This week scored a few successes in international diplomatic relations, with the unanimous vote on the UN US-France sponsored resolution that calls for an end to war in Lebanon and the deployment of around 15,000 UN peacekeeping soldiers in the southern part of the country, to provide assistance to the Lebanese army, as well as the discovery of the of one of the most complex terrorist plots to bomb UK-US aircraft in London ever since the 9/11 tragic events. In addition to that, the Sri Lankan army managed to secure the water reservoir initially seized by the Tamil Tiger rebels after a week-long bloody controversial conflict.

However, as things are never what they seem, the UN resolution might not put an end to low-intensity warfare in Lebanon, nor it would prevent Israel from expanding military operations there, the thwarting of the London terrorist plot may not prevent announced attacks in New Delhi and Bombay in India, and war in Sri Lanka continues to ravage the country. In addition to these, the political situation in Cuba, as well as in Mexico, continues to remain unclear, while natural disasters like the Mayon volcano and super typhoon Saomai, the strongest to hit China in 50 years, continued to keep their menacing glow over the Philippines and China, respectively.

On Monday, it was reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had issued an official statement the day before, warning that a UN resolution, elaborated upon by France and the United States, calling for a halt of the war between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon and establishing the terms for a settlement, may not achieve its intended purposes, that of putting a stop to the war in the Middle East region. The only job it could fulfill, in her opinion, is enabling a first step towards a lasting peace deal, at most.
Rice, who was conducting an official visit in Crawford, Texas to meet US President George Bush, on holiday there, to hold a round of talks about the crisis in the Middle East, added that it is of paramount importance that a vote is conducted on the UN resolution in the next two days.

Deputy Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid Muallem, issued a formal statement, in which he announced that his country may offer its contribution to the war in Lebanon, next to Hezbollah, should the Israeli military campaign continue on Syrian territory. " If Israel attacks Syria by any means, on the ground, in the air, our leadership ordered the armed forces to reply immediately", he said. "[Syria is ready] for the possibility of a regional war if the Israeli aggression continues. If you wish, I'm ready to be a soldier at the disposal of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah [the Hezbollah leader]", he added.
The statement was released while conducting an official visit into Lebanon, the first of a Syrian official since the Damascus administration ended its 29-year military presence on Lebanese territory. When asked if he fears the Israeli military attacks on Hezbollah could acquire a regional dimension, by bringing Syria in, Muallem confidently replied:" Most welcome". His opinion of the UN impending resolution regarding the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon was that of "a prescription for the continuation of the war. It's not fair for Lebanon, therefore it's a plan for the possibility of the eruption of civil war in Lebanon and nobody, nobody, nobody has anything to gain from that happening, except Israel".

Cuban Vice President, Carlos Lage, currently in Bolivia to attend the national constitutional assembly, conducted a brief press conference with reporters asking him about the general health state of Fidel Castro, following the intestinal surgery that forced him to temporarily hand power to his younger brother, Raoul.
He replied that the Cuban President would return to work in a few weeks time, without advancing any more details regarding his condition. Moreover, all other Cuban officials did not provide any pictures and offered no details to the press since Castro's surgery last Monday, fueling more and more speculation about the real condition of his health and the chances he has to return to power. To add to the mystery of the situation, his brother, also the Defense Minister, has not made any public appearances since the announcement that he would temporarily fill Castro's place.
In the meantime, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's President and one of Castro's closest allies, stated that he does possess information that Fidel was doing fine, walking and talking. Chavez was among the first of Latin American officials to send Castro messages of speedy recovery.

