IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: U.S. casualties identified

The Defense Department has identified several  American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 4,084 U.S. military personnel have died since the Iraq war began, and at least 509 in the Afghan conflict:

Pfc. Kyle P. Norris, 22, of Zanesville, Ohio, died Friday in Balad, Iraq, from wounds caused by a roadside bomb on May 22 in Jurf as Sakhr, Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.

Staff Sgt. Frank J. Gasper, 25, of Merced, Calif., died Sunday in Najaf, Iraq, of wounds caused by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, Ft. Carson, Colo.

Sgt. Blake W. Evans, 24, of Rockford, Ill., died Sunday in Iraq's Al Jazeera Desert of wounds caused by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Sgt. 1st Class Jason F. Dene, 37, of Castleton, Vt., died Sunday in Baghdad from non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.
   
Spc. David L. Leimbach, 38, of Taylors, S.C., died Sunday near Bala Baluk, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 118th Infantry, South Carolina Army National Guard, Fountain Inn, S.C., and attached to the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry (Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition), New York Army National Guard.

Spc. Christopher Gathercole, 21, of Santa Rosa, Calif., died Monday in Ghazni, Afghanistan, of gunshot wounds. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Ft. Lewis, Wash.

Spc. Justin L. Buxbaum, 23, of South Portland, Maine, died Monday in Kushamond, Afghanistan, of non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 62nd Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade, Ft. Hood Texas.

IRAQ: Bombs and scrap metal

By Saif Rasheed in Baghdad

It seems that after five years, car bombs in Baghdad have become an opportunity for scavengers.

On Monday,  I saw five men gathered around the remnants of charred car that exploded over the weekend in western Baghdad's Qadisiya district.

The attack had targeted the governor of Hilla, who escaped.  But the scavengers didn't seem to care Monday about whether anyone had lived or died.

They had gotten down to work with their wrenches and screwdrivers. They tore the car apart and distributed its pieces  among themselves.

Their main argument was over who would get to keep the engine. After a few minutes, the dispute was solved when a man bought the engine from the others.

He loaded the charred engine into the trunk of his old Volkswagen and drove off happily.

He left the chassis of the car for the others.

SYRIA: Israeli hopes for a Tehran-Damascus rift collapse

Iranian and Syrian officials poured a bucket of ice water this week on Israeli hopes for a rupture in the long-standing Tehran-Damascus relationship.

Israeli officials had demanded Syria break ties with Iran in exchange for returning the occupied Golan Heights to Syria.

Instead, Syria this week appeared to strengthen its ties with Iran, signing a defense cooperation pact in a showy Tehran photo-op on Tuesday.

That same day, Syrian President Bashar Assad told a visiting delegation of British lawmakers that Damascus' relationship with Tehran was not up for negotiation.

In reality, despite a lot of media attention, there was never really much chance of a peace deal between Syria and Israel or a break in ties between Damascus and Tehran. At least not anytime soon.

IRAQ: A bridge closer to home

For the Marines in the once-violent Euphrates River Valley, the road home may include a bridge.

A new bridge across the Euphrates River at the farming community of Baghdadi was opened Saturday -- a project of the Marines, Seabees and Army Corps of Engineers.

The bridge will allow Iraqis to cross the river without making the lengthy trip along rutted roads looking for a crossing point.

It will also allow the Iraqi security forces to maintain a persistent, armed presence on both sides of the river, lest the insurgents attempt a bloody comeback.

When the Iraqi forces are in place, the Marines from the Camp Pendleton-based 5th Regiment who have been manning an outpost in Baghdadi can withdraw to the U.S. base at Al Asad while remaining in "over-watch" if the Iraqis need help.

The larger strategy for Anbar province, apace for several months, has the U.S. turning primary security responsibility, region by region, over to the Iraqi army and police. The final turnover is set for mid-June. That will allow for a reduction of U.S. forces in the sprawling province.

—Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo:  The top Marine in Iraq, Maj. Gen. John Kelly, without helmet, crosses the new bridge at Baghdadi, accompanied by U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians.  Credit: U.S. Navy.

ISRAEL: Natural surprises underground

Start digging anywhere in Israel and you're bound to run into bones or an archeological site, as just about every spot of the ancient land had been settled by someone at some time. Construction projects are frequently held up because of archeological findings and burial grounds, for both scientific as well as religious reasons.

But some of the best underground surprises found in Israel are not human-made at all.

In early May a tractor carrying out development work for a sewage line exposed the small entrance to a cave in Israel's western Galilee. The fortunate few called to enter were left in awe of the spectacular stalactites, as well as important prehistoric findings that include a human skull and bones of animals long gone from the Israeli landscape.

Researchers' first impression is that the cave dates to the upper Paleolithic period, though further studies will attempt to determine whether it had been in use before that. Dr. Ofer Marder, head of the prehistory branch of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who saw the cave, said that in the last 40 to 50 years "no cave has been found with such a wealth of prehistoric finds and certainly not inside such a lovely stalactite cave."

