue to support the militia... ¶ Many soldiers also say practices that worked against insurgencies in other wars or in other parts of Iraq may not apply to Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods. ¶ The Al Mahdi militia is not a textbook insurgent group. To Iraqi Shiites, the militia offers a source for basic services and support for the political and religious work of popular anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr... ¶ Even with the additional 28,500 combat and support troops sent to Iraq in the Bush administration's buildup, there are not enough soldiers to provide the around-the-clock protection needed to erode the power of the militia."

LA Times - "Despite some military progress, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is unable to govern his country effectively and the political situation is likely to become even more precarious in the next six to 12 months, the nation's intelligence agencies concluded in a new assessment released Thursday. ¶ The document, an update of a National Intelligence Estimate delivered in January, represents the view of all 16 U.S. spy agencies."

Spiegel - "A stark assessment released Thursday by the nation's intelligence agencies depicts a paralyzed Iraqi government unable to take advantage of the security gains achieved by the thousands of extra American troops dispatched to the country this year."

McClatchy - "This week, 15 former officials of Saddam's regime, including the notorious "Chemical Ali," Ali Hassan al Majid, went on trial for the mass killings, reopening old wounds in the now dominant Shiite community. But the anger wasn't aimed at just the former officials, who include some of the most notorious Saddam henchmen. It was also aimed at the United States for what Shiites still remember as a betrayal." Damned if you do. Damned if you don't, but don't is cheaper.

CS Monitor - "US charges against Iran's role in Iraq are mounting. But analysts say that a history of unsubstantiated US claims against Iran should serve as a cautionary tale. The lesson to be drawn is not that Iran is guiltless in Iraq, they say, but one of restraint as a familiar drumbeat sounds."

Reuters - "The U.S. Defense Department said Friday it was tentatively planning to sell Singapore up to 84 precision-guided bombs for its F-15 fighter fleet as part of a military package deal valued at up to $200 million. ¶ Singapore has requested up to 28 Guided Bomb Unit-10 and 56 GBU-12 precision-guided munitions along with 126,000 20mm practice round cartridges, crew training in the United States and related items, the department told Congress."

NY Times - "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan voiced admiration on Thursday for two Indians who stood up to Britain, the country's colonial ruler, during World War II and sided with Japan. ¶ Mr. Abe came here to meet relatives of the two, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a nationalist leader who advocated armed resistance to the British, and Radhabinod Pal, the sole judge who dissented at the Allied tribunal that condemned to death war-time Japanese leaders."

Kyodo - "The police are planning to raid the homes of Maritime Self-Defense Force officers and members next week in connection with a suspected leak of confidential data on the Aegis defense system, sources familiar with the case said Friday. ¶ The Kanagawa prefectural police and an MSDF police unit will jointly conduct searches of the homes and other related locations on suspicion of a violation of the 1954 Law Concerning the Protection of Secrets for the Japan-U.S. Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement, the sources said."

WaPo - "In China, ..more than 4,700 miners were killed last year and more than 2,000 have been killed this year, making China's coal mines the deadliest in the world. In the United States, 47 coal miners died on the job in 2006. ¶ With each disaster here, an anger has flared among miners and their families, flowing from a sentiment that they have been left to cope for themselves -- to endure their 14-hour days underground, to get by on paltry salaries and, from time to time, to lose their loved ones in accidents that everyone laments but no one seems to stop."

WaPo - "The wife of a blind, imprisoned legal activist was detained at the Beijing airport Friday by authorities, apparently on orders to prevent her from flying to the Philippines to receive an award on behalf of her husband, whose case has sparked international outrage and condemnation. ¶ Yuan Weijing, 30, was forcibly returned to her home village near Linyi city in Shandong province. She had been staying in Beijing since sneaking out from under police surveillance last month to come here and work on the case to free her husband... ¶ Yuan's husband, Chen Guangcheng, 35, was jailed last year after embarrassing Linyi and Shandong officials by exposing abuses in their population control policy, including forced late-term abortions and sterilizations."

The Telegraph - Afghanistan: Return to the lair of bin Laden
By Tom Coghlan

Osama bin Laden's cement-lined swimming pool fed by a mountain stream still lies, half destroyed, at the entrance to his cave complex at Tora Bora.

Close to the caves, which have been dynamited shut, is a rusting 1980s vintage Soviet tank; bullets and scraps of camouflage clothing litter the ground. An air of brooding gloom hangs about the cloud-wreathed mountains.

But six years after US special forces failed to capture the al-Qa'eda leader in his mountain stronghold, the place where the September 11 attacks were hatched, American troops are again scouring the mountains of Tora Bora.

A week ago American forces launched a major operation to counter a rejuvenated al-Qa'eda, which has been steadily regrouping in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and has in the past three months moved back into the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan.

WaPo - "Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to return to the country after nearly seven years in exile, a decision that remakes the nation's political landscape and deals a major blow to President Pervez Musharraf as he struggles to maintain power. ¶ Musharraf had fought hard to block the return of Sharif, a political enemy and the man he ousted in a 1999 military-led coup."

Pakistan Daily Times - "Federal Information Secretary Syed Anwar Mahmood said ... that President Gen Pervez Musharraf would shed his uniform in December after his presidential election. ¶ The secretary's remarks confirmed that President Musharraf not only plans to have the current assemblies elect him, while uniformed, but he will not appoint his successor as army chief until the end of the year." I guess Musharraf's election is certain.

Guardian - "Bangladesh's military-backed government relaxed a curfew today brought in to quell student riots that had rocked the country's campuses after security forces arrested four university professors who were arch-critics of the regime. ¶ The academics were seized in dawn raids and hours later the government announced it was temporarily suspending the curfew. ¶ The rolling back of the emergency measure will see public transport services resume, and means schools, banks, clinics and pharmacies can reopen in the capital Dhaka and five other cities. Lessons at Dhaka university, which teaches 40,000 students, are also likely to restart. ¶ Among those taken in custody were Harun ur-Rashid, dean of Dhaka university's social science faculty, and Anwar Hossain, dean of bioscience and a prominent leader of the university's teachers' association."

Guardian - "A controversial new history of the Indian Mutiny, which broke out 150 years ago and is acknowledged to have been the greatest challenge to any European power in the 19th century, claims that the British pursued a murderous decade-long campaign to wipe out millions of people who dared rise up against them. ¶ In War of Civilisations: India AD 1857, Amaresh Misra, a writer and historian based in Mumbai, argues that there was an 'untold holocaust' which caused the deaths of almost 10 million people over 10 years beginning in 1857. Britain was then the world's superpower but, says Misra, came perilously close to losing its most prized possession: India."

Bush has 513 days left. 3,723 U.S. confirmed deaths in Iraq. Over $454,920,000,000 spent on the Iraq war.