Allawi's slate wins 91 seats to 89 for Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's faction. No group wins an outright majority in the 325-seat parliament, and Maliki calls for a partial recount. Reporting from Baghdad - Secular politician Iyad Allawi scored a narrow victory in Iraq's national elections, according to the full preliminary results announced Friday, kicking off what looks to be a drawn-out political struggle as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki insisted upon a partial recount of votes. Allawi, a former prime minister, heads a list of Shiite and Sunni candidates and won seats around the nation. In contrast, Maliki failed to win any seats in Sunni provinces and relied on Baghdad and the south. The margin of victory was razor-thin, with Allawi's slate gaining 91 seats to 89 for Maliki's faction. No group won an outright majority in the 325-seat parliament. TimesOnline: Recount call as Ayad Allawi celebrates close win in Iraqi elections.

A South Korean naval ship was sinking on Friday night with more than 100 people on board, but officials played down earlier suggestions that it may have been the result of an attack by North Korea. "It is not clear whether North Korea was involved," Presidential Blue House spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye told Reuters. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also said it could not conclude that the reclusive North was behind the attack. Earlier, South Korean media had quoted officials as saying the North could have torpedoed the ship near the disputed western sea border that separates the two Koreas. The sinking comes as the impoverished North has become increasingly frustrated by its wealthy neighbor, which has given the cold-shoulder to recent attempts to reopen a lucrative tourist business on the northern side of the Cold War's last frontier. ABC News: SKorean Navy Ship Sinks in Waters Near NKorea. Financial Times: Security meeting called over South Korean ship. Vancouver Sun: S.Korean naval ship sinking with 100 on board, North Korean torpedo attack suspected. Daily Mail: North Korea 'torpedoes and sinks' South Korean navy ship with 104 sailors on board.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed during clashes with Hamas fighters on the Gaza Strip's southern border, the Israeli army has said. Two other soldiers were wounded during the fighting which broke out east of the town of Khan Younis. Two Palestinian militants were also killed in the clashes, Palestinian and Israeli sources say. The unrest may have been sparked by a bid by militants to seize an Israeli soldier, a BBC correspondent says. Palestinian militants carried out a raid across the fence line and the Israeli military then appears to have pursued them back into Gaza, says the BBC's Paul Wood, in Jerusalem. Further "response" expected. Sky News: Tanks Fire On Gaza After Soldier Deaths. In Gaza: Israeli invasion into southeastern Gaza. + Israeli soldiers target Gaza’s poorest, including children.

The UN Human Rights Council has roundly condemned Israel in resolutions tabled under the agenda item 7, “Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories”. Five resolutions have been adopted against Israel, amounting to the greatest number of condemnatory resolutions on a single country:

1) Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan
2) The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination
3) Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan
4) The grave human rights violations by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem
5) Follow-up to the report of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict

The US gives written consent to generously boost the Israeli military despite Washington's alleged dissatisfaction with Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Upon agreeing on a relevant deal, the United States agreed to hand over roughly 250-million-dollars worth of Hercules C-130J aircraft to the Israeli army, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper said on Thursday. Later in the day, the US Defense Department is to issue a formal announcement on the deal, which is to be financed by the American foreign assistance funds. AWIP: Israel / Iran: Obama gets his marching orders -and Netanyahu gets his F-35 fighter jets. AntiWar: US OKs Massive Arms Shipment to Israel.

Petraeus to Ashkenazi: I never said Israel policy endangers U.S. Commander of the U.S. Military's Central Command Gen. David Petraeus phoned his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, this week to deny reports that he had blamed Israeli policy for the failure in a regional solution and for endangering U.S. interests. Earlier this month, Petraeus warned the Pentagon that "America's relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America's soldiers," in a posting on the Foreign Policy Web site.

