Gore: U.S. Climate Bill Will Help Bring About ‘Global Governance’ Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about “global governance.”

* Medvedev sees single currency dream in G8 coin gift Even if Russia’s call for a global currency failed to gain much traction at a G8 summit, President Dmitry Medvedev took home a coin meant to symbolize that the dream may one day come true.

* Obama speaks of hopes for Africa US President Barack Obama, on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, has said Africa must take charge of its own destiny in the world.

* Obama tells pope he wants to reduce abortions in U.S. President Barack Obama promised Pope Benedict on Friday that he would do everything possible to reduce the number of abortions in the United States.

* Iran to offer West ‘new package’ Iran’s government says it is preparing a new package of proposals to put to the West.

* Major mosques close in Urumqi, China Five major mosques near the center of violence last weekend in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far-west Xinjiang region, were closed Friday morning.

* Tribal region poses harsh test for Pakistan army After relative success against Islamic extremists elsewhere, Pakistan’s military faces its toughest test yet — a surgical operation against the country’s most dangerous militant.

* U.S. –Russian Summit: Will the Results Match the Rhetoric? After the glow produced by an exchange of warm words by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at the Moscow summit earlier this week, many regional analysts and news commentators are looking to the future with a somewhat chillier glance.

* French FM meets Hizbullah legislator France’s foreign minister held talks Friday with a Hizbullah legislator in the latest European outreach to the Iranian-backed terror group.

* Egypt drops bid for Palestinian unity government Egypt has ceased efforts to mediate the formation of a national unity government between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.

* Netanyahu aide: No Golan pullout for peace Israel will not withdraw from the entire Golan Heights in return for a peace deal with Syria.

* IDF and Iran already Engaged in ‘Cyber War’ While Israel has publicly refrained from striking Iran, a secret “cyber war” may have already begun.

* G8 pledges to boost food supplies Leaders of the G8 developed nations have pledged $20bn (£12bn) for efforts to boost food supplies to the hungry, on the final day of a summit in Italy.

* Kurds Defy Baghdad, Laying Claim to Land and Oil With little notice, Kurdistan’s leaders are moving forward on a new constitution, alarming some Iraqis and Americans.

* Israel orders 1st stealth F-35 squadron Israel moved a step closer to receiving its first stealth fighter jets this week after the Israel Air Force submitted an official Letter of Request (LOR) to the Pentagon to purchase its first squadron of 25 F-35 stealth fighter jets.

* China reimposes curfew in Urumqi A night-time curfew has been reimposed in the restive western Chinese city of Urumqi.

* Dead Sea Faces Lively Competition as World Wonder The Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, confirmed its place for consideration in the next stage of the international competition to grade the seven natural wonders of the world.

* Hamas-style education A children’s show on Hamas’ TV network aired a special episode last week dedicated to female suicide bomber Reem Salah al-Riyashi.

* German FM: Settlements remain obstacle to peace Chances for peace in the Middle East are better than at any time in the past 15 years, but Israeli settlements remain an obstacle.

* ‘Iran could build bomb within a year’ Both the US and Israel believe Iran has the technical capacity to build one nuclear bomb within a year if it decides to do so.

* Egypt nabs Palestinian-led terror cell ‘plotting Suez attacks’ Egyptian authorities have arrested 25 al-Qaida-linked terrorists on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships crossing the Suez Canal.

* China leaders vow Xinjiang action The pledge, reported by state media, was the first public comment by top leaders on the violence that has left 156 people dead in the city of Urumqi.

* Netanyahu adviser raises “MAD” nuclear scenario Israel must have “tremendously powerful” weapons to deter a nuclear attack or destroy an enemy that dares to launch an atomic strike.

* EU parliament ‘has equal power’ to member states The European Parliament is on a level power footing with member states in the EU’s complex institutional triangle.

* Ban criticises G8 climate efforts UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticised leaders of the G8 industrial nations for failing to make deeper commitments to combat climate change.

* Jews fast, mourn destruction of Jerusalem The “Three Weeks” of gradually-increasing mourning over the destruction of the Holy Temples and Israel’s exile begins Thursday.

* EU apologizes for statements against settlements The European Union Commission apologized to Israel’s Ambassador to the Union, Ron Kuriel, over statements it made earlier this week claiming that the settlement policy was stifling the Palestinian economy.

