World oil prices briefly fell in response to the 7-7 attacks in London, but now they are once again soaring to unprecedented heights. Reports Reuters Friday Aug 12:

Crude oil prices raced to record highs, touching $67 a barrel Friday as investors fretted over the world's strained capacity to refine and pump crude oil. The continued rise in oil prices was a major factor weighing on U.S. stocks. (Related: Stock market drops.)

Bush's recess appointment of John Bolton may put an end to controversy concerning a frightening revelation to emerge from his confirmation hearings—the extent of warrantless eavesdropping on US citizens by the government. Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping, warns in an Aug. 10 New York Times op-ed that the real scandal—that the National Security Administration routinely shares intercepted data with the State Department—is likely to be forgotten now that Bolton's appointment is a done deal. But even Keefe doesn't address certain key questions. Like, why is it legitimate for the NSA to be listening in on us in the first place? Why shouldn't foreigners have the same right to privacy that US citizens don't have either but are at least supposed to?

The apparent reality that a mock bombing drill on the London Underground was scheduled for the morning of 7-7 has got the conspiranoids seeing patterns. They also point to Pentagon terror drills on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 (see e.g., Prison Planet). We also recently noted a FEMA drill apparently slated for New York City the day after 9-11.

It has gone largely unnoticed in all the coverage of Iran's resumed nuclear fuel enrichment operations, but an official statement issued by the Islamic republic at the emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna Aug. 9 noted that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.

Recent optimism on reducing tensions between India and Pakistan is tempered by Pakistan's Aug. 10 test-firing of its first ground-launched nuclear-capable Cruise Missile Hatf VII Babur, with a range of 500 kilometers. The military said that with the "successful test, Pakistan has joined a select group of countries which have the capability to design and develop [a] cruise missile."

In a London Times opinion piece Aug. 11, "Muslims unite! A new Reformation will bring your faith into the modern era," author Salman Rushdie begins by applauding Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, for admitting that "our own children" had perpetrated the 7-7 London bombings. Rushdie writes "it was the first time in my memory that a British Muslim had accepted his community's responsibility for outrages committed by its members. Instead of blaming US foreign policy or 'Islamophobia', Sacranie described the bombings as a 'profound challenge' for the Muslim community." But Rushdie notes that this is the same Sacranie who, in 1989, said that "Death is perhaps too easy" for the author of The Satanic Verses (i.e. Rushdie, then facing a fatwa ordering his assassination by Iranian mullahs). Rushdie protests Tony Blair's decision to knight Sacranie and treat him as the acceptable face of "moderate" Islam, calling the move "either a sign of his Government's penchant for religious appeasement or a demonstration of how limited Mr Blair's options really are."

Kosovo's Albanian-led interim regime has issued a "Plan B" for administrative decentralization following the recent rejection of the original pilot project by local Serb leaders. Kosovo's minister for local self-government, Lutfi Haziri, said Serb objections had been taken into account, compromising on the boundaries of internal districts. The government gave Serb political leaders until Aug. 10 to say whether they will accept the revised plan. If they reject it, the government will revert to its original pilot project. But Oliver Ivanovic, a leader of the Serbian Lists for Kosovo and Metohija, said that Serb representatives do not recognize any deadline for reaching their decision. (RFE/RL Newsline, Aug. 10) Kosovo's government is under international pressure to do more for minority rights and democracy before a decision on whether "final status" talks can start this year. A major issue is decentralising power to Serbs, who live in enclaves guarded by NATO-led peacekeepers. (Reuters, Aug. 10)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline reports Aug. 10 that three opposition parties—the Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, and a wing of the Socialist Party—issued a statement protesting limitations on freedom of the press in Tajikistan. The statement said that "political pluralism and freedom of speech, guaranteed by the constitution, have been subjected to pressure and risk over the past few years," noting the closure of the independent newspapers Ruzi Nav and Nerui Sukhan in the run-up to February 2005 parliamentary elections. On the day the statement was released, police arrested Nurali Mirzoev, an employee at an Internet cafe in Dushanbe, the capital, and charged him with membership in the outlawed Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir. Police also confiscated Hizb ut-Tahrir leaflets and discovered the texts of the leaflets stored on computers at the cafe.