Yemen is the true home of Al-Qaeda   The Detroit airline bomb plot was planned in the land of bin Laden's ancestors. Richard Spencer reports "The war between al-Qaeda and the United States is a global war," says Riad Kahwaji, director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Analysis in Dubai, who warned in October that President Obama's indecision on issues such as Afghanistan was creating a dangerous vacuum in the region.  Read Article  

  Abbey Road up for sale Abbey Road Studios, the London studio where The Beatles recorded some of their most well-known songs, is up for sale as music company struggles to repay debt. Read Article  

  Faisal Mahmood/ReutersMilitants Storm Seat of Military in PakistanBy SALMAN MASOOD Soldiers took positions outside the army headquarters after gunmen took more than a dozen security officers hostage. The standoff continued into the evening. Latest Attacks Seen as Warning to Government    

  By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 5, 2010Since its creation more than six decades ago, the state of Israel has been at times a vexing ally to the United States. But it poses a special challenge for President Obama, whose foreign policy emphasizes the importance of international rules and organizations that successive Israeli governments have clashed with and often ignored. His dilemma has come into clear focus after Israel's military operation this week, in which commandos boarded a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters, killing nine civilians, among them a 19-year-old U.S. citizen of Turkish descent. The head of Israel's foreign intelligence service warned parliament the next day that the country is "gradually turning from an asset of the United States to a burden." An Irish aid ship was steaming toward Gaza on Friday night despite Israeli warnings that it would be stopped. Israel has a unique set of security threats and national ambitions that have fostered policies inconsistent with Obama's broader agenda, including his push to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and repair U.S. relations with the Islamic world. That has forced him to carve out exceptions for Israel that undermine the consistency he seeks in dealing with allies and antagonists alike. Those differences have also made it hard for Obama to speak unequivocally in support of Israel during difficult times. Asked by CNN's Larry King on Thursday if it were "premature then to condemn Israel," Obama said, "I think that we need to know what all of the facts are." Israeli officials "look at the world quite differently from the way from this president does, and they are not willing to just fall in line because he is the president," said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel who advised Obama's campaign and now teaches at Princeton University. "Israel and the United States are seeing the threat environment in the region -- and the ways to deal with the threat environment -- in increasingly different ways. And for the United States that means Israel is a problem, as an ally heading in a very different direction." So far, Obama has little tangible to show for his Middle East policy; the raid threatens to undercut what progress he has made. His attempt to turn "proximity talks" between Israelis and Palestinians into direct negotiations has been complicated by the Gaza operation. So has his bid for new sanctions against Iran at the United Nations. Before the raid, the administration was working to patch up relations with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which frayed this year over Israel's settlement policy, and with an American Jewish community that has long viewed Obama as an uncertain friend of Israel. Last week, Obama marked Jewish American Heritage Month with a White House reception for 200 guests, who encountered at the entrance President Harry Truman's May 1948 statement recognizing the state of Israel. Obama also met last month with three dozen Jewish members of Congress, telling them,…

 U.K. mimicking U.S.-style politics For the first time, British candidates will debate on prime-time TV, a pivotal change in the process of electing a prime minister.  Read Article