Mayon volcano, situated in the southeastern part of Manila, the Philippines, delivered no less than six explosions of ash about a half a mile into the air, sending authorities on red alert and prompting them to announce that an eruption was imminent and thus, around 50,000 people need to be evacuated.
The alert was raised by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, which confirmed that that the 8,118-foot volcano's current activities have been placed under a Level 4, the second-highest level, which in layman terms means that a powerful explosion, potentially fueling the eruption of the volcano, is imminent. The officials also enlarged the government-established "danger zone" from 4.3 miles to 5 miles on the southern part of the mount.
Jukes Nunez, a provincial disaster officer in Albay province, 210 miles southeast of Manila confirmed the decision to evacuate the population: "More than 50,000 people will be expected to be evacuated", adding that most of these people include the ones who had gone back into the danger zone to take care of their farms and crops.
He also announced that schools would be closed in Legaspi city, the provincial capital of the Albay province, while trucks and other vehicles belonging to the Philippine government, were sent in the area, to transport the residents into approximately 30 evacuation centers built by the authorities.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the closely defeated Democratic Revolution Party candidate in Mexico's presidential elections, announced his fans that he is preparing new measures of civil disobedience, in his attempt to force Mexican authorities demand a recount of the votes in order to overturn the results.
The leftist rival of Felipe Caledron, who came out the winner of the closely-fought polls, had expressed his disappointment at the fact that he had failed in winning a full vote-by -vote recount last week, given that an electoral commission court had ordered only a partial recount of the votes.
Thus, Obrador promised the thousands of supporters who had been gathering in Mexico City's main square and boulevards in the past week, that he was ready to adopt "new actions, new measures of civil resistance", adding that they have to get ready as well, since the struggle may last longer than it had been expected. However, he did not present further details as to what exactly those measures might be.

Ali Larijani, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, issued an official statement, in which he reiterated the fact that his country would continue to defy any UN resolution demanding the suspension of its nuclear activities, on August 31st.
During a press conference, Larijani stated: "They must understand the resolution can not affect our decision, we reject it and will pursue the nuclear rights of Iranian people. We will expand nuclear work if we need, it includes all nuclear technology including the string of centrifuges (which are used to enrich uranium). The United Nations has no right to ask Iran to halt enrichment, Iran has not violated any obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), so we will reject the resolution," he said.
He also drew attention to the fact that this resolution the UN announced it would issue on August 31st is "contrary" to the package of economic incentives the six-nation group had presented his country with, at the beginning of June. He also reiterated that his country would hold on to its initial pledge, in giving the formal response to the incentives, on August 22nd. "The package has potential to resolve the nuclear issues, we want to hold talks to remove the ambiguities in it, but they issued a resolution and kill it (the six-nation package). They must explain why they damaged the path of dialogue", he asserted.

In an attempt to force the release of 19 year old Cpl Gilad Shalit, kidnapped a month and a half ago by three Palestinian armed factions, Israeli troops seized Hamas's Parliamentary Speaker, Abdel Aziz Dweik at his home in Ramallah on Saturday, thus expanding their original military front in Gaza. Although the Israeli desire to trade Dweik for Shalit, the former announced on Sunday that he rejects such a deal. "Neither I nor my brother MPs want to be, or would accept being alternatives to our brother prisoners. If I live the rest of my life in prison, I won't accept [being] a card in any compromise", he stated.
Dweik knew he had been targeted by the Israelis, as he later confessed, and had made arrangements to sleep each night in a different place. However, the Israeli security officials learned about his plan and sent 20 armored vehicles to surround his home. An Israeli army official justified the arrest later on, based on the fact that Dweik is part of Hamas, a recognized terror network: "He is the head of Hamas's legislature and since Hamas is a terrorist organization, he is a target for arrest".
"We are working against all the odds in the history of mankind, as a parliament and as a government", Dweik stated following his capture. As far as Gilad Shalit was concerned, Dweik's opinion is that the teenager was unharmed: "There are rules of war in Islam - we said do not harm a prisoner of war."

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora issued an official statement, reiterating his willingness to deploy Lebanese troop contingents in the southern part of Lebanon as fast as possible, while he and other Arab foreign ministers made further pressures for changes in the US-French draft resolution, planned to end the nearly one month-long war in the Middle East.
An aide to Siniora stated that the Prime Minister supports the plan of a swift deployment of a mix of UN and Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon in order to ensure the leave of all the thousands of the Israeli Defense Forces from the south, prior to the ceasefire agreement.
Even though one of his initial peace proposals included the idea of the Lebanese army being deployed in the south, only after a ceasefire was reached and other political claims were met, Siniora changed his point of view since he knows that the US-French draft resolution, due to be voted early this week, stipulates the fact that the IDF troops would continue to remain in Lebanon after fighting is suspended. In turn, Hezbollah rejected the provisions of this resolution, which may mean that violence could escalate in the coming days. Siniora stated that the solution of leaving the IDF troops in the south, even after a halt in the cross fire has been reached, is "impractical", given the fact that Hezbollah guerillas would continue to provoke the Israelis and vice versa.