* Germany calls for ban on neo-Nazi Web sites abroad Germany’s Justice Minister on Thursday called for foreign Internet service providers to remove neo-Nazi images, texts and other content.

* Cyberattacks Jam Government and Commercial Web Sites in U.S. and South Korea A wave of cyberattacks aimed at 27 American and South Korean government agencies and commercial Web sites temporarily jammed more than a third of them over the past five days.

* Worst violence since US pullback hits Iraq Bombings killed more than 40 people in Iraq on Thursday in the worst violence since U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban areas last week.

By: Michael Dillon – BBC News

The violence in Xinjiang has not occurred completely out of the blue.

Despite economic development, life for some Uighurs is said to be harder

Its root cause is ethnic tension between the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and the Han Chinese. It can be traced back for decades, and even to the conquest of what is now called Xinjiang by the Manchu Qing dynasty in the 18th Century.

In the 1940s there was an independent Eastern Turkestan Republic in part of Xinjiang, and many Uighurs feel that this is their birthright.

Instead, they became part of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and Xinjiang was declared one of China’s autonomous regions, in deference to the fact that the majority of the population at the time was Uighur.

This autonomy is not genuine, and – although Xinjiang today has a Uighur governor – the person who wields real power is the regional secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party, Wang Lequan, who is a Han Chinese.

Inward migration

Under the rule of the Communist Party, there has been considerable economic development, but life has been made more difficult for the Uighurs over the past 20-30 years by the migration of many young and technically-qualified Han Chinese from the eastern provinces.

These new migrants are far more proficient in the Chinese language than all but a few Uighurs, and tend to be appointed to the best jobs.

Not surprisingly, this has created deep-seated resentment among the Uighurs, who view the migration of Han into Xinjiang as a plot by the government to dilute them, undermine their culture and prevent any serious resistance to Beijing’s control.

More recently, young Uighurs have been encouraged to leave Xinjiang to find work in the rest of China, a process that had already been under way informally for some years.

There was particular concern at government pressure to encourage young Uighur women to move to other parts of China in search of employment – stoking fears they might end up working in bars or nightclubs or even in prostitution, without the protection of family or community.

Islam is an integral part of the life and the identity of the Uighurs of Xinjiang, and one of their major grievances against the Chinese government is the level of restriction imposed on their religious practices.

There are far fewer mosques in Xinjiang than there were before 1949, and they are subject to severe restrictions.

Children under the age of 18 are not permitted to worship in the mosques, and neither are officials of the Communist Party or the government.

Madrasas – religious schools – are also strictly controlled.

Other Islamic institutions that were once a central part of religious life in Xinjiang have been banned, including many of the Sufi brotherhoods, which are based at the tombs of their founders and provided many welfare and other services to their members.

All religions in China are subject to control by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, but the restrictions on Islam among the Uighurs are far harsher than against most other groups, including the Hui who are also Muslims but are Chinese speakers.

This severity is a result of the association between Muslim groups and the independence movement in Xinjiang, a movement that is absolute anathema to Beijing.

There are groups within Xinjiang that support the idea of independence, but they are not allowed to do so openly because “splitting the motherland” is viewed as treason.

During the 1990s – after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of independent Muslim states in Central Asia – there was an upsurge in open support for these “separatist” groups, culminating in huge demonstrations in the city of Ghulja in 1995 and 1997.

Beijing suppressed those demonstrations with considerable force, and activists were either forced out of Xinjiang into Central Asia and as far away as Pakistan or were obliged to go underground.

‘Climate of fear’

Severe repression since the launch of a “Strike Hard” campaign in 1996 has included harsher controls on religious activity, restrictions on movement, the denial of passports and the detention of individuals suspected of support for separatists and members of their families.

This has created a climate of fear and a great deal of resentment towards the authorities and the Han Chinese.

It is surprising that this resentment has not erupted into public anger and demonstrations before now, but that is a measure of the tightness of control that Beijing has been able to exercise over Xinjiang.

There are a number of emigre Uighur organisations in Europe and the United States; in most cases they advocate genuine autonomy for the region.

In the past, Beijing has also blamed an Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement for causing unrest, although there is no evidence that this ever existed in Xinjiang.

