UPI International Intelligence articles from July 2007

UPI International Intelligence archives from July 2007

Analysis: Who's behind the London bombs?
July 2, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- Are we witnessing a resurgence of al-Qaida and groups affiliated with Osama bin Laden's terror franchise? Consider the following incidents, which unfolded within the space of 24 hours in...

Outside View: The issue of Palestine.
July 2, 2007... Byline: BOUTHAINA SHAABAN DAMASCUS, Syria, July 2 (UPI) -- Perhaps the most dramatic effect of globalization is that everything has become, theoretically at least, within reach. A depressed Iraqi woman may find a better supporter in a...

Commentary: Cry for me, Pakistan.
July 2, 2007... Byline: ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- "Asian" in British police parlance almost invariably means Pakistanis or Pakistani Britons. Of late, Bangladeshi Britons have been added to the roster of terror suspects. Almost all...

Policy Watch: Eyeing the Shanghai group.
July 2, 2007... Byline: MARK N. KATZ SAPPORO, Japan, July 2 (UPI) -- The annual summit of the presidents of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will take place this coming August in Kyrgyzstan. The SCO groups together Russia, China, Kazakhstan,...

Review of the Arab press.
July 2, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 2 (UPI) -- Syria's Tishreen daily commented Monday that Arabs have done little to stop Israel from erecting the separation barrier in the West Bank despite a decision declaring the wall illegal by the International Court of...

Walker's World: Brown's challenge.
July 2, 2007... Byline: MARTIN WALKER PERIGUEUX, France, July 2 (UPI) -- The good news for Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown was that the first opinion poll after he succeeded Tony Blair showed him leading his party to a triumphant re-election, 4...

U.N.: China shuts five chemical plants.
July 2, 2007... UNITED NATIONS, July 2 (UPI) -- China has closed five of its six remaining chlorofluorocarbon chemical plants, according to the United Nations. The U.N. Environment Program said the decision by the world's largest producer of...

Analysis: International forces in Gaza?
July 2, 2007... JERUSALEM, July 2 (UPI) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in talks with reporters in Paris last week, floated the idea of deploying foreign troops in the Gaza Strip. To be sure, international peacekeepers have been part of the scene...

Analysis: No united front over Iran.
July 2, 2007... Byline: ROSALIE WESTENSKOW WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- With no single plan on how to handle Iran's nuclear program, the U.N. Security Council's attempts to stop Tehran's nuclear armament may be futile. Conflicting interests among the...

Analysis: Corruption remains aid obstacle.
July 2, 2007... Byline: MEGAN HARRIS WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- The apparent drug-related murder of Brahim Deby, son of Chad's President Idriss Deby, Monday morning outside Paris points to the excesses of an heir to kleptocracy. The 27 year-old Deby...

Review of the Arab press.
July 3, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 3 (UPI) -- Yemen's al-Motamar commented Tuesday it is natural for all Yemenis to condemn the terrorist attack on a tourism site in Mareb, which killed seven Spanish tourists Monday. The ruling General People's Congress...

Analysis: Cities to boom in Africa, Asia.
July 3, 2007... Byline: MARK MAATHUIS WASHINGTON, July 3 (UPI) -- The urban populations in Africa and Asia will at least double over the next 30 years to 1.7 billion, adding more people than the Chinese and U.S. populations combined. According to a...

Analysis: Advocates urge action on poverty.
July 5, 2007... Byline: MEGAN HARRIS WASHINGTON, June 14 (UPI) -- Development experts and observers agree that enormous strides have been made in fighting global poverty, but much more remains to be done. More important may be their message that...

Commentary: Iran's mixed signals.
July 5, 2007... Byline: ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- The Swiss cartoon shows an angry U.S. general briefing a puzzled President George W. Bush with a map of the Middle East. "Here you can see the Lebanonization of Iraq, the Iraqization...

Walker's World: France's Sarkonomics.
July 5, 2007... Byline: MARTIN WALKER PARIS, July 5 (UPI) -- An open clash of fundamental economic strategies that threatens to set the three main European economies at sharp odds is looming in Brussels next week. New French President Nicolas Sarkozy,...

Analysis: U.N. weapons inspectors bow out.
July 5, 2007... Byline: WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, July 5 (UPI) -- The U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known in the lead-up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as U.N. inspectors for weapons of mass destruction, has...