On Tuesday, around 400 intellectuals from 50 countries signed a joint open letter addressed to US President George Bush, advising him that he needs to respect Cuba's sovereignty rights and not place political pressure on its administration to change the nature of the regime and of the policies, now that Castro is temporarily out of the political scene of the country.
"Faced with the growing threat to one nation's integrity, and to the peace and security of Latin America and the world, we the undersigned demand that the United States government respect Cuba's sovereignty", part of the letter stated, being jointly presented during a news conference on Monday by Belgian sociologist and theologian Francois Houtart, Andres Gomez, the editor of a magazine called "Areito" and Roberto Fernandez Retamar, the president of the Casa de las Americas. The letter was also signed by Nobel Prize-winning writers Jose Saramago from Portugal, Wole Soyinka from Nigeria, Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina, Dario Fo from Italy, social activists Desmond Tutu and Nadine Gordimer from South Africa, and Rigoberta Menchu from Guatemala.

Given the fact that the Arab League manifested its anger with the newly revised UN resolution on the war in Lebanon, stipulating a cessation of hostilities yet leaving Israeli troops in Lebanon on a temporary basis, the United Nations Security Council decided it would meet on Tuesday with the envoys of the Arab organization to discuss such aspects. In turn, this would mean that the potential vote on the UN resolution, which was scheduled to occur today, is going to be postponed later in the week.
The Foreign Ministers of around 20 countries, who met in Beirut on Monday during an emergency gathering to discuss the US-French drafted resolution on the war in Lebanon, have actively criticized the fact that it does not stipulate the immediate Israeli withdrawal after the ceasefire agreement.

Israeli military officials stated that their offensive in Lebanon would widen, should all diplomatic efforts fail or turn soft in the following days. The Israeli Defense Minister, Amir Peretz addressed Knesset lawmakers asserting: "I have given an order that in the event that the diplomatic process does not end [successfully], the Israel Defense Forces will carry out the required operation of taking control of the rocket launching sites to reduce the firing of rockets and bring the citizens of Israel out of the shelters".
Israeli Army Radio confirmed the news and added that Peretz has allegedly given the UN officials and other world leaders no more than 48 hours to decide on the next phases of the diplomatic efforts. However, many have been speculating that this kind of deadline is completely impossible to meet. Prior to this announcement, certain political sources in the Knesset assessed that Peretz had actually urged for an expanded speeding of military operations in southern Lebanon, specifically near the Litani River area, 20 kilometers inside Lebanon, following the massive killing performed by Hezbollah and its rockets.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki adopted quite a critical attitude towards the attack led by the US military forces against a Shiite militia community in Baghdad, following the assault of a suicide truck bomber that destroyed the two-storey building of the provincial headquarters of Shiite police force in a mostly Sunni city, north of Baghdad. Some have already speculated that this criticism he displayed may endanger his relationship with the American administration, which has just invested more money and troops in order to secure the Iraqi capital.
Maliki declared that he is very "angered and pained" by the US military operation, cautioning the Americans that their actions might actually provide a setback for his reconciliation efforts: "Reconciliation cannot go hand in hand with operations that violate the rights of citizens this way. This operation used weapons that are unreasonable to detain someone - like using planes", he commented during a televised appearance. He apologized for the US raid and promised that "this won't happen again".
Maliki's comments followed an air and ground attack launched by the US troops on an area of Sadr City, one of the most powerful communities of Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia. According to police sources, three civilians, including a woman and a child, had been killed in the airstrike, which the American army officials labeled as targeting "individuals involved in punishment and torture cell activities". The US added that only one soldier had been slightly wounded.

