Middle East
RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP
Heavy fighting continued between the Lebanese government and Fatah al-Islam, an extremist group based in Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern city of Tripoli. Fatah al-Islam may be linked to al Qaeda. In Beirut, a car bomb went off in Verdun, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood.
Hamas promised renewed suicide attacks against Israel, which has threatened to assassinate Hamas politicians, including Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.
The Iraqi military is preparing contingency plans in case of a rapid U.S. withdrawal, Iraq's defense minister announced yesterday.
Americas
Senators from both sides of the aisle are taking aim at a proposed bipartisan immigration reform bill.
Gas prices in the United States are nearing a 1981 peak.
"Paramilitarism was state policy," said a top paramilitary leader in Colombia in testimony at a judicial hearing in Medellin; the Colombian government denies involvement with the groups. The drug war is still very much alive in some parts of the country.
Europe
Britain's top prosecutor recommended that Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent, be charged with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Problem is, Lugovoi is in Russia, so he'll need to be extradited.
Britain is experiencing a mini-boom in immigration from Eastern Europe.
Asia
Attempts to punish violators of China's aggressive population-control rules are stirring violent unrest in rural areas of the country's impoverished southwest.
Ahead of today and tomorrow's trade talks in Washington, China has already agreed to cut import tariffs on some energy-related items.
Members of Pakistan's ruling Muslim League Party are urging their leader, Pervez Musharraf, to take a different approach to the current crisis even as the Pakistani president makes plans to stay in power following upcoming elections.
Elsewhere
A study published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that carbon dioxide emissions are increasing more rapidly than previously thought, primarily due to industrial growth in China.
Top managers are taking over day-to-day leadership of the World Bank following outgoing President Paul Wolfowitz's resignation. President Bush confirmed yesterday that he plans to nominate an American as Wolfowitz's successor.
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