Tishreen (Syria): Assad: Atmosphere is Positive in Region, Should Activate European Role – Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a meeting with visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere that the positive atmosphere in the region should be used and called for activating the European role in the peace process. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, meanwhile, said in a news conference that the indirect talks with Israel were to prepare the basis to launch direct negotiations, adding he hoped progress would be made in a new round of talks to be held soon in Turkey.

Ash-Sharq al-Awsat (London; Saudi Arabia): Muallem: I Wish Syria Had Nuclear Weapons to Face Israel, Denies Nuclear Plant – Muallem said he wished Syria had nuclear weapons to face Israel, but denied U.S. allegations that it had secretly built a nuclear plant that Israel bombed last year. In the first official comments on the U.N. inspectors' visit last week to the bombed site, the foreign minister said Syria would not have allowed the monitors to visit if it had a secret program.

Az-Zaman (London; Iraq): 340 Iraqi Academics Victims of Death Squads – Iraq's Human Rights Ministry yesterday revealed that 340 academics and legal professionals have been killed by unidentified death squads from 2005 to 2007 and that the authorities did not investigate the assassinations, although many of them were state employees. The report also said that 2,334 Iraqi women were killed by militias or their death squads on honor-related charges or for reasons such as not wearing a veil. Iraqi sources said the numbers were much higher than reported, and that the authorities have been traditionally sympathetic toward assassins targeting women.

Al-Khaleej (United Arab Emirates): Western Firms Insist on Stealing Iraqi Oil – Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said yesterday his ministry has failed to reach an agreement with international firms to provide technical support to increase production and revealed that these giant companies wanted a share of the oil. U.S. sources told Al-Khaleej that advisers at the U.S. State Department played a basic role in drawing up the Iraqi oil contracts in favor of American and Western firms, confirming that the main objective of the invasion was to control the world's largest oil reserves of 350 billion barrels.

Al-Quds (East Jerusalem): Israel Prepares Hospitals for Destructive Earthquake – The Israeli Health Ministry is preparing for a strong earthquake to hit the north of the country and issued instructions to prepare hospital facilities for a massive disaster that is predicted to kill up to 16,000 people. An official Israeli report said that 500 small tremors have shaken northern Israel and southern Lebanon in the past three months, but that the size of the quakes increased between the end of May and early June.