Alvaro Uribe, 54, was officially sworn in as Colombia's president for a second mandate amid festivities attended by as many as 11 presidents, including the Chilean one, Michele Bachelet and several other delegates, who arrived in security-tightened Bogota.
"Our economic agenda is consistent with investors' trust, economic growth and financing social goals", Uribe stated during his inauguration speech, referring to a wide-ranging tax reform proposal and the ratification of a recently agreed upon free trade pact with the United States.
He also promised to enable banking credit to more than six million Colombian, whose income is very low. For this, Uribe and his financial advisors have thought about creating a bank that specializes in microfinance, and which would be capitalized at around 50 million dollars that they would take from Bancafe, the state-owned bank. The main focus of this particular bank, which would be called Banco del las Oportunidades, would be groups who live on low incomes and would provide so called "micro-lending" so that individuals and their potential businesses prosper.
The Colombian administration would also be among the things that Uribe vowed to transform, in order to reduce bureaucracy. Thus, "We reformed more than 280 official entities and we will continue doing that", Uribe announced in his speech.

On Wednesday, Israeli officials announced that their country will consider whether or not to send troops deeper into Lebanese territory and thus, expand the military offensive against Hezbollah on Wednesday, while the United Nations continues to struggle over voting the much debated US-French resolution that could put an end to the war.
However, a vote on the UN resolution may not happen before Thursday, given the fact skirmishes, as well as low and high-intensity struggles over it have continuously created delays. The most recent postponement was triggered by the Arab delegation which arrived before the United Nations to support Lebanon's demands and to warn that Beirut is facing impending civil war, should its terms, the immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of thousands of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory, not be met. "If we adopt the resolution without fully considering the reality of Lebanon, we will face a civil war. Instead of helping Lebanon, we will destroy Lebanon", Qatar's Foreign Minister, Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani stated.
On the other hand, Israel warned that, in the absence of a common agreement on the current fighting, it would consider expanding the war in southern Lebanon.

Sri Lankan governmental officials issued a formal statement, announcing that army troops managed to reopen the Tricomalee district-located water reservoir, which had initially been seized by the Tamil Tiger rebels and has represented a cause for a fierce war for weeks, CNN informs.
The rebels had succeeded in placing the blockade over the reservoir, which supplies approximately 60,000 people in government-controlled villages in the northeastern part of the country, following a dispute with the Sri Lankan government. The Wednesday announcement comes after Tuesday's alleged official statement by the Tamil Tigers, who declared they had finally lifted the blockade as a good-will gesture and upon a request filed by Norway, which has been attempting to mediate a ceasefire between the two sides.
On the other hand, the government stated they had seized the water supply after "a limited military operation" by its soldiers. The two conflicting accounts on how the end of the blockade was reached could not be reconciled.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) issued an official statement, announcing that it finalized the analysis of the latest data it received regarding Mayon volcano's recent activities and warned that three more powerful ash explosions had occurred on Monday night at 10.36 p.m., 10.46 p.m. and 10.49 p.m., local time, respectively.
"The nighttime explosions were accompanied by incandescent ejections of lava fragments and significant brightening of the summit areas as hot ash, gas and steam were released. This latest explosive episode brings to nine the total explosion events over the past 24-hour period", the Phivolcs statement said, adding that six other conflagrations had been recorded before, between 7.08 a.m. and 7.48 a.m. local time.
The first blast rose to 300 meters, the second, at 7.16 a.m. rose to 500 meters, while the third, at 7.31 a.m. rose to 800 meters. The last three explosions, from the first group, averaged to about 500 meters, Phivolcs supervising science research specialist Julio Sabit stated.
Mayon's sulfur dioxide emission rate reached 12, 745 tones per day during the 24-hour observation period performed by Phivolcs, the highest so far, after the July 31st one of 12, 548 tons per day. ""The elevated sulfur dioxide emission rate is again due to degassing of gas-rich magma", Phivolcs explained. In addition to that, volcano-created earthquakes increased to a record 109 during the 24 hour period, while the lava generated 344 tremor episodes. "Consequently, Phivolcs anticipates an escalation of volcanic unrest. Thus, explosive eruptions may occur at any time", Phivolcs warned.

