Just in case you missed this one. From the New York Times, July 7 (links and emphasis added):

Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts
A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

Note that these two articles take seemingly opposite tacks. The first, from the UN's news agency, raises fears that Chad's move against Exxon and Chevron is aimed at weaseling out of World Bank-imposed commitments to put oil proceeds into social development, and quotes Oxfam on the matter. The second, from a Johannesburg business journal, merely raises the specter of oil nationalism, as if "gaining greater control of the country's strategic oil resources" was necessarily a bad thing. Is there a unity of these opposites? Is the World Bank deal just a stratagem to prevent the developing world from seizing control of its destiny and keeping it dependent on the likes of Exxon? The problem is that while more legitimate oil nationalists, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, are ploughing petro-dollars into social programs without World Bank prodding, Chad's Idriss Deby really does seem intent on putting guns before butter. Of course the guerilla war which serves to justify this is a result of his embroilment in the Darfur conflict, at the presumed behest of the United States... First, from IRIN, Aug. 29 via AllAfrica.com:

A big step closer to the destabilization of Pakistan. From Reuters, Aug. 29:

QUETTA, Pakistan - Security forces and gunmen clashed on Tuesday in Pakistan's Baluchistan province after prayers for a slain rebel leader and one policeman was killed, while a blast elsewhere killed three people, police said.

A radical offshoot from the PKK seems to be emulating al-Qaeda tactics. From Reuters, Aug. 29:

Kurdish rebels warn of "hell"
ANTALYA, Turkey - A shadowy Kurdish rebel group threatened on Tuesday to turn Turkey into "hell" after a two-day bombing spree which killed three people and wounded dozens of others at popular tourist resorts.

In the wake of the Lebanon aggression, Uri Avnery invokes the image of Israel as Washington's attack dog—as he has before. Online at Gush Shalom, Aug. 26, emphasis added:

America's Rottweiler
IN HIS latest speech, which infuriated so many people, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uttered a sentence that deserves attention: "Every new Arab generation hates Israel more than the previous one."

From AP, Aug. 26:

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.

From the AP, Aug. 26:

YAMOUN, West Bank - They were struggling in a boy band, working the West Bank wedding circuit and dreaming of stardom.

Now the five singers who make up the Northern Band have come a little closer to their goal, with help from an unwitting ally - Hezbollah guerrilla chief Hassan Nasrallah.

From the Mehr News Agency, Aug. 24:

TEHRAN -- Iran's National Orchestra will be performing the symphony "Nuclear Energy" composed by Kambiz Roshanravan at Tehran's Vahdat Hall on August 27 in a program which President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to attend.