Many Civilians Reported Slain in Attack on Pacifist Seminary. Pakistani warplanes attacked a number of sites in the Orakzai Agency today, including a mosque, a school, and a religious seminary, killing 61. Security officials initially labeled all 61 “suspected militants,” though locals later conceded that a great many of them were actually innocent civilians. The bulk of the casualties came when planes bombed Tableeghi Markaz, a seminary belonging to the pacifist missionary group Tableeghi Jamaat (Society for Spreading Faith). Pakistani officials say they had reports that Taliban commanders may have been at or near the seminary at the time of the attack, though they have yet to confirm if anyone other than the scores of civilians inside were actually killed.

Soils release more carbon dioxide as globe warms. Twenty years of field studies reveal that as the Earth has gotten warmer, plants and microbes in the soil have given off more carbon dioxide. So-called soil respiration has increased about one-tenth of 1 percent per year since 1989, according to an analysis of past studies in today’s issue of Nature. The scientists also calculated the total amount of carbon dioxide flowing from soils, which is about 10-15 percent higher than previous measurements. That number — about 98 petagrams of carbon a year (or 98 billion metric tons) — will help scientists build a better overall model of how carbon in its many forms cycles throughout the Earth. Understanding soil respiration is central to understanding how the global carbon cycle affects climate.

The peer leading the second Climategate enquiry at the University of East Anglia serves as a director of one of the most powerful environmental networks in the world, according to Companies House documents - and has failed to declare it. Lord Oxburgh, a geologist by training and the former scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defence, was appointed to lead the enquiry into the scientific aspects of the Climategate scandal on Monday. But Oxburgh is also a director of GLOBE, the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment. James Delingpole: Climategate: the parliamentary cover-up. Climate Audit: Globe International. EU Referendum: In the wake of the Oxfam/Prefero report, we now have Greenpeace weighing in with a report.

"#Wikileaks announced on Mar 21 (via its twitter account) its intentions 'to reveal Pentagon murder-coverup at US National Press Club, Apr 5, 9am.' It appears that during the last 24 hours someone from the State Department/CIA decided to visit them, by 'following/photographing/filming/detaining' an editor for 22 hours. Apparently, the offending leak is video footage of a US airstrike." Open Salon: Wikileaks detained for video of Afghan civilian massacre. WikiLeaks: U.S. must stop spying on WikiLeaks [Editorial]. HomePageDaily: Are U.S. Forces Executing Afghan Kids? LibCom.org: Wikileaks has released a sensitive 219 page US military counterinsurgency manual. Gawker: Exclusive: Secret-Sharing Website Wikileaks Offers New Details On Alleged U.S. Surveillance. AWIP: Pentagon targets Wiki whistleblowers + CIA, State Department Apparently Acting on Plan to Destroy Wikileaks.

Academics are outraged China has forbidden an esteemed Beijing professor from attending a US conference. A literature professor is the latest person to run afoul of China's Government and has been denied permission to travel to a prominent academic conference in the United States. Cui Weiping had her Chinese passport, entry visa and airplane ticket to Philadelphia in hand when, she said, officials at the Beijing Film Academy where she works called her in and told her to cancel the trip. Though they gave reasons for the denial - she has classes to teach, her conference panel was not related to her academic discipline - those were excuses, she said.

Diplomats at an EU summit in Brussels say Germany has backed away from its strong opposition towards bailing out Greece, which had sent the common currency to a ten month low against the dollar. The agreement, hammered out between Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, would allow Eurozone countries to offer Greece bilateral loans. The International Monetary Fund would also be involved, providing additional support in exchange for fiscal reforms in Athens. In addition to the debt crisis in Greece, there are fears for Portugal after its credit rating was downgraded. Daily Mail: Economic power grab by EU: Plan to control Britain's economy as Europe bails out Greece:

European leaders last night launched an audacious attempt to create a single 'economic government', which would be headed by president Herman Van Rompuy.

A battle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and 2 crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa's Kruger National Park while on safari.