As the Israeli army seems to change its war policies in terms of the warfront in Lebanon, by seeking to expand its military campaign there, other tragic occurrences happen, as far as ground battles are concerned.
According to Palestinian and Lebanese officials, Israeli warships have shelled the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, causing the death of at least one person and the severe injuring of at least three other civilians. This represented the first attack delivered by the Israeli army on the Ein el-Hilweh camp, situated on the outskirts of the southern port of Sidon, where the first shell landed, while the second one fell into the main amusement park of the city.
As far as the Palestinian camp was concerned, the officials asserted that the shell was dropped into the exact location that was manned by the Fatah militia of the camp. This militia group is run by a brigadier that used to train guerillas in the area. The camp is also known to house many fugitives and militant groups, sought by the Lebanese authorities.

On Thursday, Israeli cabinet ministers and military officials decided that they are going to move thousands more troops into Lebanon as soon as possible, widening their ground military operations to drive Hezbollah guerillas and their rockets away from Israeli northern cities. However, they would have to wait for a while in order to see if the United Nations Security Council reaches a final vote on its US-France-sponsored resolution.
The decision to widen military offensive in Lebanon was reached following a six-hour security cabinet meeting, during which a plan devised by military and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, envisaged a farther and faster incursion into Lebanese territory. Nevertheless, details such as the exact timing these operations would occur at would have to be left aside for now, as they wait for a diplomatic solution the United Nations needs to offer. However, according to an important cabinet minister, they are not going to wait for very long since: "The army is in full motion", he stated.
He added that this decision to widen the war in Lebanon was taken in part as a way of forcing UN diplomats to reach a decision faster in creating a powerful international force whose main purpose would be to monitor the border and provide assistance to the Lebanese army in taking control over the country.

Chinese authorities issued a formal statement announcing that approximately half a million people have already fled the country's southeast coast given that the most powerful typhoon to threaten China in 40 years, the so called "super typhoon" Saomai, is going to make landfall soon, Reuters informs.
Saomai, one of the three largest storms to hit East Asia during the past few days, has already produced critical weather conditions in Taiwan, battering it with heavy rains. The typhoon is expected to make landfall between the cities of Hong Kong and Shanghai, south of Wenzhou, in just a few hours, authorities warned. According to the Wenzhou weather bureau, the center of the typhoon was established to be 220 kilometers southeast of the city at 0100 GMT, as it was moving northwest at around 25 kilometers per hour.
According to Storm tracker Tropical Storm Risk, Saomai, which is Vietnamese for "morning star", was graded level five, which means the most powerful tropical storm there could ever be, while its current position is at 26 degrees Latitude and 123, 7 degrees Longitude at 02.19 GMT.
As if the situation was not critical enough, the Chinese state television reported that they possess information according to which the typhoon runs a high chance to increase its strength even more.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made a televised appearance on Hezbollah-led Al-Manar TV, and his first public statement ever since the US and France presented their draft resolution on the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon.
The leader warned all Arab Israelis that they need to flee the port city of Haifa, so that his group increases its attacks on it without fearing that it might hurt their fellow brothers: "I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call on you to leave this city. I hope you do this. ... Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood".
The senior religious personality offered a profoundly negative evaluation of the UN resolution proposed by the United States and France: "The least we can describe this (draft resolution) is as unfair and unjust. It has given Israel more than it wanted and more than it was looking for", he commented.
However, the Hezbollah leader marked a change of war policies, declaring that he does support the idea of the 15,000 Lebanese troop deployments in southern Lebanon, should a ceasefire agreement be reached between Israel and his group.

