IRAN: Tehran youths' plan to cool off lands them in hot water

They were just looking to cool off and have a little fun in the middle of Tehran's scorching-hot summer.

Instead, a group of young Iranians got all tangled up with authorities in the Islamic Republic and paraded on Iranian state television for participating in a mass public water pistol fight in a Tehran park, Iranian media reports say.

On Wednesday night, state channel broadcast images of some youth who were arrested at the event on July 29, the Iranian daily Assre-Iran reported.

They said in the program that they had chatted with each other on Facebook and decided to meet at the park -- ironically named Tehran's Water and Fire park -- at that date with water guns, added the report.

The event reportedly attracted about 800 people through a Facebook invitation.

ISRAEL: Navy preparing to block flotilla of activists determined to reach Gaza

The eight-ship flotilla is determined to break through the naval blockade and reach Gaza. Israel is just as determined this isn't going to happen. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Friday that the aid convoy was violent propaganda and that "Israel will not allow its sovereignty to be threatened in any way, in any place -- land, air or sea."

What might become a standoff at sea will have been preceded by a standoff of narratives via the Internet and media, which ultimately will declare the winner of the duel. Meanwhile, there seemed to be a ghost in the machinery -- technical problems held up one of the boats taking part in the sail, resulting in a delay. Greta Berlin of Free Gaza told Israeli media the flotilla's departure was postponed until Saturday morning in an effort to avoid a late-night encounter with the navy. Israeli TV reported Friday evening that the navy was setting out in a few hours anyway.

Watch live streaming video from insaniyardimat livestream.com

(To see live broadcasts from the ships, go to livestream.com (above) and for other videos and uploads to witnessgaza.com. Enjoy the live broadcast while it lasts; Israel intends to use screening to prevent live broadcasts of interception.)

IRAQ: Pentagon hopes video game can help with post-traumatic stress disorder

The U.S. Defense Department has released a video on its DODvClips.mil website describing the use of a video game as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

Reporter Robert Channick, writing for the Chicago Tribune, describes the use of the game at a hospital in Elk Grove Village, Ill., as part of an immersion therapy program. "Players put on goggles and headphones and use a joystick to dodge roadside bombs and snipers while the scent of diesel fuel wafts around them," he wrote.

Continue reading Channick's "Virtual Iraq targets combat disorders."

IRAQ: International soccer returns to Baghdad

Iraq’s future might be fraught with peril. Bombs explode daily around the country and its myriad political problems remain unsolved. But on Tuesday night, Iraqis’ desire for  ordinary lives was on display as international soccer returned to Baghdad.

For the first time since 2002, a team from abroad dared venture to Baghdad to engage in the national pastime. The opponents were the Palestinian team, a people themselves no stranger to war and still without statehood. Baghdad, where on any given day bloodshed can occur, from mortar fires, to rockets to suicide bombs, took all security precautions.