By Jessica McCallin in Jerusalem

Palestinians are, understandably, scathing about aspects of the United Nations. Though well aware that many UN agencies have fed, clothed, housed and educated them for generations, they are bitter about the staggering double standards of the UN’s political agencies, namely the Security Council.

Israel has ignored Security Council resolutions, they tirelessly repeat, as the world, or at least the US and the UK, drone on about Iraq’s non-compliance. It’s been in material breach of resolution 242 – which called for Israel to withdraw from territories, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, captured in the 1967 war – for 35 years.

BAGHDAD, June 1 - Iraq's Governing Council named Tuesday, June 1, Sunni tribal leader Sheikh Ghazi Al-Yawar Iraq's interim  president after Council member Adnan Pachachi turned down the post.

"As for the Presidential Council, I am honored and privileged to announce that its composition is as follows: Sheikh Ghazi Al-Yawar, President; Dr. Ibrahim Jaffari [of the Islamic Shiite Dawa party], Deputy President; Dr. Rowsch Shaways [of the Kurdistan Democratic Party], Deputy President," said a statement by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

By Khalid Khawaja

I am a Pakistani, a former officer of my country's air force and intelligence services, a close companion of Osama bin Laden in the early days of the Afghan resistance when we fought together against the "evil" Soviets. I am a grandfather and a devout, uncompromising, long-bearded Muslim.

In short, I am what many of you in the United States would today refer to as a "terrorist."

But I and my long-bearded brothers are no more the terrorists than your president and his military advisors.

Wednesday March 19, U.S. warplanes bomb southern Iraq By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With war looming, U.S. warplanes have bombed military targets in southern Iraq and dropped nearly 2 million warning leaflets into the area, the U.S. military says.

The bombs were dropped in a southern "no-fly" zone in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire, a Navy admiral said on Wednesday.

Rear Adm. John Kelly said on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf that the latest of dozens of such recent strikes in no-fly zones of northern and southern Iraq were against "command and control" targets in response to attempts on Tuesday to shoot down U.S. and British aircraft.

Hasan Tahsin

Whether the Security Council issues a new resolution allowing the invasion of Iraq or not, is irrelevant — the war is coming.

The European-American struggle witnessed by the Security Council indicates that the EU, despite internal divisions, aims to curtail American global aspirations that threaten European interests.

This belligerent American stand is the fulfillment of an American strategy laid out more than ten years ago and whose political and economic interests completely disregard those of others. Washington was waiting for the opportunity to carry out that plan; September 11, 2001 gave them that chance.

US-led forces have launched fresh air strikes on the Iraqi capital Baghdad in the first sustained assault in the war to oust President Saddam Hussein.

In tandem with the air strikes, ground troops advanced into southern Iraq - starting at about 1700 GMT - after a heavy aerial bombardment.

Our correspondent says that the former office of Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has been hit, along with the foreign ministry and planning ministry and now, after a brief lull, the air raid sirens have sounded again.

There are reports that a presidential site belonging to Saddam Hussein's wife may have also been hit.

BAGHDAD, June 28 - The US-led occupation authorities of Iraq formally transferred power to the country’s interim government on Monday, June 28, two days earlier than expected as Iraqis fear that the move will prove ceremonial.

The expediting low-key ceremony was attended by the outgoing US governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, and senior Iraqi officials, CNN reported.

Bremer handed the transfer document to the head of the Iraqi Supreme Court, who then gave it to President Ghazi Al-Yawer.

It took place at around 10:26 a.m. Baghdad time inside the so-called Coalition Provisional Authority's "Green Zone" headquarters in the Iraqi capital.

Question

News is circulating throughout the world about the violations committed by Anglo-American occupation troops in Iraq. Iraqi prisoners are being sexually harassed, abused, and tormented at the hands of occupation soldiers. This has caused the US a great deal of moral scandal. We would like you to clarify what International Law says about the rights of prisoners of war, shedding light on the status of such prisoners from the point of view of Islamic Shari`ah.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

With no end to the Iraq conflict in sight, some US military strategists have been considering tactics used during the civil war in El Salvador, a brutal and bloody campaign that lasted for years.

The US colonel in charge at the close of El Salvador's civil war was a tall man with a shaven head, which, as a colleague put it, "looked as if it would repel cannonballs".

I remember him commenting on how he had been glad to serve in El Salvador because he believed the United States had corrected the mistakes of Vietnam, learning at last the formula to defeat future insurgencies.

Louis Charbonneau

"xtramsn.co.nz....."

The head of the UN nuclear agency has said that the documents backing U.S. and British allegations that Iraq attempted to import uranium from Niger are "not authentic".

"Based on thorough analysis, the IAEA has concluded... that these documents, which formed the basis for the reports of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger, are in fact not authentic," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in a report to the UN Security Council.

"We have therefore concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded," he said.