British police officials from Scotland Yard have issued a formal statement to announce that they have disrupted what they called a major terrorist plot to bomb six aircraft in flight, which would have most likely followed the United Kingdom-United States route, CNN reports. The news was confirmed by a London police spokesman: "A major terrorist plot to allegedly blow up aircraft in mid-flight has been disrupted in a joint, pre-planned, intelligence-led operation by the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch and security services", Reuters informs.
"It is believed that the aim was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on board the aircraft in hand luggage. It is believed that the attacks would have been particularly targeted at flights from the UK to the USA", part of the statement read.
The plot was thwarted overnight, when a series of 24 arrests were also made by the anti-terrorist branch and the security service of the Metropolitan Police Department. "Today's arrests are the culmination of a major covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months", the Scotland Yard statement added. "We would like to reassure the public that this operation was carried out with public safety uppermost in our minds. This is a major operation which inevitably will be lengthy and complex. We will provide further information as soon as possible", Scotland Yard concluded.
The British Airport Authority implemented strict air travel security measures at all British airports, given the critical situation: "All passengers must be hand searched, and their footwear and all the items they are carrying must be x-ray screened". MI5, the British intelligence service raised the threat level as far as the country is concerned, from "critical" to severe" in the early hours of Thursday morning, which means that an attack is imminent.

The Nepalese government managed to reach an agreement with the rebels over the control of their armed forces and weapons, a move which many labeled as a revilement of a peace process, whose main objective is to halt a 10-year-old civil war that has been ravaging the Nepalese nation.
According to NepalNews Internet website, both of the parties involved sent identical letters to officials at the United Nations to send monitors that would supervise the confinement of the rebels into their camps and that of the Nepalese soldiers to their army barracks so that "a free and fair" environment is created for the upcoming elections. Moreover, both letters stipulated the fact that arrangements are being worked out at the moment regarding the surrender of weapons on both sides. This is related to the Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's statement last week, according to which the Maoists would not be allowed to take part in the interim government as long as they do not agree on disarming.
"Everybody wants the UN involved, everybody wants the UN in assisting the peace process, which is potentially fragile and should not be allowed to be kept fragile" is part of the statement by Staffan de Mistura published on the UN website.

On Friday, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that super typhoon Saomai ripped through the Cangnan County, located in the eastern province of Zhejiang, after Chinese authorities announced they had evacuated more than one million people from the densely populated province. The Associated Press stated that more than 110 people are the new death toll produced by the powerful tropical storm.
One of the local officials declared that at least 41 villagers, including eight children, had died when the rooftop of a two-storey concrete house they had taken shelter in collapsed over them, in the town of Jinxiang, which is situated in the close proximity of the location the typhoon had made landfall. They had believed the seemingly strong structure of the house would prove to be safer than their own houses, Xinhua added. Moreover, two other locals died in a separate house collapse. "The wind was so strong that whole windows were slammed into rooms. Many people here are taking shelter in schools and factories as their houses have been destroyed", the official commented in an interview with Xinhua.
Fortunately enough, Xinhua announced this morning that latest information show that Saomai had decreased in intensity on Friday, acquiring the status of a tropical depression, while heading for the Jianxi province.

Russia circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution urging for a humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon that would last for at least 72 hours.
Russian Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin issued an official statement, commenting upon the fact that his country was seeking a humanitarian truce because the current situation in Lebanon is much too serious to wait for further negotiations on the US-French-sponsored UN resolution.
The proposed resolution came a few hours after a top humanitarian official stated that it was "disgraceful" that Hezbollah and Israel continued to hinder humanitarian efforts, whose main objective was only to provide relief to hundreds of people who are either displaced by the conflict or completely isolated.

Lebanese local media reported that eight strong explosions occurred in Beirut, as Israeli aircraft continued to pound Hezbollah strongholds in the southern Dahieh suburb. The war planes also hit a bridge in the Akkar province, 60 miles north of Beirut, killing eleven civilians and wounding nine. One of the raids struck a village some 20km northeast of the northern city of Tripoli.
Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defense Minister, declared that there is a strong connection between military and diplomatic efforts, in the sense that the former support the latter: "We are doing everything to allow these two efforts to complement each other", he stated during an interview with a public radio station. Should diplomacy fail in the end, Peretz added, then Israel would make "use of all the tools" it has at its disposal to win the war against Hezbollah.

