Middle East

ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images

Iran denounced new U.S. sanctions on its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and accused the United States of sponsoring terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rising tensions helped send oil prices up to new nominal highs of over $92 a barrel. One oil analyst tells Steven Mufson of the Washington Post that if the U.S. went to war with Iran, "all hell will break loose in the oil markets" because there is little or no spare production capacity.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he's "very worried" about Iran's nuclear program. 

Turkish and Iraqi leaders are meeting to defuse the crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan even as Turkey sends more troops to the border.

Al Qaeda sympathizers on the Internet at furious at al Jazeera for its coverage of the latest Osama bin Laden tape, in which the terrorist leader criticizes Iraqi jihadists for their extremism.

Europe

Ireland is facing an influx of immigrants and is having trouble integrating them smoothly into Irish society. 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tax polluters more and workers less. 

Asia

Troops are out on the streets in force in Rangoon, Burma, in what is likely an effort to prevent a new outbreak of protests.

Pakistani government soldiers are battling pro-Taliban militants in Swat, a remote, tribal area along the northeastern frontier.

South Korea's government wants U.S. forces to stay even in the event of a peace deal with the North.

Elsewhere

Zimbabwe's leader is launching the Robert Mugabe Intelligence Academy.

The volume of remittances sent home by Mexican immigrants in the United States is no longer growing.

Today's Agenda

• Today's meeting between Ehud Olmert of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority should be interesting now that Israel plans to shut off electricity in the Gaza Strip.
• Mafra, Portugal hosts an EU-Russia summit that is likely to be thoroughly unpleasant.
• U.S. President George W. Bush welcomes Congo's Joseph Kabila to the White House.
• Apple releases Leopard, its fancy new operating system.
• On Saturday, Libya will host a peace conference on Darfur that looks doomed.

Yesterday on Passport

• The Cult of Che hits a new low
• Syria caught with hand in cookie jar?
• O'Hanlon: Missile shield needed, but now's not the time