From Reuters, July 29:

The United States sent its most explicit warning yet to Horn of Africa foes Eritrea and Ethiopia on Saturday to stay out of the escalating crisis in Somalia where they are believed to be backing rival sides.

From IRIN, July 29:

Lebanon is facing an environmental crisis after an Israeli air strike on the Jiyeh power station, about 20km south of Beirut caused 10,000 tonnes of oil to spill into the Mediterranean sea.

An ad-hoc coalition press release, July 29:

1500 Protesters March Across the Brooklyn Bridge in Solidarity With the Palestinian and Lebanese People
New York, NY - 1500 members of the New York community, horrified at the senseless killing of Palestinians and Lebanese by the Israeli military, marched across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan today to demand an end to the violence.

Pushed from the headlines by multiple crises in the Middle East, genocidal warfare continues in Congo even on the even of elections. This July 28 New York Times op-ed piece by Aidan Hartley, a television journalist who witnessed a massacre of a village by UN "peacekeepers" earlier this year, is a rare exception to a general media blackout.

Congo’s Election, the U.N.’s Massacre

The Democratic Republic of the Congo will hold its first legitimate elections in four decades on Sunday. The United Nations peacekeeping mission there has played the role of electoral midwife, so if the vote is free and fair it will be among the global body’s greatest successes on the continent.

This Associated Press account interprets al-Zawahri's latest communique as calling for Sunni-Shi'ite unity against the US and Israel, taking a tip from the cementing of the Hamas-Hezbollah conjunction since the Lebanon crisis. If so, al-Zawahri's followers in Iraq don't seem to have gotten the word. From AP, July 28:

Al-Qaida's No. 2 expands call for holy war

CAIRO - Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader called yesterday for Muslims to unite in a holy war against Israel and to join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."

Hamas may be rallying around Hezbollah at the moment, but the Sunni-Shi'ite lovefest sure doesn't seem to have extended to Iraq. From AP, July 28:

Rockets strike an upscale Shi'a district, killing dozens
Rockets and mortars rained down an upscale, mostly Shi'a area of Baghdad yesterday, collapsing an apartment house, shattering shops and killing at least 31 people -- part of the rising sectarian violence President Bush has vowed to stop.

We noted in March 2005, when US troop levels in Iraq were boosted to around 150,000 ahead of the elections, that they were up from 123,000 a year earlier, and were supported by some 26,000 more coalition troops. This was also an increase from May 2003, when Bush initially declared "victory" in Iraq. Then the US had 135,000 troops in Iraq, and officially planned to reduce that number by over 100,000 over the next four months. Now, the Washington Post informs us July 28, US troops in Iraq are being raised by 3,000 to 135,000 in response to growing sectarian violence: in other words, the same level they were at when Bush declared "mission accomplished" in May 2003. Is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

Israeli combat jets continue to pound Lebanon, ostensibly targeting Hezbollah missile sites. Israeli military authorities said jets hit 130 targets in Lebanon July 27 and early the 28th, including a Hezbollah base in the Bekaa Valley, where Israel said long-range rockets and rocket launchers were stored. Air-strikes also continued on supposed Hezbollah missile sites in Tyre which had been targeting Haifa. Israeli planes also destroyed a building said to belong to a Hezbollah militant in the southern village of Kfar Jouz, killing three and wounding nine, including four children. More people are believed trapped beneath the rubble. Ground combat continued in Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold just north of the Israeli border. Hezbollah launched 14 rockets into northern Israel July 28, injuring two people. Since the fighting began on July 12, Israeli attacks have killed at least 440 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. Hezbollah has killed 33 Israeli soldiers and 19 civilians. (JTA, July 28)