Lebanon bomb kills senior Fatah official, 4 others ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters March 23, 2009 - 12:00am A roadside bomb killed a senior official in the Palestinian Fatah faction and four other people in southern Lebanon on Monday, security sources said. Kamal Medhat, deputy head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Lebanon, was killed with his companions on a road near Mieh Mieh camp outside the southern city of Sidon. The bomb, hidden under a manhole cover in the road, flipped one car off the road and badly damaged another. Television footage showed debris ablaze in a field. » Read more

A Religious War in Israel’s Army ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - March 21, 2009 - 12:00am The publication late last week of eyewitness accounts by Israeli soldiers alleging acute mistreatment of Palestinian civilians in the recent Gaza fighting highlights a debate here about the rules of war. But it also exposes something else: the clash between secular liberals and religious nationalists for control over the army and society. Several of the testimonies, published by an institute that runs a premilitary course and is affiliated with the left-leaning secular kibbutz movement, showed a distinct impatience with religious soldiers, portraying them as self-appointed holy warriors. » Read more

Car Bomb Found Near Crowded Israeli Mall ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Howard Schneider - March 23, 2009 - 12:00am A 200-pound car bomb malfunctioned near a crowded mall in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Saturday night, averting what could have been one of the largest such attacks in Israel in the past several years, police said. A bomb squad was called to the Lev Hamifratz shopping center after a small explosion, possibly a detonation charge, inside a Subaru in the mall's parking lot, according to police. » Read more