The authorities in Beijing are unable to accept that their own policies in Xinjiang might be the cause of the conflict, and seek to blame outsiders for inciting the violence – as they do in the case of the Dalai Lama and Tibet.

Even if Uighur emigre organisations wished to provoke unrest, it would be difficult for them to do so and there are, in any case, sufficient local reasons for unrest without the need for external intervention.

* World leaders meet in quake zone Leaders of the major industrial powers, the G8, have begun their annual summit with a working lunch in an earthquake-stricken Italian town.

* Obama: It’s ‘important’ to talk to Iran, N. Korea US President Barack Obama said Wednesday that it was “important” to talk to Iran and North Korea to encourage them to renounce nuclear weapons.

* Mullen: Iran is very focused on developing nuclear capability Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen spoke Tuesday about Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon in rare comments by a US official.

* Al Gore invokes spirit of Churchill in battle against climate change Al Gore invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill yesterday when he urged political leaders to follow the example of Britain’s wartime leader in the battle against climate change.

* British scientists say created sperm from stem cells A team of British scientists claimed Wednesday to have created human sperm using embryonic stem cells, in a medical first that they say will lead to a better understanding of fertility.

* Wary of naked force, Israel eyes cyberwar on Iran In the late 1990s, a computer specialist from Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service hacked into the mainframe of the Pi Glilot fuel depot north of Tel Aviv.

* Rick Warren addresses Muslims Defying some fellow conservative Christians who have criticized him, one of the most prominent religious leaders in the country told several thousand American Muslims on Saturday that “the two largest faiths on the planet” must work together.

* China riot city ‘under control’ The situation in China’s riot-torn city of Urumqi is now under control after the deployment of thousands of troops.

* Israel botanists discover plant that waters itself A team of researchers from the University of Haifa have stumbled upon a rare desert plant living in Israel’s mountainous Negev desert, which can irrigate itself.

* Nato starts soul-searching process Nato on Tuesday (7 July) launched a public consultation process aimed at clarifying the alliance’s role in fighting the new range of threats that have emerged in recent years.

By: Robert Maginnis – Human Events

President Obama’s criteria for “success” in the Afghanistan war depends more on what our erstwhile ally Pakistan does to solve its problems than on our fine troops and deep pockets. Even though Pakistan is acting as if it is committed to fighting the Taliban, there’s a good chance American support and Pakistan resolve will expire before Obama’s “success” is achieved.

Last week, President Obama said “success” in the war is denying al Qaeda and its affiliates “safe havens from which to attack Americans” which depends equally on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Failure to defeat the Islamists in both countries will resonate far and wide with the worst case being al Qaeda getting Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile.

“Success” on the Afghanistan side of the border is a stretch goal but possible given good leadership, sufficient time, troops and money. But Pakistan is the center of gravity of the war on terror, and we have little influence over that country’s activities. That’s why Obama’s “success” is doubtful, a view shared by most Americans.

A June 2009 BBC World News America/The Harris Poll found more than three in five Americans (63%) say “… they are not confident that the government of Pakistan will be able to defeat the Taliban.” Worse, more than half of Americans (55%) expect in the next few years “… there will be a government in Pakistan that will support al Qaeda in its efforts to launch terrorist attacks against the U.S.” [June 12 and 16, 2009, www.harrisinteractive.com]

The Obama administration understands public support for operations in Central Asia is drying up. That’s why Obama conducted a war policy review, quickly announced his new strategy and brought in a new commander, Army Gen. Stanley McCrystal, to implement a “fresh” approach. The President needs quick and positive results before he runs for re-election in 2012.

McCrystal’s “fresh” approach shifts emphasis in Afghanistan from “kinetic,” or conventional, fighting, toward “winning hearts and minds.” There are similarities between his strategy and Gen. David Petraeus’ winning approach in Iraq: surge forces (growing to 68,000 Americans in 2009), more restrictive rules of engagement, less intrusive operations, and a “clear, hold, build” counterinsurgency tactic that provides locals long-term security to win their confidence.

But to realize Obama’s regional “success” Pakistan must mirror what McCrystal aims to accomplish in Afghanistan. To coax Islamabad, Obama hired Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Bosnia peace agreement in the mid-1990s. Holbrooke prodded and shamed Islamabad to keep step with efforts in Afghanistan, and beginning in March, the Pakistanis launched a counteroffensive that took back frontier areas like the Swat Valley from the Taliban. Recently the Pakistanis shifted their sights on tribal regions like Waziristan, an Afghanistan border area.

