Middle East

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After failing to break a late-night Republican filibuster on an amendment that would have required the administration to set a withdrawal date for Iraq, U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid pulled the defense authorization bill from consideration until September.

Lots of other Iraq news today: The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq never existed, the U.S. military now claims, but the Iraqi defense ministry believes he is real. Muqtada al-Sadr is back, and he's following the political playbook of Lebanon's Hezbollah. Sunni parliamentarians ended their boycott of the legislature. And, oh, by the way, Turkey may have shelled northern Iraq.

Europe

No dice, the European Central Bank tells the French, who are trying to pressure the ECB to lower interest rates. 

Jacques Chirac is in some hot water. 

Visiting Europe is becoming hugely expensive for Americans as the dollar declines.  

Asia

Water that leaked from a Japanese power plant that was damaged in Monday's earthquake was more radioactive than authorities initially thought. 

China's economy grew at nearly 12 percent in the second quarter (year-over-year), the fastest rate in over a decade, and inflation crept up to 4.4. percent. Seventeen prominent Marxists published an open letter complaining about the ideological apostasy of the Chinese Communist Party and saying that the country is headed "down an evil road."

More terrorist attacks in Pakistan, but this time, Chinese workers appear to be one of the main targets.

A notorious Afghan warlord allied with the Taliban is calling for peace, but only because he thinks foreign troops are planning to leave. 

Elsewhere 

Oil prices are on the rise, with nominal record highs less than $1 away.

They're fighting again in Somalia.  

That steam pipe explosion in Manhattan? Not a terrorist attack.

Today's Agenda

• U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testifies via videoconference to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
• Tony Blair attends a meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, for his first official appearance as Middle East envoy.
• Indians vote to elect a new president, a mostly ceremonial job.
• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a powerful senator and the wife of Nestor Kirchner, president of Argentina, officially announces her candidacy for the presidential elections in the fall.
• Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region of Azerbaijan, holds presidential elections.

Yesterday on Passport

• Fidel is glued to the tube
• Bizarre, creationist book shows up at Foreign Policy magazine
• Orthodox Jews don't welcome back Potter