Passengers traveling to the United Kingdom experienced all sorts of delays around the world while international traffic ran amuck and shares fell hurting airline stocks, as airlines cancelled hundreds of flights into and out of London yesterday, following the British police foiling a major terrorist attack which was supposed to affect at least six airplanes. The consequences were disastrous given the international nature of the air travel.
In a news press conference British authorities announced that a total of 24 persons had been detained in a London raid, as well as in the Britain's second-largest city, Birmingham. The degree of the terrorist plot that was about to unfold was compared to that of the September 11th 2001 and to that which occurred 13 months ago, when 52 London commuters died in a series of terrorist attacks performed on London's transport system. According to a British security official the plot was in its execution phase, being supposed to be carried out in the next two days.
In an emergency official statement, US President George Bush asserted that the level of the alert, the nature and scope of the plot proves the fact that the US, as well as the entire world "remains at war with Islamic fascists", even though five years have passed since the September 11th attacks.

British police announced that they had gathered an impressive amount of alarming intelligence data of imminent terrorist attacks, based on which they had made the 24 arrests, including two white people who had converted to Islam.
The several counter-terrorist agencies that had been monitoring the whole plot of the attack for an entire year began questioning the 24 terrorist suspects on the alleged suicide bombs that were supposed to be detonated on six US-bound air flights. Some of them had been the subject of previous police inquiries concerning extremist activities. One government source stated that one of the alleged suicide bombers had recorded a so called "martyrdom video", in which he was giving details on the would-be terrorist attacks.
In addition to that, the British Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced that he had seized all the assets of 19 of the 24 detained in the police raids, highlighting the fact that some of them had several thousand pounds- bank accounts that had been unaccounted for.
Other sources from the United States declared that part of the sums of money that had entered those bank accounts, were sent from Pakistan to two suspects, allegedly for them to buy airline tickets, as well as other things. The sources also confirmed the fact that some of the targeted destinations were New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, while the US air schedules that had been investigated by the alleged attackers belonged to the American, Continental and United Airlines. Moreover, a second wave of airline attacks had been taken into consideration by the police, with no less than 12 commercial aircraft being supposed to be bombed.

Pakistani officials announced yesterday that it had performed its own series of raids and arrests of terrorist suspects in relation to the alleged London terrorist plot to bomb UK-US flights, as well as it provided intelligence to British security agencies, thus helping them with the resolution of this serious case.
"The major work was done by the British agents, but they got a major clue from Pakistan", one Pakistani official declared under condition of anonymity, adding that some of the suspects arrested in Britain have Al-Qaeda connections.
The information obtained by Pakistan, regarding the fact that a group of al-Qaeda "while sitting somewhere in Afghanistan had discussed this plan", was "quickly verified and shared" immediately with Britain. However, no one knew more details concerning the 24 people arrested by the British in London.
A spokeswoman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, Tasnim Aslam, stated: "Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network. Co-operation in this particular case was spread over a period of time. There were some arrests in Pakistan which were coordinated with arrests in the UK".

The current war in Lebanon and the impending UN resolution over the end of it might prove fatal blows to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, given that he is facing growing criticism at home because of his lack of combat credentials that many of the former Israeli Prime Ministers had.
On the one hand, the sudden practical halt of the expansion of military operations in Lebanon, on account of the fact that the result of the voting on the UN resolution must be known, although agreed in theory, has attracted a lot of negativism from his army officers who accuse Olmert that he is holding them back. They also accuse Olmert of denying the Israeli army a chance to win more ground in Lebanon in order to be able to agree on a ceasefire that would prove to be more favorable to Israel than to Hezbollah.
On the other hand, the right-wing politicians, like the Likud Party, vowed they would bring Olmert down, given that he is not capable of assuming responsibility for his decisions, because of the fact that the waiting on the resolution is basically a triumph handed to Hezbollah. "We will work to bring down the government", Silvan Shalom, a member of the Likud Party stated.
Moreover, eroding public support for the war in Lebanon has been revealed in opinion polls done even before the Israeli Security Cabinet reached its decision of expanding the war. An opinion poll published in Ha'aretz on Friday, showed that only 48 per cent of the Israeli citizens are still content with Olmert's political performance, as compared to 75 per cent at the beginning of the war in Lebanon.