Review of the Arab press.
July 5, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 5 (UPI) -- Arab newspapers welcomed Thursday the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston after four months in captivity by a militant Islamic group calling itself the Army of Islam. The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi...

Analysis: Interpreting nukes in Japan.
July 5, 2007... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- If the United States had not dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, World War II could have dragged on even longer and claimed more Japanese as well as American lives. That line of thinking is a...

Analysis: China urges diplomacy on Iran.
July 5, 2007... Byline: WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, July 5 (UPI) -- China's top envoy at the United Nations says his country is against additional measures being taken against Iran for not complying with previous Security Council sanctions, but that...

Analysis: Iraq's invisible refugees.
July 6, 2007... Byline: MARK MAATHUIS WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- The displacement of Iraqi refugees -- close to 4 million -- represents the most serious crisis involving population movements in the Middle East since the exodus of Palestinians in 1948,...

Policy Watch: Korea after unification.
July 6, 2007... Byline: MARK N. KATZ SAPPORO, Japan, July 6 (UPI) -- It may years away, but the unification of the two Koreas is bound to occur some day -- the most likely route through the collapse of the North. This could occur because "Dear Leader"...

Analysis: Soft partition of Iraq.
July 6, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- The partition of Iraq is far from an original idea. The notion has been floated around Washington and Baghdad numerous times since the start of the war in 2003. Pundits, journalists and...

Analysis: Interim report card for Hamas.
July 6, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT JERUSALEM, July 6 (UPI) -- Gazan kidnappers held BBC correspondent Alan Johnston for 114 days, but brief trips when they changed hideouts helped him sense the transformation that overcame the area. Before Hamas...

Review of the Arab press.
July 9, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 9 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia's al-Jazirah commented Monday it was concerned that the expected visit by the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan to Israel to activate the Arab peace initiative will be killed by the Israelis. The...

Analysis: Rumors of Syria-Israel war.
July 9, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- Well-informed sources in Washington fear a confrontation between Syria and Israel may happen this summer. The sources say that Syrian intelligence is abuzz with activity reports of an...

Walker's World: The China pattern.
July 9, 2007... Byline: MARTIN WALKER WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- There is an old rule among intelligence analysts that rather than focus on individual events in the vast floods of data, they should look for patterns. With that in mind, consider the...

Commentary: Israel and Hezbollah, Round 2?
July 9, 2007... Byline: ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- Whether Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wants to wipe Israel off the map is still contested, even by anti-mullah Iranian Americans. But that he wants to wipe out the...

Interview: Mideast peace mediator Suleiman.
July 9, 2007... Byline: BASSAM ALLONI LONDON, July 9 (UPI) -- Leaks that uncovered secret negotiations between an American-Syrian businessman and a prominent former Israeli diplomat to drum up a Syrian-Israeli peace accord have only hurt this process. Or...

Analysis: Tallying Olmert's promises.
July 9, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT TEL AVIV, Israel, July 9 (UPI) -- Israeli officials are examining lists of jailed Palestinian militants to free 250 supporters of President Mahmoud Abbas' party and boost his popularity without causing too much of...

Analysis: Kosovo's future still questioned.
July 9, 2007... Byline: WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, July 9 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council Monday considered the fate of Serbia's province of Kosovo behind closed doors, failing once again to come up with plan for its future. But the United...

Review of the Arab press.
July 10, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 10 (UPI) -- Arab newspapers commented Tuesday on the escalation of violence and sectarian strife in Iraq, with an Iraqi newspaper saying the reason for the massive killings and destruction is to foil the Iraqi democratic...

Outside View: Senators, Bush break ranks.
July 10, 2007... Byline: VLADIMIR SIMONOV MOSCOW, July 10 (UPI) -- In his stubborn bid for a utopian victory in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush has failed to notice that what had been slight misgivings about his Iraqi strategy within his own Republican...

Analysis: Intelligence and Israel's image.
July 11, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT TEL AVIV, Israel, July 10 (UPI) -- Israel's Shabak security agency has been pretty effective in preventing suicide bombings and other terror attacks. It runs a massive operation protecting the prime minister's life...

Analysis: Rumors of war, talk of peace.
July 11, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- The week began with strong rumors of possible violence erupting between Syria and Israel sometime this summer. But an unexpected invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to...