'We work with any company that obeys the law'. China's second largest wireless carrier - China Unicom - has said it will remove Google's search service from the Android phones it developed in tandem with the web giant, citing the company's decision to reroute Google.cn to uncensored servers in Hong Kong. Cnet: China issues media rules for stories on Google.

Almost three-quarters of Russians view the US as an "aggressor" seeking world domination, according to an opinion poll released by Levada Center polling agency. The survey published on Wednesday indicates 73 percent of respondents agreed that the United States was "an aggressor trying to take control" of all countries in the world. Only eight percent agreed that the United States was "a defender of peace, democracy and order," while 19 percent said they were undecided.

Blair Strikes Oil in Iraq. "In the 3 years since he stepped down as prime minister, Blair pocketed more than $30 million in oil revenues from secret dealings with a South Korean oil consortium, UI Energy Corporation. Despite his best efforts to keep his connection to UI secret, word is spreading..."

Two international activists, Ariadna Jove Marti (from Spain) and Bridgette Chappell (Australia), who are living in Bir Zeit in the West Bank (it’s near Ramallah, and well within the Palestinian Autonomy), were arrested by the IDF last month. The two were about to be expelled from Israel, and as it happens in most cases, they appealed against the decision to the Israel Supreme Court. As Chaim Levinson reports in Haaretz, while trying to defend the arrests and deportation, the state argued before the court that the two activists

…belong to the International Solidarity Movement, an organization “that supports an ideology that is anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian and universally revolutionary.”

I really don’t think people are aware enough of what’s going on in Israel right now. The rise of racism, the rapid escalation in human rights, the attacks on freedom of speech, the campaign against human rights activists – this is a country on a very dangerous path. As Taayush’s Amos Goldberg wrote in Haaretz a few days ago, It is happening here and now.

SYDNEY - The public's worst fears about institutional racism within the Victorian police appeared to be confirmed yesterday by revelations that up to 100 officers are being investigated over emails that reportedly include an image of a man of ethnic minority origin being tortured. The Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland, confirmed that a police sergeant who killed himself earlier this week, Tony Van Gorp, was about to be dismissed over his involvement in the scandal. Another sergeant, who allegedly introduced the torture image into the police computer system, is also said to be facing the sack. The Age, which broke the story, reported that "sickening" racist comments were added to the torture email as it was circulated.

Years after her controversial 'Saturday Night Live' appearance, the Irish singer is still at odds with the Catholic Church, saying it must come clean about sexual-abuse allegations.. She shot to fame 20 years ago with her shaved head, chiseled cheeks and haunting rendition of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U." Then she gained notoriety when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on American TV, calling him "the enemy" and urging people to fight child abuse. Sinead O'Connor is still singing. And she's still speaking out against abuse -- only now her 1992 stunt on "Saturday Night Live" almost seems prescient as the Roman Catholic Church faces a growing catalog of complaints about child sexual and physical assault by priests in her Irish homeland and across Europe. The Australian: Ireland's Catholic primate may have to quit.

Pope Benedict XVI has been drawn directly into the sex abuse scandal engulfing the Catholic Church, after he failed to act as a Vatican cardinal in the 1990s against an American priest who molested up to 200 deaf boys. The then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was warned by the then archbishop of Milwaukie about a priest who had abused boys while working at a renowned US school for deaf children. The archbishop, Rembert Weakland, wrote two letters in 1996 to the future pope requesting that the Reverend Lawrence Murphy be defrocked after having admitted to his acts. The archbishop said he believed the case belonged to the Vatican doctrinal office, headed by Cardinal Ratzinger from 1981 to 2005, because he had become aware that "solicitation in the confessional might be part of the situation".

Norman Finkelstein may be a curmudgeon who can barely contain his contempt for institutions he feels have violated the public trust. But look past the attitude and sometimes poor choices (which, after all, Finkelstein’s nemesis Dershowitz has in spades) and he’s an excellent, even obsessively detailed scholar, and certainly no anti-Semite. And he’s fundamentally morally right. We Jews especially should be outraged.