Last week, that operation suffered a blow when Taliban militants in North Waziristan ended a 2008 peace agreement with the Pakistani government. This development jeopardizes the army’s plan to isolate its key Taliban rival, Baitullah Mehshud and threatens to over-stretch the military. The army has 140,000 forces fighting on many fronts across western Pakistan.

Pakistan’s stretched armed forces need urgent help. Dr. Nasim Ashraf, a former minister under President Pervez Muscharaff and a scholar with the Washington-based The Middle East Institute, visited the Pakistani frontier in June 2009. During his visit, Ashraf spoke with many key Pakistani military officers who lamented that “U.S. assistance takes too long to reach where it is needed and that promises are made but not fulfilled in time.”

Thus far the U.S. has begun delivering transport helicopters, body armor and other counterinsurgency hardware for the fight. But Pakistani commanders told Dr. Ashraf they also need night vision equipment for F-16 fighter jets which are highly effective against high value targets and which could reduce the need for reliance on highly unpopular American drone attacks.

The army also plans to permanently assign soldiers in frontier areas like the Swat Valley, said Ashraf. These troops need to be equipped with helicopters for quick response to distress calls from sergeants embedded in local communities. This approach appears to parallel McCrystal’s “clear, hold, build” tactic.

But Pakistan’s “success” depends just as much on resolving non-military problems as defeating the insurgents. It must build trust in the government, improve the economy, resolve the internally displaced persons crisis and replace extremist-based Islamic schools used as recruiting bases. Resolving these long-term problems will go far to denying safe haven to extremists.

Pakistan’s political class must address sources of discontent on which the extremists thrive, including government corruption, inadequate services and a troubled legal system. Corruption is a serious problem in Pakistan’s government. Dr. Ashraf found “… the people have very little confidence in either the provincial or the [federal] government” because of corruption. And Syed Adil Gilani, chairman of Transparency International Pakistan, said his country is one of the most corrupt nations in the world which failed to properly use billions of U.S. aid dollars for fighting terrorism.

Pakistan’s economy is in a tailspin with high unemployment and inflation, and all indications are that a “tipping point is being reached,” according to Dr. Ashraf. But the silver lining is Islamabad’s crisis, which scares most of the world. That’s why 20 countries promised billions in aid hoping to contain the crisis but that assistance may arrive too late to sustain anti-Taliban momentum. Even America’s promised five-year $7.5 billion aid package got bogged down in Congress over Pakistan’s past nuclear proliferation and terrorism aiding activities.

Pakistan is grappling with almost two million internally displaced people who are vulnerable to extremist recruitment. The U.S. has done more than its share to alleviate this humanitarian crisis, pledging $300 million, but Islamic charities are competing for the allegiance of these people, and, so far, the Islamists are winning. Hard-line Islamic charities which front for insurgent groups push their anti-western agenda along with aid to sour public opinion against the government and the Americans.

The Saudis and other Arab Gulf states funnel money to the Taliban and their primary recruiting venue, the madrassas (Islamic schools). Thousands of these Koran-only schools that teach hatred of the west provide fertile ground for jihadist recruiting.

Pakistan’s previous government launched an effort to create alternative secular schools to the Saudi-financed Islamic madrassa system. But that effort was abandoned by the current government due to a lack of funding, said Ashraf.

Pakistani officials seem to believe these are aid-related problems. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., called for a $30 billion Marshall Plan to defeat extremism in his country. But the U.S. sent more than $12 billion in military and development aid to that country over the past eight years and the situation got worse. The problem in Pakistan isn’t just about aid; it’s also about leadership.

Pakistan needs leaders who will stay the course and not squander another opportunity to address its many problems. And the U.S. needs to encourage Pakistan while carefully monitoring how our investment is used in order to give Islamabdad a fighting chance.

President Obama’s criteria for “success” in the Afghanistan war — denying al Qaeda and its affiliates “safe havens from which to attack Americans” — ,depends on American resolve to stay the course, the new military strategy and the Pakistanis. Pakistan is the weakest link because it has a poor track record, making it hard to be optimistic about Obama’s chances of “success.”

