Two female Japanese tourists kidnapped in Yemen's Marib province Wednesday were freed after tribal mediation. The two women were kidnapped by members of the Aziza tribe, who demanded that Yemeni officials release one of their tribesman who was in government custody, said the security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. It was not immediately clear if the tribesman was released. (Source: AP)

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A special immigration appeals commission in Britain has decided to release a Muslim preacher accused of having ties to Al Qaeda. Radical Muslim preacher Abu Qatada, who had been jailed in Britain since 2002, was granted bail Thursday by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. (Source: AP)

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Iraq

A rocket attack on a coalition military base in Basra killed two civilian contractors Friday. The two civilian contractors died when rockets slammed into the US-led coalition's base near Basra's international airport, wounding eight others, including four coalition soldiers. Coalition forces responded with Hellfire missiles, killing six militants. (Source: AFP)

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Africa Pressure mounted on Zimbabwe Thursday to admit foreign observers to oversee a presidential election run-off amid fresh claims that pro-government militias were deliberately instilling terror. The opposition said 30 supporters had now been killed and a union chief said 40,000 farmworkers and their dependents had been made homeless, although authorities played down the levels of violence. Six days since results from an inconclusive March 29 poll were announced, there was still no word on when a second round would take place nor whether the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would participate. (Source: AFP)

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Americas

A military judge threatened to suspend the war-crimes trial of a Canadian detainee, scolding the government Thursday for failing to provide records of his confinement at Guantanamo. Attorneys for Omar Khadr say details of his interrogations and mental health could provide grounds to suppress self-incriminating statements at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba. Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. (Source: AP)

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Mexico's acting federal police chief was shot dead Thursday outside his home, a brazen attack that comes as drug traffickers increasingly lash back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. Edgar Millan Gomez was shot 10 times after he opened the door to his Mexico City apartment complex, where at least one gunman was waiting for him before dawn. Two bodyguards were also wounded. Millan died hours later in a hospital. (Source: AP)

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A leftist rebel group linked to a series of oil pipeline blasts on Wednesday rejected an offer from Mexico's government to hold talks. The People's Revolutionary Army dismissed a proposal by President Felipe Calderon because it said the offer showed no willingness to solve crimes allegedly committed by current and past administrations against its members. The small rebel group, known as the EPR, last week said it would call a cease-fire if the government stopped investigating its members and supporters. Mexico's Interior Department responded that it was ready to hold talks with the group, but would not halt investigations or prosecution of rebels. (Source: AP)

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Brazil will permanently station troops in Indian reservations along its borders in response to growing concerns that its territorial sovereignty is at risk, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said on Thursday. Indian lands account for roughly 12 percent of Brazil's vast territory and border on nearly all of its nine neighbors. (Source: Reuters)

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Asia

Aid groups here report that people have began to starve to death in remote rural areas of North Korea where state food rations have been cut since late last year as grain prices have soared. Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group, reported thatNorth Koreans in the South Pyongan Province are dying of starvation. (Source: World Tribune)

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Several hundred Tibetan protesters tried to storm the Chinese Embassy's visa office in Nepal on Thursday, kicking the gates and throwing banners inside the fortified compound. More than 200 were detained. Thursday's protest by about 300 people, including many Buddhist monks and nuns, was the latest in a series of demonstrations by Tibetan exiles in Nepal and one of the largest in front of the visa office. The office is in the heart of Nepal's capital, Katmandu. (Source: AP)

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At least 74 Tamil Tiger rebels and three Sri Lankan soldiers have been killed in the latest battles in the island's north, according to the defence ministry on Thursday. It said the three days of fighting that ended on Thursday occurred in the Vavuniya, Mannar and Weli Oya areas, from where government forces are trying to push into the guerrillas' northern territory. Troops on Thursday advanced into rebel-controlled areas in the Mannar district killing 10 guerillas, the statement said, adding that one soldier was killed and another injured in the clashes. (Source: AFP)

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Pakistan said it test-fired a short-range cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead Thursday, one day after archrival India test-fired a long-range missile with nuclear capability. The 220-mile-range Pakistani missile, known as the Ra'ad or Hatf VIII, was developed exclusively for launch from aircraft. The statement did not disclose the launch site but said the missile "has special stealth capabilities," and is a "low altitude, terrain-following missile with high maneuverability." (Source: AP)

