● DAILY MAIL Detectives probing terror plot find ?bomb suitcase?

Detectives probing the alleged airline terror plot have found a suitcase containing items which could be used to construct a bomb. The potentially crucial evidence was discovered by officers searching woodland in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A police source said the case contained «everything you would need to make an improvised device». It is being billed as a major breakthrough in the search for evidence against the suspects rounded up last week over allegations they planned to blow up at least seven transatlantic planes. Police were alerted to the woods in High Wycombe by a brother and sister who stumbled across a «den» earlier this week. A police spokeswoman said 49 residential and business premises and one area of woodland had been searched in connection with the inquiry. She said of that in total, 36 searches had finished and 14 remained ongoing, including the search at the wood. On Wednesday a district judge granted anti-terror officers an extra seven days to question 21 suspects, and an extra five days to question two. It is believed up to 17 people are being held in Pakistan over the alleged plot ? with two British nationals of Pakistani descent among them.

● L?ORIENT LE JOUR La France douche les espoirs de l?Onu

Premier pas vers la consolidation de la cessation des hostilités, conformément à la résolution 1701, l?armée a repris pied hier dans une partie du Liban dont l?histoire tourmentée en rapport avec le conflit régional l?avait exclue depuis 40 ans. Ce retour, tout le monde en est conscient, n?est pas sans risques. La leçon ultime de la catastrophe qui s?est abattue sur le Liban est : jamais plus d?État « maillon faible » face aux forces internes. Aux côtés des 15 000 soldats libanais attendus au Sud devrait se déployer en principe une « nouvelle Finul » aux modalités d?engagement plus musclées. Mais l?incertitude entretenue par le Hezbollah sur ses intentions finales fait hésiter les pays sollicités qui réclament des garanties supplémentaires concernant la mission des Casques bleus. Attendu la semaine prochaine à Beyrouth, le secrétaire général de l?Onu espérait une avant-garde de plus de 3 000 hommes dans 15 jours. Mais la France, qui s?est mise pourtant aux premières lignes, n?en envoie pour le moment que... 200 militaires en urgence.

● ETHIOPIA DAILY Hunt for Ethiopia flood survivors

The number of deaths has risen to 364 after the Omo river and tributaries burst their banks ? with fears the toll countrywide could now top 900, after the floods. Disaster co-ordinator in the Omo region, Deftalgne Tessema, told the BBC?s «Network Africa programme» that despite help from the federal government and the UN, so far just 14 motorboats were trying to evacuate people from islands cut off by the swollen waters In the far north, thousands of people in Tigray province are battling floods along the Tekezie river. The national rescue services including the army and international agencies are said to be overstretched. There are 256 confirmed deaths from last week?s flooding, but some 250 people are still missing and 10,000 were displaced. The UN?s World Food Programme is distributing relief supplies there. Over the past two years flooding has afflicted several areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands.

● ISRAEL POST With guns silent, wartime unity unravels in Israel amid fierce criticism of war effort

In a country where raucous debate is the norm, Israelis set aside differences during war. They even have an expression for it : «Quiet. We?re shooting.» But the guns have gone silent, the debate has resumed and the wartime unity has shattered.Prime minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the military?s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, are all facing fierce, even vitriolic criticism in a country accustomed to swift and decisive battlefield triumphs against Arab enemies. «The achievements were less than expected, and the price was too high.» some were saying. « All that happened was terribly wrong. It?s going backwards. They keep getting more weapons. We don?t see what we got out of this. Many people were killed, and what was it all for?»