LEBANON: 'Resistance' to Israel above all

It was the first fruit of Hezbollah's latest political victory.

The Shiite militant group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said today that armed "resistance" against Israel would remain the cornerstone of the country's defense strategy.

Indeed, he strongly suggested that armed struggle against Israel would take precedence over Lebanon's democratic experiment.

On a gigantic screen, Nasrallah addressed thousands of supporters gathered in Beirut's southern suburb to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the end of Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. His speech came a day after the long-awaited election of a new president in Lebanon, which resulted from a recent Qatar-sponsored political agreement between all Lebanese factions.

Nasrallah devoted a big part of his speech to argue that armed resistance and not negotiations, whether in Palestine or Iraq or Lebanon, had proved the only way to liberate Arab soil:

The resistance presented a paradigm and a strategy in two areas and not in one area only: the strategy of the resistance and that of expelling the occupier, and the strategy of defending the nation and the people in the face of aggression and invasion and threats.

And he laid down the law as to Lebanon's priorities. The goals of the resistance, he said, remain above the interests of the Lebanese state:

The resistance does not wait for a national and popular consensus. It should carry weapons and move ahead to accomplish the duty of liberation with weapons and blood and high-priced sacrifices.

ISRAEL: Seeing a threat in U.S. academic

When is a 55-year-old lifelong academic and son of Holocaust survivors a threat to the national security of Israel? When that academic is Norman Finkelstein, a former DePaul University professor and prominent critic of Israeli policy.

Israel's Shin Bet internal security service detained Finkelstein at the airport Friday when he arrived from a recent European speaking tour. After a night of detention and interrogation, Finkelstein was declared a security threat and sent back to Europe. According to his lawyer, Finkelstein is banned from the country for 10 years.

Shin Bet officials told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Finkelstein was deported because  of "suspicions involving hostile elements in Lebanon" -- a reference to Finkelstein meeting recently with leaders of Hezbollah and expressing solidarity with the Lebanese militant group.

EGYPT: Two more years of emergency

The Egyptian parliament on Monday renewed the 27-year-old state of emergency for two more years, dashing the hopes of the nation's human rights activists.

In all, 305 of the Parliament's 454 members voted in favor of the renewal after President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree a day earlier calling on the nation’s representatives to extend the notorious state of emergency. One hundred three MPs did not heed Mubarak's call.

Under the emergency law, the police are authorized to detain people indefinitely without charges, refer civilians to military courts, close dissident publications and thwart demonstrations. 

In 2005 Mubarak promised to lift the state of emergency and pass an anti-terror act instead, but he has yet to deliver on his pledges. The act has not been passed, and Mubarak's regime has used that fact to justify the extension of the emergency law. The state of emergency was due to expire May 31.

"It is sad that Egypt remains under state of emergency for more than 27 years," said Bahey Eddin Hassan, general director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. "We fear that the extension of the state of emergency aims at crushing the peaceful political opposition, which has recently increased."

IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: U.S. casualties identified

Pfc. Howard A. Jones Jr., 35, of Chicago, died May 18 in Chicago from injuries sustained when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while on leave from the Iraq theater of operations, the Defense Department has announced.  He was assigned to the Army's 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Ft. Riley, Kan.

Lt. Jeffrey A. Ammon, 37, of Orem, Utah, died Tuesday as a result of injuries caused by a roadside bomb in the Aband District, Afghanistan, the Defense Department has announced. The sailor was attached to Commander Navy Region Northwest, Bangor, Wash., and serving in Afghanistan as a member of Provincial Reconstruction Team Ghazni.

LEBANON: Suleiman supports fight against Israel

The United States along with most other countries enthusiastically supported the ascent of army Chief of Staff Michel Suleiman as president of Lebanon.

To many, he appears to be a beacon of stability for the country. But don't expect the Maronite Christian to change the country's position on the staunchest of U.S. allies in the Middle East, Israel.

In his inaugural speech to parliament today, he affirmed the right of the Hezbollah-led "resistance" to confront Israel and obtain a disputed piece of property under Israeli occupation called the Shebaa Farms:

The continuing occupation of Shebaa Farms and the breaches and threats by the enemy [Israel] compel us to find a defense strategy that protects the nation coupled with a calm dialog to benefit from the competence of the resistance so that the achievements of the resistance are not consumed in internal struggles. And this way we can preserve its values and its national position.

He also said Lebanon would continue to refuse to grant the 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon passports in order to keep alive their dream of returning to a viable Palestinian state:

Our rejection of giving them nationality is not a rejection of hosting of our brothers the Palestinians and caring for their human rights, but an establishment of their right of return when a viable state is formed.

But much of Suleiman's speech was focused on healing the country's recent self-inflicted wounds. Below are more excerpts from a rough, unofficial Los Angeles Times translation: