Torture Photos Leaked

The Italian papers, Il Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, says the picture galleries below were part of the set of Abu Ghraib photos that President Obama has declined to release:

Here

and here

Senseless

This murder couldn't even have happened in Baghdad...

French researcher Christopher Augur, an expert in bio-molecular chemistry who was en route to the University of Mexico, was shot in the head and killed at the Mexico City Airport after making a currency exchange. Mr. Augur, 48 years old, had just arrived in the country. A University car had been dispatched to pick him up. When he entered the car, thieves broke the window, stole his money and shot him dead.

Italian-brokered deal ends Somalia's nightmare

Update: Why are African Union troops (undisciplined 18 year olds) still in Mogadishu?

Via BBC: "Regional officials in Somalia have accused African Union (AU) peacekeepers of opening fire on civilians in the capital, Mogadishu, killing 18 people."

The two years that Italy's Special Envoy to Somalia, Mario Raffaelli, spent arm-twisting in Washington has produced the prospect of a stable Somalia, according to a story in Milan's Corriere della Sera. I would assume that Qatar and Kuwait played a role, too. The US assented to the election of Sheik Sharif Shek Ahmed, a member of the Hawiya-Abgal clan, said to be an Islamist on Washington's list of al-Qaeda members (always sweeping and inaccurate), as President in an election among the Somali parliamentarians in Djibuti last night. The Sheik still has to convince more radical elements, especially Sheik Hassan Daher Haweis in Asmara and Sheik Hassan Turki to accept him but I think they will. No comment from the big cheerleader for disorder in Somalia, Jendayi E. Frazer.

The New York Times also has a dispatch but it does not mention Mr. Raffaelli's efforts.

Spain pursues Israel for crimes against humanity

Israel is rankled and this is good:

Spanish justice authorities have opened an investigation into a murderous Gaza bombing ordered by former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and involving 6 other high-ranking Israel military officials. The Israelis intended to kill Hamas leader Salah Chehadeh in July 2002 at any collateral cost. And so they blew up an entire building in the Al-Daraj quarter, killing 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounding 150 otheers. Madrid Judge Fernando Andreu has accepted the complaint lodged by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, saying that there was "evidence of crimes against humanity" as part of a "premeditated and predetermined strategy". [Via Le Monde]