Walker's World: The woes of Socrates.
July 11, 2007... Byline: MARTIN WALKER WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- The last time Portugal assumed the presidency of the European Union, the result was the Lisbon Agenda of 2000, the ambitious plan to make Europe "the world's most competitive...

Analysis: New drive for N. Korea standoff.
July 11, 2007... Byline: LEE JONG-HEON SEOUL, July 11 (UPI) -- International efforts to disarm North Korea have gained major momentum as the defiant communist country has finally agreed to receive inspections from the U.N. nuclear watchdog to carry out the...

Review of the Arab press.
July 11, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 11 (UPI) -- The London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat commented Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seems more interested in embarrassing the Arabs than in seeking peace in the Middle East. The Saudi-owned daily said...

Analysis: Revisiting the Lebanon war.
July 11, 2007... Byline: MEGAN HARRIS WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- One year after the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon prompted a massive operation to get U.S. citizens out of the country, most view the efforts as well-executed, though...

Analysis: A border a year after the war.
July 11, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT CAMP BIRANIT, Israel, July 11 (UPI) -- Thick gray concrete slabs line the northern fence of this camp that overlooks southern Lebanon. Camp Biranit is the headquarters of the 91st division that is responsible...

Review of the Arab press.
July 12, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 12 (UPI) -- Arab newspapers commented Thursday on the first anniversary of the start of the 34-day war between Lebanon and Israel, in which much of Lebanon's infrastructure was destroyed, more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed...

Outside View: Europe, U.S. toy with Kosovo.
July 12, 2007... Byline: VLADIMIR SIMONOV MOSCOW, July 12 (UPI) -- Recently, Western statements on Kosovo have acquired an almost panicky sense of urgency. Talking about a problem that has been brewing since NATO bombed Yugoslavia eight years ago, Zalmay...

Analysis: Al-Qaida, back with a vengeance?
July 13, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that the al-Qaida terrorist network is still a potent enemy despite an all-out war waged against it almost everywhere in the world by the United...

Policy Watch: Assessing Putin's legacy.
July 13, 2007... Byline: MARK N. KATZ SAPPORO, Japan, July 13 (UPI) -- With Russian President Vladimir Putin slated to leave office in less than a year, what can be said about how history will judge him? He definitely has positive accomplishments to boast...

Analysis: Draft for Darfur peacekeepers.
July 13, 2007... Byline: WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, July 13 (UPI) -- Britain, France, Ghana and the United States have circulated a draft resolution in the Security Council for a hybrid African Union-U.N. Mission in Sudan's troubled Darfur region of...

Analysis: Deterring extremism among youth.
July 13, 2007... Byline: MEGAN HARRIS WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- Improving opportunities and inclusion for Muslim youth in the Middle East and in Western countries may be key to crowding out extremist ideologies. Economic and social exclusion plagues...

Analysis: N. Korea seeks U.S. talks.
July 13, 2007... Byline: LEE JONG-HEON SEOUL, July 13 (UPI) -- North Korea has proposed holding military talks with the United States in what appears to be aimed at pushing for negotiations over mutual arms reductions that would also mean the reduction of...

Analysis: Border dispute strands Gazans.
July 13, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT TEL AVIV, Israel, July 13 (UPI) -- Thousands of Gazans have been stranded in Egypt for over a month, unable to go home because of an Israeli-Palestinian argument over the crossing. Families returning from...

Analysis: Finding Iran's weak spot.
July 13, 2007... Byline: MARK MAATHUIS WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- Just hours after the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency called Iran's moratorium on its uranium enrichment activities a step in the right direction, an Iranian...

Outside View: Who needs a Mideast war?
July 13, 2007... Byline: MARIANNA BELENKAYA MOSCOW, July 13 (UPI) -- Now that a year has passed since the start of the Lebanese-Israeli war, or strictly speaking, Israel's war against the Shiite group Hezbollah, many in the Middle East are worried about...

Review of the Arab press.
July 16, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 16 (UPI) -- Qatar's al-Watan commented Monday on the meeting of rival Lebanese parties west of Paris over the weekend, saying it did not fail because their meeting in itself was better than not meeting at all. Both the...

Analysis: More rumors of bin Laden's death.
July 16, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden, like Mark Twain, may complain that rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. Assuming, of course, that he is still alive. Indeed, the mystery surrounding...

