Another attempted multiple simultaneous bombing on the London transit system, which fortunately seems to have failed--but not without sparking another death on the Underground, this time at the hands of the police. (Remember when London "bobbies" famously didn't carry guns?) And now police are conducting random searches on the New York subways. (NYT, July 22) A press release from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) protests the policy as unconstitutional (thank goodness!), but doesn't say they will challenge it in court. From TruthOut:

Signals continue to be mixed on Sudan's tentative return to Washington's good graces. On an official visit to the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped at Darfur's Abu Shouk refugee camp, which houses some 55,000 displaced people, and demanded "action not words" to stop the violence in the war-torn region. Rice earlier met Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and John Garang, the former rebel leader who is the new vice-president under the recent peace deal whch ended the war in Sudan's south. She next flew on to Israel, to hold talks on the planned Gaza Strip withdrawal. (BBC, July 21) The Sudan stop was marred by overt tension—Rice demanded and received an apology after officials and press accompanying her were "manhandled" by security staff at President al-Bashir's residence. (AFP, July 21) Darfur's principal rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), immediately issued a communique expressing "shock and disbelief about the humiliation and insult meted out by the Khartoum regime on her Excellency Condeleza Rice the US Secretary of state and her entourage during her visit to Khartoum." The SLA may be uncertain on the spelling of Her Excellency's first name, but not on whose side they're on in this heavily symbolism-laden "manhandling."

Note that the imposition of the usual neoliberal economic model is sparking the unrest. Yet it is Islamic fundamentalists—not leftists, as in Bolivia—that are best poised to exploit the backlash. From the Guardian:

Yemen Riots Over Subsidy Cut Leave 16 Dead

Thursday July 21, 2005 8:46 PM

By AHMED AL-HAJ

Associated Press Writer

SANA, Yemen (AP) - Rioters enraged by subsidy cuts clashed with security forces for a second day Thursday across Yemen, burning cars and buildings and leaving 16 people dead in the country's worst civil strife in more than a decade.

Terror returns to London
July 21st 2005
From The Economist Global Agenda

Exactly two weeks after the deadly bombings of London’s transport system on July 7th, Britain’s capital has been hit by a fresh wave of attacks—though with few casualties this time. Were the four reported explosions the work of further members of the Islamist group that struck last time—or unrelated “copycats"

UK Gay Leaders Receive Death Threats From Muslim Fundamentalists Group Says
by Malcolm Thornberry 365Gay.com European Bureau Chief

Posted: July 18, 2005 8:00 pm ET

(London) A British LGBT civil rights group says its leaders have received death threats from Muslim fundamentalists and warns that gay clubs could be targets for terrorist bombers.

Talk about chutzpah:

Palestinians: Israel to steal artifacts
Orly Halpern, THE JERUSALEM POST
Jul. 21, 2005

Palestinian archaeologists say they fear that when Israel withdraws from Gaza it will also take priceless archeological artifacts. Israeli officials have acknowledged this is a possibility.

A military installation in the northwestern tip of the Gaza Strip surrounds a sixth century Byzantine church, discovered in 1999 by an Israeli archaeologist. The well-preserved 1,461-year-old church, which measures 13 by 25 meters, has three large and colorful mosaics with floral-motifs and geometric shapes. Nearby is a Byzantine hot bath and artificial fishponds.

The New York Times today notes the growing cult of Zheng He in China, the 15th-century mariner who led gigantic fleets across the Pacific and Indian oceans in the Ming Dynasty's brief but impressive expansion of naval prowess. Statues are going up of the eunuch admiral (who happened to be a Muslim—a fact presumably not emphasized by China's rulers), and a group of young Kenyans who claim Chinese ancestry due to an apocryphal Ming-era shipwreck on the East African coast have been invited to Beijing for ceremonies. The Times is quick to point out the obvious contemporary political context for this new personality cult:

This is pretty Orwellian. The government says it has the right to hold accused "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla without charge as an "enemy combatant" for the "duration of the conflict." The "conflict" in question is a completely open-ended undeclared war which the administration says could last generations. And the "battlefield" in question is defined as the entire United States. Padilla's lawyer is actually in the ironic position of demanding that his client be indicted! Now, nobody is supposed to care about this because Padilla is just a jihad freak. But your habeas corpus rights are evidently not worth the paper they're written on anymore. From Bloomberg, July 19: