At least 35 have been killed in a suicide attack on a police bus in Kabul June 17—the deadliest attack since the Taliban regime fell. Most of the dead were instructors going to work at the city's police academy, but an undetermined number of by-standers were also among the dead. In a separate attack, a roadside bomb tore through a military vehicle in Kandahar province, killing three soldiers with the US-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter. The nationalities of the soliders were not disclosed, but the attack brings to 84 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year. (AP, AFP, June 18) On June 16, a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of DynCorp contract workers in Kabul, killing at least four civilians. A US soldier opened fire on the crowd that gathered afterward, killing one more civilian and sparking an angry protest. (AP, June 16) On June 15, a suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Uruzgan province killed 10, including five children, four other civilians and a Dutch soldier. Later, a second suicide attack targeted another NATO convoy in Kandahar, wounding five civilians. (VOA, ANC, June 15)

Ehud Barak is to be approved as Israel's new Defense Minister June 17, following the resignation two days earlier of Amir Peretz in the wake of the routing of Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip and the seizure of control by Hamas there. Israeli and international media are reporting today that Barak's first order of business will be an IDF invasion of Gaza to crush Hamas' military infrastructure, and presumably remove it from power. The UK's Sunday Times quoted senior IDF sources saying the planned Gaza assault will require 20,000 troops to destroy the bulk of Hamas's military capability in a few days. The invasion is to be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks or a resumption of suicide bombings, said the newspaper, claiming Barak has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armored divisions and an infantry division in Gaza, accompanied by assault drones and F-16 jets. The IDF expects to confront some 12,000 Hamas fighters with arms captured from Fatah in last week's clashes. (Israel Hasbara Committee, Jerusalem Post, June 17)

Work crews and police arrived early June 15 to demolish twelve more homes at the village in Karasai district outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, where an embattled Hare Krishna commune is based. "The houses were literally crushed into dust," Hare Krishna spokesperson Maksim Varfolomeyev said. "By ten o'clock it was all over." The temple remains standing, but the devotees have been ordered to destroy it. Human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis said the local administration chief "doesn't care about the political damage to Kazakhstan's reputation—or to its desire to chair the OSCE." Asked to explain the latest demolitions, one local official told the Norway-based rights watchdog Forum 18: "Here in Kazakhstan the Hare Krishnas are considered to be non-traditional." (Forum 18, June 15) Ironically, the raid comes days after senior Kazakh officials arrived in Romania for an OSCE conference on combating discrimination. (Forum 18, June 6)

The government of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca apologized for the first time June 15 for a police raid on striking teachers in the central plaza of the state capital one year ago that led to Mexico's worst political unrest in years. Oaxaca Government Secretary Manuel Garcia Corpus issued the statement on behalf of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose refusal to negotiate with the strikers sparked the crisis. "The government of Ulises Ruiz gives the people of Oaxaca a public apology for the events that arose after the 14th," Garcia Corpus told the government news agency Notimex, refering to the police raid of June 14, 2006. (AP, June 15)

Calling a nuclear or radiological strike against New York "the ultimate nightmare scenario," New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, speaking at a DC conference on nuclear terrorism June 13, called upon Congress to pay the full $40 million price tag for a ring of radiation detectors on major arteries leading into the city. Calling the "Securing the Cities" Homeland Security pilot program "our best, last defense to keep a nuclear or dirty bomb from being detonated in New York City," Kelly asserted: "Indeed, the worldwide proliferation of the materials needed to make such weapons leads many to believe that such a scenario is a matter of when, not if."

The neo-conservative Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) happily informs us:

The editor of the Syrian daily Al-Watan, Wasah Abd-Raba, accused the Lebanese majority of sacrificing murdered Lebanese MP Walid 'Eido in order to continue its plan to destroy and internationalize Lebanon. He said that it was obvious that the murderer came from within Beirut and had had security immunity—which only the supporters of al-Hariri and the March 14 Forces could provide.

Jonathan "Jack" Idema, the last of three imprisoned US citizens convicted of illegal detention and torture in Afghanistan in 2004, was released June 2, Afghan authorities have confirmed. Idema, a former member of the US Army Special Forces, was arrested by Afghan forces as a vigilante along with US journalist Edward Caraballo and ex-serviceman Brent Bennett in July 2004 after a raid on their house in Kabul revealed eight captive Afghans. Idema said that the Pentagon sanctioned their operations, a claim the US State Department denied. In March, US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the State Department and FBI to respond to allegations by Idema that they ordered his torture while in Afghan custody. US government lawyers have asked that the case be dismissed because the Afghan government has granted Idema amnesty. (Jurist, June 13)

Prosecutor Javier Zaragoza, in closing arguments against 27 of the 29 accused in Madrid 3-11 attacks, took time to criticize what he called the "parallel process based on unfounded suspicions" of involvement by the Basque separatist group ETA. In his remarks, he even called for criminal charges for contempt of court against Agustín Díaz de Mera, Director General of Police at the time of the attack and a top promoter of the ETA theory. (Typically Spanish, June 12)