Walker's World: The new capitalism.
July 16, 2007... Byline: MARTIN WALKER MUNICH, Germany, July 16 (UPI) -- A suspicion is spreading across Europe that something fundamental has changed in the nature of capitalism and that new legislation -- and probably some very new thinking -- will be...

Analysis: Olmert, Abbas welcome Bush plan.
July 16, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT TEL AVIV, Israel, July 16 (UPI) -- It seemed as though a ray of hope was penetrating to the Palestinians as U.S. President George W. Bush expressed readiness to help them out and to summon an international...

Realpolitik: Back to the debate on Syria.
July 17, 2007... Byline: ALON BEN-MEIR NEW YORK, July 17 (UPI) -- For a number of years, I have been advocating the importance of constructively engaging Syria, not only to improve the prospects for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, but to substantially...

Review of the Arab press.
July 17, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 17 (UPI) -- The Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadeeda said in a commentary Tuesday it did not expect a breakthrough in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process in the near future and predicted the Palestinian Authority will not last...

Atlantic Eye: Twisting the shadow of 9/11.
July 17, 2007... Byline: MARC S. ELLENBOGEN PRAGUE, Czech Republic, July 17 (UPI) -- "If that's what you need, that's what you got," was the latest Bush-speak delivered in Cleveland, Ohio, last week. President George W. Bush was referring to a request from...

Analysis: Israel's Peres gets top job.
July 17, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT JERUSALEM, July 17 (UPI) -- Israel is a rather informal society with rare ceremonies of pride and pomp, but Sunday was exceptional. Veteran statesman Shimon Peres was being sworn in as Israel's ninth president, and...

Walker's World: Trouble with Sarkozy.
July 18, 2007... Byline: MARTIN WALKER PARIS, July 18 (UPI) -- With nearly three weeks left to go of his first hundred days, the honeymoon of France's new President Nicolas Sarkozy has been more like a whirlwind. His latest coup this week resolved the...

Analysis: Bush's failed Mideast policy.
July 18, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to convene an international conference next autumn to pave the way forward for the stalled Middle East peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians....

Analysis: U.N. council negotiates Kosovo.
July 18, 2007... Byline: WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, July 18 (UPI) -- Members of the U.N. Security Council -- minus Russia -- are attempting to revise the latest Western draft resolution aimed at putting Serbia's province of Kosovo on an independence...

Analysis: Bumpy road for N. Korea talks.
July 18, 2007... Byline: LEE JONG-HEON SEOUL, July 18 (UPI) -- Six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs resumed Wednesday with a strong note of optimism about a process of disarming the defiant communist country. Many analysts and...

Review of the Arab press.
July 18, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 18 (UPI) -- Arab newspapers Wednesday gave mixed reactions to President George W. Bush's proposal for an international conference for peace in the Middle East. The London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat welcomed Palestinian...

Analysis: PA's Abbas plans early elections.
July 18, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT JERUSALEM, July 18 (UPI) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for new elections to both the presidency and the Legislative Council in a bid to regain legitimacy and weaken his main rival, the Islamic...

Review of the Arab press.
July 19, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 19 (UPI) -- The Palestinian al-Quds remarked in its editorial Thursday on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the Palestine Central Council in which he insisted he wouldn't speak to Hamas after its "coup d'etat"...

Analysis: Seoul pushes for North detente.
July 19, 2007... Byline: LEE JONG-HEON SEOUL, July 19 (UPI) -- Buoyed by recent progress in international efforts to eliminate North Korea's nuclear armament, South Korea is seeking to speed up reconciliation and cooperation with its communist neighbor by...

Outside View: Russia warns West on Kosovo.
July 19, 2007... Byline: MARIANNA BELENKAYA MOSCOW, July 19 (UPI) -- Russia will not support the new draft resolution on Kosovo submitted to the U.N. Security Council by Britain, France and the United States on July 16. Moscow objects to the draft...

Analysis: Kosovo's independence quest.
July 19, 2007... Byline: WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, July 19 (UPI) -- Facing a certain veto, the U.N. Security Council has postponed until Friday its latest scheduled consultations on a draft resolution setting the Serbian province of Kosovo onto the...

Analysis: Assad sets terms for peace talks.
July 19, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT TEL AVIV, Israel, July 19 (UPI) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad this week outlined his terms for peace talks with Israel, and it was a combination of steadfastness and new ideas tinged with a glimpse at what is...

