French hypocrisy exposed at last! It seems all the official pomposity and condescension about the barabric American torture state was merely for political show. We are shocked, shocked! From the New York Times, July 6:

PARIS, July 5 — A French terrorism trial was thrown into turmoil on Wednesday by a leaked report that French intelligence agents had secretly interviewed the six defendants during their detention by the United States at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.

From the New York Times, July 6:

MILAN — Two officials with the Italian intelligence agency were arrested Wednesday in the kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric here in 2003. It was the first indication that Italian intelligence agents might have been directly involved in what prosecutors say was an American-led operation to detain and interrogate the imam.

More sacrifices for the American way of life. From Newsday, July 6:

Two killed in livery cab crash on Brooklyn-Queens Expressway

Two people were killed and another critically injured early Wednesday when a livery cab rear-ended a tractor trailer on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Woodside and erupted in flames, police said.

The following paid advertisement was signed by 300 Jews in Britain and placed in The London Times on July 7:

WHAT IS ISRAEL DOING? A CALL BY JEWS IN BRITAIN
WE WATCH WITH HORROR the collective punishment of the people of Gaza. Everything reasonable must be done to secure Corporal Gilad Shalit's safe release but nothing Israel is doing contributes to that aim. Instead, it is using its enormously superior military might to terrorise an entire people.

The Times of India reported June 22:

SRINAGAR: Terrorists on Thursday tossed a grenade at the house of a holy man in Sopore, north Kashmir, killing two of his devotees and injuring 15, even as the saint escaped unhurt.

This was the second attack on the 'darvaish', Abdul Ahad, alias Ahad Bab, from the time militancy took root in the state. The ascetic lives a simple life and sits in an iron cage, clad in rags, while his devotees, who belong to different faiths, sit around him.

The Israeli peace group Gush Shalom placed the following paid statement in Haaretz and the International Herald Tribune on July 7:

The march of folly
The offensive on land, from the sea and from the air does not put an end to the launching of Qassam rockets. It is leading to their increase.

From the New York Times, links and annotation added:

MEXICO CITY, July 6 — Felipe Calderón, a conservative former energy minister, won a narrow victory in the race for president today after election officials finished their official tally, but his leftist rival vowed to go court and demand a recount.

North Korea notoriously test-fired at least seven missiles July 4—although the intercontinental Taepodong-2, which we were told could reach parts of the Western US, failed less than a minute after launch, falling into the Sea of Japan, along with the other, medium-range missiles. The timing of the spectacle was not lost on observers. "It's very in-your-face to do it on the Fourth of July," said Ashton B. Carter, a Harvard professor who, with former defense secretary William Perry, had urged the Bush administration to destroy the Taepodong missile on the launch pad. (WP, July 5)