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Europe

Serbia's rival nationalists and pro-Europeans on Thursday waged a last-ditch battle for votes ahead of weekend elections that give hardliners their best shot at power since Slobodan Milosevic's ouster. The ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) are the frontrunners heading into Sunday's general elections, considered a referendum on European Union integration, thanks to the trauma of Kosovo's independence. With 34 percent of voter support in the latest survey, the SRS are tipped to form a nationalist government with the party of outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Socialists of late president Milosevic. Trailing them by one percentage point are a pro-European camp spearheaded by President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS), which is expected to struggle to find suitable coalition allies. (Source AFP)

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When Boris Yeltsin left the Kremlin eight years ago, he gave Vladimir Putin the pen he had used to sign important documents and decrees, a gesture symbolizing the transfer of power to Russia's new president. When Putin left the Kremlin, he took the pen with him. Putin, who became prime minister Thursday, has signaled that he intends to remain Russia's principal leader, at least in the short term _ and possibly much longer. He is keeping the trappings of his presidency and many of its powers as well. (Source AP)

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Russia threatened Thursday to send more troops to the Georgian separatist province of Abkhazia if Georgia added to its own military presence in the region, Russian news agencies quoted the Defence Ministry as saying. The statement quoted by Interfax and RIA Novosti, said the current troop level was 2,542 servicemen and that the maximum allowed under accords ending fighting between Georgia and Abkhaz rebels in the 1990s was 3,000. The threat to send almost 500 more soldiers came despite an outcry from Georgia and its allies in the West over the earlier deployment of reinforcements announced last week. The total number of Russian troops in Abkhazia, whose separatist government is backed by Moscow, is not open to outside monitoring. On Sunday, a Defenee Ministry spokesman had told AFP that the number was already 3,000. (Source: AFP)

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Middle East

On the eve of Israel's 60th Independence Day, the country's population stands at 7,282,000, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. (Source: Jerusalem Post)

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Sirens wailed across Israel and the nation came to a standstill in a solemn two-minute ritual Wednesday as the country marked its annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks. (Source: AP/International Herald Tribune)

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Seven Palestinian men were wounded Tuesday in exchanges of fire between Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces and residents of the West Bank town of Kabatiya, near Jenin. A group of local residents, some of them armed and some affiliated with Islamic Jihad, did not approve of the PA's activity in the area. Residents claimed that the security forces fired at them massively and indiscriminately. (Source: Ynet News)

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The PA operation in Kabatiya marked the first major test for a group of Presidential Guards who are at the forefront of a $28 million U.S. effort to bolster the PA's security capabilities. Islamic Jihad said two of its fighters were among the injured. (Source: Washington Post)

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An Israel Air Force strike Tuesday on a Hamas mortar launching squad near Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed one gunman and wounded three others, according to Palestinian officials. (Source: Ha'aretz)

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Palestinians in Gaza fired two Kassam rockets that landed in Sderot on Tuesday. In addition, Palestinian terrorists fired six mortar shells at southern Israel. (Source: Jerusalem Post)

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Sectarian fighting tore through the streets of Beirut on Thursday as Shiite Hezbollah supporters and the Lebanese government's Sunni backers battled with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades after Hezbollah's leader vowed to fight any attempt to disarm his men. Security officials said four people were killed and eight wounded. Sunni leader Saad Hariri called on Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah to work with him to end the conflict between their factions and "pull fighters off the street ... to save Lebanon from hell." (Source: AP)

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Two days of violence have erupted in Lebanon, weeks after the Lebanese Army became aware of and sought to stem the infiltration by insurgents from Syria. Officials said Lebanese Army and security forces have bolstered their presence along the border with Syria. They said the forces were sealing areas of the border used by Palestinian and other insurgents believed sent by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. (Source: World Tribune)

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A senior Israeli defense official said on Tuesday that Iran was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months. This means Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year. Israel is also concerned that Iran is developing a cruise missile that can evade interception by Israel's Arrow anti-ballistic missile defense system. (Source: Jerusalem Post)

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Iran said Thursday that a bomb, not an accident, caused last month's explosion in a mosque that killed 14 people and injured more than 200. Immediately after the April 12 blast in the southern city of Shiraz, Iranian officials said it was caused by a homemade bomb. The following day, the government changed its account and said the explosion was an accident caused by ammunition leftover from a recent military exhibition in the mosque. But Thursday's report by the official news agency IRNA again said the explosion was no accident, and those responsible had ties to the West. IRNA quoted Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi as saying: "The group that planted the bomb had been in contact with some western countries, particularly Britain and the United States." Iranian security agents have detained six suspects but the main suspect was sill at large, Ejehi told reporters late Wednesday. (Source: AP)

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Joe Varner is Assistant Professor and Program Manager for Homeland Security at American Military University