Did you know? Only l out every two students graduate from High School in the USA?

ZIMBABWE: NYT: Mugabe Said to Be Negotiating Possible Exit

Advisers to President Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe are in talks with the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

UPDATE: Oppositon leader Morgan Tsvangirai says this is not true, and that there have been no talks.

MAIL AND GUARDIAN (SOUTH AFRICA) THIS AM: Zimbabwe is on the precipice’

Zimbabwe’s opposition was in contact with senior military and intelligence officials on Tuesday night to persuade them to respect the results of the election as pressure grew on Robert Mugabe, the President, to recognise defeat. Sources in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said the contacts were aimed at winning the security establishment’s support.

US FIGHTING ESCALATES IN BAGHDAD

U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in the vast Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, and military officials said Friday that U.S. aircraft bombed militant positions in the southern city of Basra, as the American role in a campaign against party-backed militias appeared to expand.

Iraq’s Shia Power Struggle: Al Jazeera - Video Report

Riz Khan interviews Patrick Cockburn, who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and The Independent and asks if Iraq is on the verge of a new civil war.

COLD WAR 2? BUSH WANTS UKRAINE IN NATO, RUSSIA SAYS NYET

KIEV, Ukraine - President Bush is putting all his weight behind Ukraine and Georgia’s desire to join NATO, even though Russia is saying “nyet” and the alliance is split. KIEV, Ukraine - President Bush is putting all his weight behind Ukraine and Georgia’s desire to join NATO, even though Russia is saying “nyet” and the alliance is split.

KOSOVO: TO GET US WEAPONS AND TROOPS

The Russians are also denouncing plans to provide US weapons to Kosovo. Meanwhile it was announced that the Missouri National Guard is deploying 1000 US soldiers there.

SUPREME COURT RESTRICTS FBI SEARCHES OF CAPITOL HILL

GUARDIAN UK The US Supreme Court refused to hear the Bush administration’s defense of a government raid on a Democratic congressman who was charged with corruption after police found $90,000 in his kitchen freezer. The court’s decision is a legal victory for the Democrat, William Jefferson of Louisiana, who argued that his status as a congressman should have allowed him control over private papers taken by the FBI in a 2006 raid on his office. . . In challenging the raid of his office, Jefferson invoked the so-called “speech or debate” clause of the US constitution, which shields the job-related material of members of Congress.

VOTING RIGHTS

Since the resignations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others involved in the U.S. Attorneys and Civil Rights Division scandals, you might expect that the Justice Department would come clean and show a new commitment to voting rights.

Think again. At recent hearings before a House Judiciary subcommittee, new revelations emerged about how the Justice Department failed to investigate illegal mailers sent to African-Americans in Dallas threatening criminal punishment if they registered to vote through a community reform group called ACORN.

The House Judiciary Committee is launching a preliminary inquiry into the questionable way that the FBI office in Dallas — after consulting with the Justice Department — decided not to investigate the intimidating flier targeting Democratic-leaning blacks in a 2006 legislative race, purportedly because no federal laws were violated.

“That’s nonsense,” says Gerry Hebert, director of the reform group Campaign Legal Center and a former 21-year veteran of the Civil Rights Division. “That intimidation is a violation of the Voting Rights Act,” he notes, which authorizes both civil and criminal penalties for any threats that aim to deter voting.

Pentagon Releases document justifying “harsh” interrogations.

WP: The Justice Department sent a legal memorandum to the Pentagon in 2003 asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president’s ultimate authority as commander in chief overrode such laws…

Sadr City in Baghdad mourns its losses.