News of the World: In Somalia, as fighting rages between the Shar'ia courts' militias and regional warlords, the drug lord and Hawiye clan leader Shaykh Yusuf Muhammad Siad Indha Ade of the Lower Shabelle region has created a splinter paramilitary named al-Shabaab that looks set to cause chaos within the Shar'ia courts' ranks ... In the ongoing hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea, an Ethiopian general has defected to the other side: Brigadier General Kemal Gelchu reportedly went over with a few hundred Oromo and Amhara officers, enlisted troops, and materiel. Gelchu was previously a commander for the UNMIL force in Liberia ...

In Ukraine, pro-Russian forces ousted in the "Orange Revolution" have returned to power in a compromise with beleagured President Viktor Yushchenko ... Bernard Lewis seems to think Iran may nuke Israel on August 22, which corresponds this year to 27 Rajab, by tradition Lailat al Miraj, the date of Muhammad's "Night Journey." (Sunni Salafists like al-Qaeda discourage any celebration of Lailat al Miraj, and disavow the tradition that dates the journey.) Now the Weekly World News of Russia, Pravda, agrees ... In Georgia, the government has given the go-ahead for UNOMIG to begin patrols of the Kodori Gorge ...

Does Rummy want out of Iraq? Sherwood Ross of the Middle East Times has some dismal thoughts on the American presence there ... Ha'aretz calls the Israeli incursion into Lebanon a "humiliation" for the IDF but places the blame on the air force while letting Olmert and Livni slide ... Author Jonathan Cook defends the use of anti-personnel rockets by Hizb Allah and claims that the Shi'ite paramilitary is targeting its rockets at IDF military installations, not civilian areas (Hey, I don't endorse 'em, I just report 'em) ...

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine for Japanese war dead, sparking Chinese protest after reports that South Korea and China would accept one last visit to the shrine ... Another H5N1 victim in China has been reported dead ... The Chinese government's continuing cautious acceptance of homosexuality took another step forward with the opening of a government-approved online gay forum ... A Japanese survivor of World War Two relates his grotesque wartime experiences ... The first intra-Japanese hostile takeover attempt between Oji Paper and Hokuetsu Paper Mills is almost over, with Oji apparently failing yet still ushering in a new era of Western-style business management ...

More violence in Waziristan and Baluchistan ... India is ratcheting up security in advance of tomorrow's Independence Day celebrations ... Finally, airport security in Pakistan is a bit more serious than our own American TSA employees. What are they planning to shoot with that thing?