Morning Brief, Wednesday, July 11

Posted By Blake Hounshell Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - 9:20 AM Share

Middle East

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

In a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. President George W. Bush hinted that the United States might withdraw some troops from Iraq "in a while," but said that it was premature to judge the impact of the troop surge.

This just in: It's hot in Iraq.

Libya's Supreme Court upheld the sentence of death for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been convicted for deliberately infecting over 400 Libyan children with HIV.

The Lebanese army is preparing a final assault on a group of militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Asia

A few diehards are still fighting at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Sri Lanka's military said it had overrun the last Tamil Tiger base in the east of the country.

Over 300 rebels linked to al Qaeda ambushed a contingent of Filipino marines on the island of Basilan, beheading 10 of them.

Europe

A British judge sentenced four men to life imprisonment for attempting copycat attacks on London's transit system in 2005.

Gay activists in Russia?

"Kosovo will never be independent," Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica declared in rejecting a new draft U.N. resolution on the province's status.

Elsewhere

The U.S. subprime mortgage fiasco is having major repercussions in the bond market.

Pirates off the coast of Somalia are plundering shipments of aid bound for the war-torn country.

Today's Agenda

A U.N. team led by IAEA #2 Olli Heinonen is in Iran for talks on safeguarding the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
Bikers from Miles for Peace, a group of Iranian peace activists who are cycling across the United States, are due to reach Washington, DC.
Brazil is scheduled to launch its first rocket into space since a failed attempt in 2003, when an explosion killed 21 people.

Yesterday on Passport

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