Guardian report.

George Papandreou faces mounting unrest as he tries to fix the €300bn debt problem

Guardian report.

Crucial evidence to the Iraq inquiry by Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6 at the time of the 2003 invasion, is likely to be heard in private.

NYT news article.

The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, placing special ships off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four Arab countries, according to administration and military officials.

Laura Rosen reports.

Israeli sources say CIA director Leon Panetta traveled to Israel this past week.

...

The main subject of conversation was Iran, as well as "relations" in general, the former official said.

Guardian news article.

With Greek bonds again under ferocious pressure on the financial markets today, Papandreou said Athens was not expecting to be bailed out by the other 15 members of the single currency.

Robert Fisk's article at the time of Blair's resignation.

... But I have to admit a moment of regret this weekend. Lord Blair is going from us. His self-serving memoirs will, of course, remind us of his God-like view of himself (and, heaven spare me, we share the same publishers) but I doubt if Chomsky's "foregrounded elements" will save him. A "foregrounded element" was something unusual, a phrase placed in such a way that it warned us of a lie to come.

...

And now I have before me Blair's repulsive "goodbye" speech to the British people, uttered at Sedgefield. Putting the country first didn't mean "doing the right thing according to conventional wisdom" (Chomsky foregrounded element: conventional) or the "prevailing consensus: (Chomsky foregrounded element: prevailing). It meant "what you genuinely believe to be right" (Chomsky foregrounded element: genuinely). Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara wanted to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Britain's oldest ally, which he assumed to be the United States. (It is actually Portugal, but no matter.) "I did so out of belief," he told us. Foregrounded element: belief.

Independent story.

A senior diplomat yesterday reacted angrily to Tony Blair's criticism of Iran during his evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war -- and claimed his complaints about Tehran's interference in the post-war chaos was "a piece of spin".

Article by Muhammad Idrees Ahmad in Pulse.

... some feminists today want to 'liberate' Arab-Muslim women by constraining their freedoms. These women can't possibly know what they really want, you see. The European feminists, like Bush, know what's best for them. What could my sister -- who studied at a co-ed university (in Peshawar!) but turned to wearing the hijab after moving to Canada -- know about her interests? She must be told by the enlightened Westerner. She must be liberated.

Robert Fisk comments on Blair's appearance at the Chilcot enquiry in the Independent.

There was -- to use a truly vile expression of Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara yesterday -- a "binary distinction".

There was the blood that flowed over my shoes in the emergency room of a Baghdad hospital in March of 2003, the humans shrieking with phosphorous burns, the old man with the blood trickling down a handkerchief from his empty eye socket, the piles of decomposing corpses in the Baghdad mortuary, the screams -- oh yes, the shrieks and the pleadings and the animal squeals of the wounded and the dying. And then there was Lord Blair yesterday, sitting in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in his oh-so-clean business suit and his oh-so-clean red tie and his oh-so-clean white shirt and his oh-so-clean conscience. My God, that was a "binary distinction" all right. The difference between the hell of pain and the hell of blissful mendacity.

Guardian story.

China and the US are set for renewed confrontation after Beijing warned of serious repercussions following Washington's announcement of a $6.4bn (£4bn) arms deal with Taiwan.

Daily Mail story. The obvious (and almost the only possible) conclusion to draw from this is that Kelly was murdered.

And now it seems that Lord Hutton has unilaterally decided that the records of his inquiry should be closed for 30 years and medical evidence for an incredible 70 years - evidence that is hotly disputed by a number of medical practitioners, who are looking to take court action to force a proper inquest to be held.