Commentary: Radioactive body politic.
July 20, 2007... Byline: ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- If a $25 million reward didn't get anyone to betray Osama Bin Laden and his comfortable underground headquarters in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the...

Analysis: Can Iran's nukes weather quakes?
July 20, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- What do Japan and Iran have in common? Japan has nuclear power plants and Iran is on its way to acquiring nuclear technology. Japan is prone to powerful earthquakes, and so is Iran. This...

Analysis: Israel releases 255 'terrorists'.
July 20, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT TEL AVIV, Israel, July 20 (UPI) -- In an attempt to bolster the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Israel Friday bused 255 security prisoners to the outskirts of his de facto capital of Ramallah in the...

Analysis: Knowledge, tech key for poor.
July 20, 2007... Byline: WILLIAM M. REILLY UNITED NATIONS, July 20 (UPI) -- Knowledge and technology must be harnessed to achieve the kind of economic growth needed to reduce poverty, says the latest U.N. report on improving conditions in the world's 50...

Commentary: Dogs of war.
July 23, 2007... Byline: ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- Republican candidate for the presidency Rudy Giuliani, the leading hawk among presidential hopefuls, has appointed Norman Podhoretz senior adviser for foreign policy. A founding...

Walker's World: Turkey's new balance.
July 23, 2007... Byline: MARTIN WALKER PARIS, July 23 (UPI) -- The Turkish election result Sunday that saw a re-election triumph for the moderate Islamic government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has produced a tense but potentially stable...

Policy Watch: Saudi-Russian partnership.
July 23, 2007... Byline: MARK N. KATZ WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- At the time of Russian President Vladimir Putin's February visit to Riyadh, some Russian commentators expressed the view that improved Saudi-Russian ties were occurring at the expense of...

Analysis: More Islam, democracy in Turkey.
July 23, 2007... Byline: STEFAN NICOLA BERLIN, July 23 (UPI) -- Turkey's ruling party after Sunday's election triumph will want to prove that more Islam and more democracy can coexist on its route into the European Union. All this is Turkey: Scores of...

Analysis: All quiet on the Mideast front?
July 23, 2007... Byline: CLAUDE SALHANI WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- All is quiet on the Middle Eastern front -- for the time being. A little over a year after the war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah ended almost as abruptly as...

Outside View: The third dimension.
July 23, 2007... Byline: BOUTHAINA SHAABAN DAMASCUS, Syria, July 23 (UPI) -- Upon his release after weeks of being captive in Gaza, BBC reporter Alan Johnston pointed out that had he been a Palestinian reporter, no one would have worked as hard for his...

Analysis: Seoul striving to free hostages.
July 23, 2007... Byline: LEE JONG-HEON SEOUL, July 23 (UPI) -- South Korea is struggling to win the safe release of 23 citizens taken hostage in Afghanistan, with the deadline set by Taliban insurgents to start killing them just hours away. Government...

Commentary: Intelligent intelligence.
July 24, 2007... Byline: ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- President John F. Kennedy once said he got "far more out of the New York Times than the CIA." Those were the days when major U.S. newspapers and the three networks maintained...

Review of the Arab press.
July 24, 2007... AMMAN, Jordan, July 24 (UPI) -- The London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat commented Tuesday on the election victory of Turkey's Islamist Justice and Development Party, saying it provides an opportunity for this party to prove whether it becomes the...

Analysis: Seoul in hostage dilemma.
July 24, 2007... Byline: LEE JONG-HEON SEOUL, July 24 (UPI) -- South Korea is facing a dilemma over how to ensure the safe release of its citizens taken hostage in Afghanistan after kidnappers have called for direct talks to discuss the fate of the 23...

Analysis: U.N.: Women still face obstacles.
July 24, 2007... Byline: CAROLYN NARDIELLO UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (UPI) -- On the 25th anniversary of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, U.N. officials say significant improvements have been made, but there's still work...

Analysis: Tony Blair kicks off new job.
July 24, 2007... Byline: JOSHUA BRILLIANT JERUSALEM, July 24 (UPI) -- International efforts to shore up the Palestinian economy and institutions and advance the peace process Tuesday saw former British Prime Minister Tony Blair shuttling between Jerusalem...