Israeli efforts to suppress homemade rocket fire from the Gaza Strip with artillery fire inadvertently killed 18 Palestinian civilians, many of whome were members of an extended family. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is blaming a technical failure for the deaths.

However, Palestinian militants associated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said they may start carrying out suicide bombings again in retaliation.

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller says the MI5 intelligence service knows of at least 30 terror plots currently being percolated against Britain. She adds that her service is currently tracking 1,600 people.

An interesting story from the NYT about how some Marines in Iraq's Anbar province found out that U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is out of his gig.