Officials from the American Embassy in India issued an official statement warning that it possesses intelligence data, based on which a new serious terrorist attack may occur in New Delhi and Bombay on August 15th, the day in which India celebrates its 60th Independence Day.
The announcement, which was labeled as an advisory to Indian citizens, asking them to maintain a "low profile", added that this attack could be carried out by foreign terrorists, even members of the infamous al-Qaeda network.
"The threat on India is very real and all strategic institutions will have to be on extra vigil. Any further attack will push India's relation with Pakistan to a new low", N. Bhaskara Rao, the chairman of the Centre of Media Studies, a political policy think-tank group in New Delhi, warned, referring to one of the worst terrorist attacks in 13 years India had to witness last month, when eight near-simultaneous explosions rocked Bombay commuter trains and platforms killing hundreds of people.

On Saturday, it was reported that the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted on Friday for the adoption of the US-French sponsored revised draft of the resolution which stipulates an end of the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Reuters informs. In addition to that, the resolution authorizes up to 15,000 UN troops to implement it in the Middle East region.
The resolution urges a "full cessation of hostilities" and demands Hezbollah to immediately stop all armed retaliations, while Israel is called upon to end all "offensive operations". However, it does not stipulate anything about Lebanon's security, stability and territorial integrity issues.
The final 15-0 vote on the resolution, after a whole month of bloody conflict, that took the lives of approximately 1,000 Lebanese citizens and 121 Israelis, as well as seemingly never-ending negotiations and struggles, represents the first practical step the UN makes in order to provide peace in the area.
After the fighting ends, Israel would have to submit to a phased withdrawal from Lebanon, to allow the Lebanese army, backed by the 15,000 UN peacekeeping troops, to take control of the southern part of Lebanon, which is now under the authority of Hezbollah.

British authorities have released an official statement in which they announced that they had identified 19 of the 24 suspects arrested on Thursday for suspicion of blowing up UK-US aircraft in a terrorist plot which has been labeled to be the greatest in terms of magnitude, since the 9/11 2001 one. Out of these 19, one was reportedly a woman with a small child, two others had been converts to Islam and one suspect had actually been working as an employee of Heathrow Airport.
The names and other details of the 19 suspects had been disclosed by the Bank of England, which had also added that it had frozen all their bank accounts. In terms of age, the suspects ranged from 17 to 35, all had Muslim names, several of them being common to Pakistan ones.
At the same time, officials in Pakistan reported that al-Qaeda is surely and strongly connected to the alleged would-be terrorist plots and asserted that police had detained a "key suspect" in the case. They also confirmed the fact that all 19 suspects arrested by the British police had been born in the UK. As far as the series of arrests performed by the Pakistani security officers, is concerned, five of them are Pakistani citizens, labeled as "facilitators" of the plot, while two others are British, including British national Rashid Rauf, the alleged "key person" with links to al-Qaeda, who had been arrested a week before.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert marched on with the authorization of the military to expand their operations in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah militias, in spite of the fact that he declared that he would ask his Security Cabinet ministers on Sunday to accept the UN Security Council resolution regarding the end of the conflict, approved yesterday as well.
This seemingly never-ending indecision and inner conflict that the Prime Minister seems to display lately has brought massive criticism of his performance as an official, in his country, which would ultimately place his career at risk.
According to Israeli government officials, Olmert consulted his military commanders at around 5 p.m. on Friday, and gave them the order to accelerate ground operations in Lebanon, after he revised a draft of the UN resolution, which had still not been voted upon at the time.
However, an Israeli official declared that Olmert did not change his orders, even after he saw the revised draft that circulated later in the evening.

According to an Associated Press photographer, Lutfallah Daher, an Israeli drone targeted a convoy of Lebanese refugees in 600 vehicles, leaving southern Lebanon, near the town of Chtaura, in the Bekaa Valley, 30 miles north of Litani River, on Friday night, killing at least 7 people and wounding at least 22 others.
Israeli military officials stated that they are in the process of investigating the incident, to gather more details as to the circumstances in which it occurred. Israel had warned previously that it would target any vehicles south of the Litani because it would automatically assume that they might hide Hezbollah fighters.
This convoy attack was labeled as one of the most dramatic in a day in which more fighting occurred, with Israel pounding southern Beirut and the Lebanese-Syrian border, killing 15 other civilians, while ground fighting became more intense. Israeli army reported the loss of a soldier in the south.