14 held in terror police swoop  —  Armed police have arrested 14 men following anti-terror raids in London, including 12 arrests at a restaurant in the Borough area.  —  Two people were held elsewhere in the city in what police said was an intelligence-led operation.

EU gives Iran two more weeks in nuclear standoff  —  LAPPEENRANTA, Finland (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Saturday to try to clarify Iran's stance on halting uranium enrichment within two weeks and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan held talks in Tehran to try and settle the standoff.

Attacks on Jews soar since Lebanon  —  Synagogues and citizens have been targeted  —  BRITISH Jews are facing a wave of anti-Semitic attacks prompted by Israel's conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Synagogues have been daubed with graffiti, Jewish leaders have had hate-mail and ordinary people …

Target Intercepted In Anti-Missile Test  —  In First Such Success Since 2002, U.S. Simulates North Korean Attack  —  The U.S. military shot down a target missile using its long-range missile defense system yesterday, the first time such a test has intercepted a mock enemy warhead since 2002, officials said.

Palestinian group to target non-Muslims  —  CAIRO, Egypt - Palestinian militants who held two Fox News journalists hostage for nearly two weeks threatened in a statement posted online Saturday to abduct non-Muslims visiting the Palestinian territories and kill them unless their demands were met.

Al Qaeda No. 2 Releases Tape Inviting Americans to Convert to Islam  —  CAIRO, Egypt — Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri issued a new videotape Saturday along with a man identified as an American member of the terror network, inviting Americans to convert to Islam.

Accommodating Genocide in Darfur  —  In the face of ongoing genocide in Darfur, the international community's failure to accept the "responsibility to protect" (that's United Nations language, officially adopted) innocent civilian lives has taken its last, abject form.

FBI Role in Terror Probe Questioned  —  Lawyers Point to Fine Line Between Sting and Entrapment  —  Standing in an empty Miami warehouse on May 24 with a man he believed had ties to Osama bin Laden, a dejected Narseal Batiste talked of the setbacks to their terrorist plot and then uttered …

Bush's Shift of Tone on Iraq: The Grim Cost of Losing  —  President Bush's newest effort to rebuild eroding support for the war in Iraq features a distinct shift in approach: Rather than stressing the benefits of eventual victory, he and his top aides are beginning to lay out the grim consequences of failure.

Iraqi Casualties Are Up Sharply, Study Finds  —  A girl checked her parrots Friday in her Baghdad home, which was damaged by rocket attacks.  Attacks on civilians have risen sharply.  —  Iraqi casualties soared by more than 50 percent in recent months, the product of spiraling sectarian clashes …

U.S. says Afghan opium out of control  —  KABUL, Afghanistan - Opium cultivation in Afghanistan is spiraling out of control, rising 59 percent this year to produce a record 6,100 tons — nearly a third more than the world's drug users consume, the U.N. said Saturday.

Arrogance Unfettered  —  A week ago this morning, I caught "someone" creatively editing a three-year-old editorial written by Greg Mitchell of news industry trade Editor & Publisher.  The lede in Mitchell's editorial was rewritten to cast him in a more favorable light in a story …

I Know This Little Boy In New Orleans  —  I get a lot of e-mail.  Most of it is very nice, some funny and some from right-wingers who — go figure — I seem to have made very angry.  But the most gratifying I've ever received has been over the last week or so when a large number of people …

BILL WINTER AND JAY FAWCETT— WHAT'S GOOD FOR COLORADO IS GOOD FOR THE USA  —  Today at 2 PM EST on Firedoglake we're being joined for a live discussion by two Fighting Dems from Colorado, Bill Winter and Jay Fawcett.  And today these two national security experts are fighting …

Rove's Word Is No Longer G.O.P. Gospel  —  Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, is struggling to steer the Republican Party to victory this fall at a time when he appears to have the least political authority since he came to Washington, party officials said.

Human Rights Watch vs. Human Rights  —  Just three weeks after Hezbollah invaded Israel, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and causing the deaths of eight others, Human Rights Watch issued a 49-page report about the war that had been ignited by this attack.  The title of the report was Fatal Strikes …