…The wife of the unnamed staff sergeant claimed there had been a “total breakdown” in the unit’s discipline after it was pulled out of Falluja in early 2005.
“There were problems in Kilo company with drugs, alcohol, hazing [violent initiation games], you name it,” she said. “I think it’s more than possible that these guys were totally tweaked out on speed or something when they shot those civilians in Haditha.”
guardian.co.uk

Excluding the capital’s nearly daily bombings, new Iraqi government documents show that more Baghdad residents died in shootings, stabbings and other violence in May than in any other month since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

…Since 2003, at least 30,240 bodies have been brought to the morgue, the vast majority of them shot by gunmen who are seldom caught or prosecuted.
sfgate.com

More than 6,000 corpses found in Iraq in five months

Armed men kidnap 50 in Baghdad

Gunmen Kill 21, Including High School Students, After Dragging Them Off Buses Near Baghdad

Sixteen people killed in clashes in Sunni mosque in Basra

Some of Britain’s high street banks are almost “putting profits before human life”, a senior banking executive claims in a BBC1 programme to be broadcast today.
The unnamed executive said that following a string of cases in which people have killed themselves after running up big debts, the law should be changed so that banks shown to have loaned money irresponsibly can face criminal charges. In the past two years, at least eight cases have been reported of people taking their lives after debts spiralled out of control.
guardian.co.uk

LIMA, Peru – Former President Alan Garcia staged a remarkable political comeback in Peru’s runoff election, beating a retired army lieutenant to regain control of the country 16 years after his first term ended in economic ruin and rebel violence.

Garcia’s victory Sunday was a blow to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had endorsed Ollanta Humala, a political upstart many Peruvians saw as dangerous to democracy.

“I want our party this time to demonstrate to the Peruvian people, who have called it to the highest responsibilities, that it will not convert the state into booty,” said Garcia, referring to the widespread corruption that marked his first term from 1985-90, when tens of thousands of party members landed state jobs.

Garcia said voters had sent an overwhelming message to Chavez that they rejected the “strategy of expansion of a militaristic, retrograde model that he has tried to impose in South America.”
news.yahoo.com

A brutal new/old dictator for the US to support…

BUENOS AIRES, June 3 Ñ From the moment NŽstor Kirchner became president of Argentina three years ago, sectors of the military have chafed under his criticism and tough human rights policy. But as the president moves ahead with plans to overhaul the armed forces and reduce their authority, those tensions are breaking into the open.

At an Army Day ceremony here on Monday, a few officers turned their backs on Mr. Kirchner and another walked offstage as he delivered a speech attacking the armed forces for their past associations with “state terrorism” and for a recent case in which military intelligence was found to be spying on politicians and reporters. The wife of a recently dismissed officer even stood and publicly challenged Mr. Kirchner’s version of the military’s history.

“As president of the nation, I have no fear,” Mr. Kirchner told the crowd at one point. “I’m not afraid of you.” He then left the ceremony without reviewing the troops that had been assembled for him.
nytimes.com

Colombian Rebels Say Uribe Victory Illegitimate
…Uribe, Washington’s strongest ally in South America, won 62 percent of votes cast on Sunday, easily winning a second four-year term. But the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said his mandate lacks credibility because of an abstention rate of about 55 percent.

“Uribe only won 27.5 percent of all possible votes … It is an illegitimate victory,” said a statement posted on the FARC’s Web site.

“The strategy of domination of the White House won a beachhead with this re-election,” the statement said.

…”The only issue on transparency is that China would benefit by demystifying the reasons why they are investing in what they are investing in, in my view,” Rumsfeld said.
news.yahoo.com

THIRTEEN years after President Bill Clinton withdrew forces from Somalia, in the ‘Black Hawk down’ shambles, American security officials are giving clandestine support to the same warlords who mutilated and humiliated US soldiers in 1993.
sundayherald.com

Tony Blair faces an unprecedented revolt from the wives and mothers of serving soldiers, who want British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Dozens of women whose sons, husbands and daughters are now in the Gulf or have served there, have joined a national campaign to be launched this week calling for Britain to pull out of Iraq. In a strongly worded statement passed to the IoS, they claim the war in Iraq “was based on lies”, and call for British withdrawal “as a matter of urgency”.
independent.co.uk

…Scotland Yard sources said that the ‘specific intelligence’ which had led to the raid suggested that a single bomb overlaid with cyanide was being prepared at the address in Forest Gate.

…Scotland Yard said yesterday that despite intensive searches of the terraced house in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, nothing of substance had been found, raising the suspicion that at least some of the intelligence that led to the raid was inaccurate.
timesonline.co.uk

A new militia loyal to Palestinian head Mahmoud Abbas has taken up positions in the West Bank town of Jenin.
This comes a few weeks after the Hamas-led government deployed its own new force in Gaza.

The commander of the new militia said it would support the official forces. But the Hamas deputy PM Nasser Shaer has denounced it as “unacceptable”.

Correspondents say the creation of the militia is likely to worsen tensions between Hamas and Mr Abbas’ Fatah.

The head of the new force, Ata Abu Rimela, said there was no connection between the new Fatah force and the Hamas force.

“This force is directed against nobody, it only aims to protect the Palestinian national project,” he told the AFP news agency.

Mr Abbas is reported to have begun meeting with leaders of the various political factions to try and settle their differences, but the Hamas representative is said to be absent.

Mr Abbas warned on 25 May that he would call a referendum on an initiative drawn up by jailed faction leaders if rival factions failed to agree a political programme within 10 days.
bbc.co.uk

Defense official: Arms transfer to help Abbas take on Hamas
Israel’s transfer of a limited amount of weapons and ammunition to the Palestinian Authority’s presidential guard will enable PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to “contend with Hamas,” senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad said Friday.

The transfer, which was recommended by defense officials and approved by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, will allow Abbas to “carry out the courageous decision he made and contend with Hamas,” said Gilad, who heads the Defense Ministry’s political-security division.