Excerpts: Iraqi debt.Iraqi drugs.Saudi justice:.Israeli defense missile 7
July 2008

+++JORDAN TIMES 7 July '08:"UAE cancels nearly $7b in Iraq debt, names envoy
QUOTE: "UAE ... the first Arab country to forgive all
of Iraq's debt"

RXCERPTS:DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has cancelled almost $7
billion of debt including interest and arrears payments owed by Baghdad,
becoming the first Gulf Arab country to forgive all of Iraq's debt.
The United States has pressed Arab governments to support Iraq's recovery by
joining Western nations in forgiving their share of Iraqi foreign debts that
total up to $80 billion.
Washington also wants Arab capitals to establish high-level diplomatic
representation in Iraq.
In a step towards easing Baghdad's diplomatic isolation, the UAE appointed
its new ambassador to Iraq on Sunday during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri Maliki.
The move came a month after the UAE's Sheikh Abdullah Ben Zayed Nahayan
became the first Gulf Arab foreign minister to visit Baghdad since the
US-led invasion in 2003.
The UAE's official news agency WAM said the principle debt owed by Iraq
totalled $4 billion loaned at different times. A UAE diplomatic source told
Reuters the total sum that would be forgiven was almost $7 billion including
interest and arrears.. . .

+++JORDAN TIMES 7 July '08:"Iraq emerging as key route in global drug
trafficking", By Salam Faraj
Agence France-Presse
QUOTE: "Iraq ...key conduit in global drug
trade"
EXCERPTS:BAGHDAD - War-torn Iraq is emerging as a key conduit in the global
drugs trade as criminal gangs exploit its porous border with Iran to channel
their illicit goods to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.... many drugs
originating in Afghanistan enter Iraq via Iran.
..."The drugs come from Iran, then they are sold at the Saudi border.
Smugglers are young and they use motorcycles or animals to cross the desert
late at night." According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan's
opium production ... 93 per cent of global production.. . .

+++JORDAN TIMES 7 July '08:"Saudi man, woman face flogging"
QUOTE:"jail and flogging ...research contact was a front for a telephone
affair"
EXCERPT::RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi appeals court is due this week to review
the case of a biochemist and his female student sentenced to jail and
flogging after a lower court ruled their research contact was a front for a
telephone affair. The man was sentenced to eight months in prison and 600
lashes and his student to four months in prison and 350 lashes last November
for establishing a phone relationship that led her to divorce her
husband.... .

+++JORDAN TIMES 7 July '08:"Israel successfully tests missile
interceptor".Agence France P
QUOTE:"new (Israel) defence system designed to intercept rockets"
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has successfully tested a new defence
system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The "Iron Dome"
system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to
intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hizbollah
and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas.. .
=============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA