* Military aid reaches Lebanese army Two military transport planes landed at the Beirut airport on Friday, bringing foreign military aid to help the Lebanese army fight Islamic militants.

* Iraqi cleric back in public eye Moqtada Sadr, the radical Iraqi Shia cleric, has appeared in public in Iraq for the first time in months.

* ‘Iran issue approaching confrontation’ “We see a deteriorating situation, a move toward confrontation” with Iran, International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei warned.

* Turkey’s battle plan could threaten northern Iraq he war drums are getting louder in Turkey, and they can be heard next door in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and across the globe in Washington as well.

* Syrian overtures stir interest in J’lem The absence of a Palestinian partner, a US “wink,” and an increasingly radicalized region are prompting a number of policy makers in Jerusalem to show new interest.

* Israel will be uprooted should it attack Lebanon, Ahmadinejad says Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday warned Israel it would be uprooted if the Jewish state attacked Lebanon in the coming summer.

* Syrians march to support renewal of Assad’s mandate Hundreds of thousands of Syrians thronged the main square of the capital on Thursday to support a second seven-year term for President Bashar Assad.

* Attack of the cyber terrorists At first it would be no more than a nuisance. No burning skyscrapers, no underground explosions, just a million electronic irritations up and down the land.

* Hamas: Islam Will Rule the World, Destroy Israel and the Jews The Hamas terrorist organization is conducting a simultaneous battle against Israel and its coalition partner, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction.

* Settlers call for ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ in Gaza “Israel must take its fate in its own hands. There is no other option but to launch a ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip to reoccupy it.”