With the near-simultaneous Beijing Olympics and Hokkaido G8 summit about to open, China and Japan announce they have resolved their dispute over gas fields in the East China Sea. What a feel-good globalization-fest we are going to be subject to this summer. From the IHT, June 18:

What a telling medley of articles in the New York Times June 19. First this, from the front page:

Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back
BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Despite the supposed ceasefire, fighting again broke out between Somali insurgents and Ethiopian occupation troops in several attacks around Mogadishu June 18, leaving 11 dead. Nine were civilians; two were Somali police. (Africa News, June 19) Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, about to leave for the signing of the peace deal in Jedda, blasted Arab governments in statements to AlJazeera—singling out the network's home, Qatar: "I want to tell the government of Qatar that the day will come when the Arab people hold accountable all those who helped destabilize Somalia.... The Qatari Government can rectify its policies towards us, and [t]his includes the hostile rhetoric used in its media outlets, starting with Al-Jazeera." (Translated from Arabic broadcast by Shabelle Media Network, June 19)

From Physicians for Human Rights, June 18:

Medical Evidence Supports Detainees’ Accounts of Torture in US Custody
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has published a landmark report documenting medical evidence of torture and ill-treatment inflicted on 11 men detained at US facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, who were never charged with any crime. The physical and psychological evaluation of the detainees and documentation of the crimes are based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims. The report also details the severe physical and psychological pain and long-term disability that has resulted from abusive and unlawful US interrogation practices.

Wired reports June 19 reports from Marlborough, MA, where the US Air Force held a confab to promote its new Cyber Command, which is to go operational in 105 days. While the command's mission is still "very much in question," it will certainly provide further opportunity for corporate-Pentagon collaboration. Wired writes that on the symposium's exhibition floor, companies like IBM bragged about "partnering for dominance" with the military in cyberspace.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress, June 16:

On the US-Iraqi Treaty
The US administration plans to tie Iraq to a treaty that will guarantee a US military presence and political interference with absolute control of the wealth and resources of Iraq.

A car bombing that killed 63 June 17 at a bus-stop in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite Hurriya area may have been carried out by a militant trying to incite Shi'ite violence against Sunnis, the US military said. Lt. Col. Steve Stover said, "Our intelligence, corroborated through multiple sources, is this atrocity was committed" by Haydar Mehdi Khadum al-Fawadi, leader of an Iranian-backed militant cell. "We believe he ordered the attack to incite Shia violence against Sunnis," he said, adding that al-Fawadi is a "murderous thug." (CNN, June 18)

A little-known Iranian Sunni militant group claimed responsibility June 18 for a mosque bombing that killed 14 and wounded 200 in Shiraz April 12. "This is the very first operation and the signal to the criminal regime of Iran...to stop its oppression, cruelty and injustice towards...Sunnis," the Jihadi Movement of the Sunna People of Iran said in an Internet statement. The group said it carried out the attack to avenge what it said was the execution of two Sunni scholars in Iran's southeastern Baluchistan region. (Reuters, June 18)