(New York Times) President Bush has won support abroad and bipartisan praise at home for his efforts to combat human trafficking, the slavery of our time. But now that work is imperiled by his own Department of Justice.

NEW YORK (Reuters) Oil prices jumped $5 to a record high above $147 a barrel on Friday amid growing worries about threats to supplies from Iran and Nigeria and a strike by Brazilian oil workers next week.

(VOA News) United Nations officials say the International Criminal Court may seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in connection with war crimes in the Darfur region.

CUZCO (Reuters Life!) Pregnant with her seventh child, Benigna Condori hiked for hours through Peru's Andes mountains to a health clinic that mixes modern medicine with indigenous practices like giving birth standing up.

BEIRUT (International Herald Tribune) Lebanese political leaders formed a new cabinet Friday, putting an end to weeks of haggling and formalizing an earlier agreement that handed decisive new powers to Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition.

(Daily News) For the last seventeen years from May 18, 1991 to be precise, Somaliland has reasserted itself as an independent state in exactly the same geographical boundaries as at independence from Great Britain on June 26, 1960.

KHARTOUM (AFP) In Sudan, gum arabic is manna from heaven and a key ingredient in iconic brands of globalization despite US sanctions on this African country listed as a state sponsor of terror in Washington.

(NACLA) During a recent heated meeting at the US Embassy in El Salvador, Ambassador Charles Glazer admitted to U.S. intervention in the 2004 Salvadoran presidential elections.

JERUSALEM (AFP) Israel hopes the new Mediterranean Union will help improve relations with the Arab world, but Arabs warn against any attempt to bring normalization in through the back door.

(Moscow News) The biggest country in the world looks set to get even bigger as Russia prepares an application to extend its borders over 1.2 million square kilometres of Arctic waters.

(Washington Post) The Senate easily approved legislation to overhaul government eavesdropping rules in terrorism and espionage cases and effectively granted immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in a secret domestic spying program, ending a contentious debate that has raged for more than two years.

(Guardian) Coexistence projects bring Jews and Arabs together within Israel, but it is much harder to bridge the larger gap between Israel and the Palestinian territories

(The Australian) A decade or so ago a prominent Australian feature writer asked me who I thought would be an interesting international figure to interview. One that would "make a splash". "Idi Amin," I replied.

CANBERRA (Reuters) The prolonged drought in Australia's Murray-Darling river system is worsening and the country's main food bowl may forever be changed by accelerating climate warming, government officials said on Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS (International Herald Tribune) Pakistan's top diplomat says his nation will permit only Pakistani troops to operate within its borders, rejecting a standing U.S. offer of military assistance.

RUSUTSU (The Moscow Times) President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that Russia was "distressed" by a U.S. deal to place parts of a missile-defense shield in the Czech Republic and promised to respond with "concrete steps."

STRASBOURG (International Herald Tribune) The European Parliament adopted new internal rules Wednesday making it harder for fringe lawmakers - notably the far right - to secure funding, speaking time and prominent positions within the EU assembly.

(Guardian) The US Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, called for tighter sanctions on Iran today after it fired nine test missiles that were capable of hitting American and Israeli bases.

SAPPORO (Daily Yomiuri) Nongovernmental groups representing indigenous peoples attended an alternative summit at the Sapporo Convention Center to try to get their voices heard on climate change and other issues by participants of the Group of Eight summit.

(Dorcas Aid International) Since January 2008, food-prices in Kenya have risen with more than 50%. This has lead many people to drastically reduce their daily diets.

PARIS (AFP) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, expected in Paris this weekend, has welcomed a "break" in France's policy toward Damascus and invited Paris to play a role in possible direct negotiations with Israel.

(AFP) The African Union (AU) demanded UN sanctions against all parties hampering a Somali truce agreement initialed last month and whose implementation was due to begin Wednesday at the latest.

(Radio Australia) The United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia has dismissed a bail request by former Khmer Rouge cabinet minister, Ieng Thirith.

SANTIAGO (International Herald Tribune) The Simon Wiesenthal Center has strong evidence that a former SS member known as "Dr. Death" is in southern Chile or Argentina, a top Nazi hunter for the human rights organization said Tuesday.

BEIRUT (The Daily Star) The Italian Embassy and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) unveiled their joint-project for "Mainstreaming and Institutionalizing Gender Based Violence Reduction and Prevention in National Planning" in Beirut on Monday .

(Khaleej Times) The deal just taking shape between Iraq's Oil Ministry and four Western oil companies raises critical questions about the nature of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq — questions that should certainly be addressed by presidential candidates and seriously discussed in the United States, and of course in occupied Iraq, where it appears that the population has little if any role in determining the future of their country.

(BBC News) The murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko was carried out with the backing of the Russian state, Whitehall sources have told the BBC.

(Washington Post) The United States is negotiating deals with European countries to exchange fingerprint and DNA data in criminal and terrorist cases, and in some circumstances to transfer data on race or ethnic origin, political and religious beliefs, or sexual orientation.

BAGHDAD (AFP) Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday he is negotiating a deal with Washington that will for the first time set a timetable for a withdrawal of foreign forces as part of a framework for a US troop presence into next year.

(Guardian) South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, was given a fierce grilling by G8 leaders yesterday at a private meeting at which they told him that they did not believe his mediation efforts in Zimbabwe were succeeding.

(Economist) On June 30th a doped five-year-old tiger flew 300km by helicopter, from a small Indian national park replete with tigers, Ranthambore, to a bigger park, Sariska, which had none.

(Mercopress) One of each five timbered trees in the Brazilian Amazon belongs to government protected areas according to a report published on Sunday by O’ Globo.

(France 24) France is to outline a new blueprint to control immigration in Europe, days after human rights groups and South American countries criticised the EU over moves to force illegal immigrants out.

(BBC News) Armed militia have raided two camps for people fleeing post-election violence in Zimbabwe, opposition and medical officials have said.

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - As the Group of Eight rich nations get down to business at their annual summit, Asia finds itself confined to the fringes, asking how long it must wait for political power to flow east to match its economic muscle.

KABUL (Channel News Asia) A suicide bombing outside the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital killed at least 28 people and wounded around 141, a public health official told AFP.

(BBC News) Gunmen have shot dead the head of the United Nations Development Programme in Somalia, UN officials say.

(BBC News) The controversial Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, is no stranger to violent confrontation.

(Tehran Times) Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim says Kuala Lumpur seeks the help of influential oil producer Iran in tackling the rising oil prices.

(Guardian) Evidence of a conspiracy to overthrow the pro-Western Islamist government has laid bare the resentment of the country's secular elite in a divided country, reports Robert Tait in Istanbul.

SANTA BARBARA (Los Angeles Times) With extreme heat in the offing, more than 4,000 firefighters held the line Saturday against a massive wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Santa Barbara County, but made little progress in controlling a larger, out-of-control blaze ringing the Northern California coastal town of Big Sur.