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BAGHDAD — Coalition Forces thwarted a potentially deadly attack on the International Zone this week, and officials responded to news reports citing unnamed senior military members as being critical of the Iraqi government. Coalition forces detained an individual suspected of planning a multi-vehicle suicide operation inside Baghdad’s International Zone. They arrested the suspect at the residence of Dr. Adnan al Dulaymi in Baghdad Sept. 29. Dulaymi is the leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni parliamentary bloc. Credible intelligence indicates the individual, a member of Dulaymi’s personal security detachment, and seven members of the detained individual’s cell were...

ROME -- The center-left candidate to become Italy's next prime minister said Monday that he would pull out Italy's 2,600 troops from Iraq "as soon as possible" if his coalition wins general elections this month. "When we go to the government we'll decide for a speedy pullout of the troops, in secure conditions, talking with the Iraqi authorities so not to create situations of risk or danger -- which means as soon as possible," said Prodi. Prodi's platform says his government would immediately discuss the withdrawal, but this was the first time that he has given a sense of the...

TIRANA (AP)--U.S. President George W. Bush Friday thanked Albania for increasing its troop presence in Iraq and praised Tirana's stand on regional issues in the Balkans. In a letter sent to Albania's Prime Minister Fatos Nano, Bush said Albania's decision was "another indicator of Albania's continuous and deep commitment in the fight against terrorism around the world and for security, peace, stability and democracy in Iraq." In February Albania, a small, predominantly Muslim country that has been one of the most vocal backers of the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq, where it has deployed a small unit of 71 troops in...

Peres, Barak compromise on June 29 election By GIL HOFFMAN Labor chairman Shimon Peres and former prime minister Ehud Barak tentatively compromised on a June 29 date for the next Labor leadership race on Thursday, following shuttle diplomacy by Labor faction chair Dalia Itzik. The compromise ended a bitter, week-long confrontation between Peres and Barak that culminated with the intervention of Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz and Police Insp. Gen. Moshe Karadi. But Peres said the compromise was contingent on the agreement of the rest of Labor's top brass ahead of Sunday's key Labor central committee meeting. "I will accept any compromise...

The Liberal Party of Australian Prime Minister John Howard picked up two seats from the opposition Labor Party in national elections Saturday, according to initial results, an early sign that the U.S.-allied government may hang onto power. [...] With most votes counted on the southern island of Tasmania, Howard's party was on track to win two seats from Labor. That will make Labor's task much harder on the on the mainland, where it must win 15 seats from the government to gain a majority in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament.

In the old military city of Badajoz the sound of drums and trumpets that welcomed Spanish troops home from Iraq had given way yesterday to a discontented silence among men who feel they have let down their allies.

History has shown that appeasement doesn't work, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers said here today. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke at the Foreign Press Center and gave his assessment of the coalition in Iraq a year after the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "The mission was to liberate the Iraqi people from one of the world's most brutal and dangerous dictators, and to begin laying the foundation for a free and prosperous Iraq," Myers said. "We have done that." The chairman said that if history has shown anything, it is that appeasement just hasn't worked....

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