A US delegation is headed for Kabul to persuade President Hamid Karzai to approve a program of glyphosate spraying over the opium-producing lands of southeast Afghanistan. The private contractor Dyncorp is to carry out the spraying in cooperation with a specially-trained Afghan force. The US is willing to negotiate, but makes clear it will not take glyphosate off the table. "There has to be a stick that goes with the carrot," said Thomas Schweich, State Department co-ordinator for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan. Eradication had to be a component of US policy, he emphasized.

Jakob Kellenberger, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said May 24 he was not optimistic about a breakthrough in talks with Iraqi officials to gain access to up to 20,000 held in the country's prisons. "We are still in negotiation about an agreement with them," Kellenberger told a news conference. Asked about the impasse, he replied: "I don't think that I am expressing extreme optimism."

Exiled Somali leaders in Eritrea issued a call to boycott a Mogadishu peace conference scheduled for next month, warning of further violence if it goes ahead. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), and Sheikh Sharif Hassan Aden, a former Somali parliament speaker, released the joint statement in Asmara.

Police in southern China's Guangxi region arrested 28 as thousands staged angry protests against draconian local enforcement of the government's family-planning policy. In Bobai county, more than 3,000 people smashed through the gates of a town government compound, setting fire to vehicles and damaging files and office equipment. Disturbances were reported in sveen Bobai towns following a drive by local officials to enforce fines for families who failed to comply with China's national one-child policy.

Interesting. A Pew survey finds that 87% of Muslim Americans polled (just some 1,000 out of the total 2 million-plus) condemn the practice of suicide bombings. But for those under 30, the 13% finding them sometimes justified doubles to 26%. So the lefty InterPress Service headline states: "Major Poll Finds U.S. Muslims Mostly Mainstream." The reactionary New York Post editorializes May 23 (all caps in original, of course): "TIME BOMBS IN OUR MIDST"

The United States has sped up its commitment of military aid to the Lebanese army. Three out of a proposed eight military supply planes have arrived in Beirut thus far. The steps are designed to bolster efforts to dislodge Fatah al-Islam combatants from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. [AlJazeera, May 25]

Israeli fighter jets carried out an air strike in close proximity to the Gaza residence of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on [May 24], yet Israeli officials have insisted that Haniya was not the intended target. Another strike leveled the premises of the Hamas-linked Executive Force paramilitary group, injuring five bystanders. [AlJazeera, May 24]

In the wake of the May 22 bombing in Ankara, Turkey has ordered a convoy of tanks and armored vehicles from the southeastern city of Mardin to the Iraqi frontier. At the same time, the idea of a cross-border operation to rout PKK bases in Iraqi territory is gaining greater currency in the capital. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has long been seeking approval for such incursions, with Chief of Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt publicly putting the proposal to the government last month. Now Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to be leaning in that direction. On the night of May 23, hours after authorities said the PKK was behind the bombing, he told national television: "We would do whatever is necessary for the peace and happiness of our country. It is out of the question for us to fall into a disagreement with our security forces and soldiers on this issue... When necessary, this step would be taken, there would be no delay."