By: BBC News

About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been recovered and put on the internet.

Visitors to the website www.codexsinaiticus.org can now see images of more than half the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript.

Fragments of the 4th Century document – written in Greek on parchment leaves – have been worked on by institutions in the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia.

Experts say it is “a window into the development of early Christianity”.

Preservation secrets

Dr Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library, said the wide availability of the document presented many research opportunities.

“The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world’s greatest written treasures,” he said.

“This 1,600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early Christianity and first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation.

“The availability of the virtual manuscript for study by scholars around the world creates opportunities for collaborative research that would not have been possible just a few years ago.”

The original version contained about 1,460 pages – each measuring 40cm by 35cm, he added.

The British Library is marking the online launch of the manuscript with an exhibition – which includes a range of historic items and artefacts linked to the document.

For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery until it was found in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.

It is thought to have survived because the desert air was ideal for preservation and because the monastery, on a Christian island in a Muslim sea, remained untouched, its walls unconquered.

The institutions’ painstaking work can now be seen at www.codexsinaiticus.org.

By: Seth Robson – Stars and Stripes

It may be hard for Westerners to believe, but one industry that’s booming, despite the global recession, is Iraqi tourism.

Provinces like Najaf and Karbala, off-limits to outsiders during Saddam Hussein’s long reign, are seeing massive influxes of visitors, mostly Shiite pilgrims from places like Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and even Canada.

According to the U.S. State Department, the number of visitors to Najaf, which along with neighboring Karbala is considered one of the holiest places in Shiite Islam, could range from 7 million to 10 million annually.

At Najaf International Airport, visitors in Western clothes or traditional Middle Eastern dress step off jets and onto air-conditioned buses for the short ride to the airport’s gleaming new terminal. Inside, people queue up to check baggage, pass immigration, change money or buy snacks and magazines while bus and taxi drivers mill about in the car park waiting to take visitors to their hotels.

Seven to 10 flights arrive each day at the airport, which opened last July, according to Kirk Benson, a former U.S. Air Force pilot. As a member of the U.S. State Department’s Najaf Provincial Reconstruction Team, Benson advises Iraqis running the $100 million facility.

The 59-year-old who flew refugees to safety in the Philippines when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese and ran an airport in Tucson, Ariz., after he retired from the Air Force, said 14,730 passengers arrived at Najaf International Airport in May.

That number is set to leap next month when Iraq’s central government is expected to approve instrument landings at Najaf. The move will allow flights to land at night and in poor visibility — a constant problem in a place where dust storms often blot out the sun, grounding U.S. military helicopters.

“They expect, in the next few months, to see 1,500 to 3,000 people a day through the airport, and that will grow,” Benson said.

Iraqi tourists and business people are among the people coming in and out.

Iraq has international airports in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Irbil, but Najaf is the only one built since the U.S. invasion in 2003, said Benson.

The year-old airport was built on an old Iraqi air force emergency landing strip that shares a fence line with Forward Operating Base Endeavor, occupied by soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 172nd Infantry Brigade.

The terminal, still under construction, is already processing visitors through customs and immigration and handling baggage. It is scheduled to be fully operational, with duty-free shops and restaurants, next month. Nearby, work has started on a VIP terminal and air freight facility, he said.

On any reasonably clear day, aircraft from carriers such as Iraqi Airways, Cham Wings (Syria), Wings of Lebanon, Pakistan International Airlines and regional carriers like Jupiter and Skylink can be seen taking off and landing at Najaf.

Staff at the airport are a mixture of Iraqis and experts from overseas like ramp manager Phiradech Nasai, who worked at Suvarnabhumi Airport in his native Thailand before coming to Iraq.

“There is not bad situations here in Najaf,” he said.

Iraqi ticket agent Ahmed Jakel, who taught himself to speak English watching American movies, said he started work at the airport last year along with three sisters.

“I also have a tourism company in the city,” he said. “We bring groups and find hotels for them and offer transport. They come for a week to 10 days and we bring them back to the airport to fly out.”

Visitors from Iran spend $250 to $300 a week, he said, adding that he expects more business once the airport starts night operations.

“This airport will take business from Baghdad (International) Airport because it is a lot safer here,” he said. “People who visit Babylon and Karbala will come to this airport.”

The golden-dome of the Imam Ali Mosque, visible from many parts of the city, is a must-see for the Shiite tourists. The shrine, in the center of Najaf, is considered one of the landmarks of Islamic culture with its silver-covered tomb, ceramic ornamented walls and resplendent golden dome.

Nearby, the Wadi as-Salam (Wadi of Peace) is said to be the largest cemetery in the world. U.S. soldiers, who sometimes patrol a highway built through the cemetery by Saddam, are often amazed at the vastness of the graveyard, which has countless tombs decorated with colorful images of the departed.

In 2004, uprisings by firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia sparked fierce fighting in the Wadi al-Salam.

The cemetery contains the tombs of several Muslim prophets, including Ali. Many of the devout from other lands aspire to be buried here and to be raised from the dead with Ali on Judgment Day. An adage says that being laid to rest next to Ali for one day is better than 700 years worth of prayers.

There is a steady stream of bodies shipped through the airport en-route to the cemetery and there’s a thriving local funeral industry, Benson said.

By: Hillel Fendel – Arutz Sheva

Uri Lubrani, a former Israeli Ambassador to Iran and considered one of Israel’s top experts on Iran, says United States policies are leading inexorably to a tragedy.

Speaking with the Makor Rishon newspaper, Lubrani said, “Obama says he wants to reach an arrangement with the Iranians regarding a halt to the enrichment of uranium. In my best judgment, there is no chance of this happening. Iran of today is not the Iran of a month ago, before the riots, and the conditions in which the Americans had prepared for talks after the elections are no longer the same.”

“I fear that the Americans don’t know what to do,” Lubrani said, “but have don’t yet realize that they don’t know what to do. A tragedy is unfolding in front of our eyes. The tragedy is that the American administration actually will come to the conclusion, at the end, that negotiations have no chance – but they will reach this conclusion a year or two too late, and in the meanwhile, the nuclear clock is ticking.”

Obama to AP
Obama himself has noted that the situation in Iran has changed in recent weeks, but he has not mentioned any changes in his own policy. In response to a question from an Associated Press interviewer on Thursday, he said his is “not reconciled with [having to live with a nuclear-armed Iran], and I don’t think the international community is reconciled with that. Now, how we get from what we know is required for international security — which is a nuclear-free Iran — how we get from here to there is a big challenge. And it’s gotten more difficult in light of what’s happened post-election in Iran.”

Iran and Peres
During President Shimon Peres’s recent trip to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Iran recalled its ambassador to Azerbaijan in protest, and the leaders of Kazakhstan told Peres that they would not sell uranium to Iran.

* Obama: ‘Absolutely’ no green light for Israel to attack Iran US President Barack Obama on Tuesday strongly denied that the United States had given Israel an approval to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

* Obama urges shift in Russia ties US President Barack Obama has urged Russia to turn from the past, emphasising the common goals the US shares with its former Cold War rival.

* Jerusalem Municipality ‘at war’ with Islamic summer camps Jerusalem Municipality has declared war on Palestinian summer camps popular among residents living in the eastern part of the city, which are mostly financed by Hamas and Fatah.

* Was a recently uncovered quarry used to build the Second Temple? Israeli archaeologists have uncovered an ancient quarry where they believe King Herod extracted stones for the construction of the Jewish Temple 2,000 years ago.

* Pope calls for a UN ‘with teeth’ The Pope has called for reform of the United Nations and financial bodies, giving them the “real teeth” needed to tackle economic and social injustice.

* EU top diplomat to step down in autumn EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said he will not seek a new term in office but will step down when the post expires in autumn after 10 years of representing the bloc abroad.

* EU scrambles for information on China violence The EU has for the past 48 hours kept mostly silent on the ethnic clashes in China, as diplomats struggle to pin down the facts.

* Global piracy: the hidden side While Somali pirates top headlines with brazen ship hijackings for ransom, many smaller-scale attacks in the world’s oceans — maritime muggings, essentially — go unreported.

* ‘Europe missile defense only for Iran’ “If the threat from Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program is eliminated, the driving force for missile defense in Europe will be eliminated”.

* Secular Pilot Sings Settlers’ Praises Lt.-Col. (res.) Danny Baz, a secular Israel Air Force pilot from Herzliya, says the Jewish pioneers of Judea and Samaria are Israel’s strategic weapon.