IRAN

• An Iranian student has been sentenced to 76 lashes and 18 months in prison for taking part in anti-regime demonstrations.

• Iran-EU talks have been suspended until after Iranian 'elections' on June 17.

• European diplomats say that the EU agrees with the US and Israel that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, and that Iran is pressuring Europe to accept it.

• WND says Iran plans to send the U.S. back to the 19th century with a single bomb. I guess this is better than the man-made tsunami idea.

• As ever, Regime Change Iran has daily briefings.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• The Syrian withdrawal is almost complete. More here. Lebanese protesters have clashed with security forces.

• Syria is to sign a Counter-Terrorism Financing Convention. The CT blog calls it an empty gesture.

• The Hamas leaders in Damascus will set up shop in Gaza after Israel retreats.

• The "Green Revolution" and the Hamas Strategy to Take Over the Palestinian Authority.

• The U.S. is urging Saudi Arabia to give financial aid to the PA.

• Russia has confirmed that it will sell SAMs to Syria.

IRAQ AND THE GULF

• Al-Sadr's militias are patrolling Basra streets. I guess the 'softly, softly' approach of the British Army means letting terrorists do whatever they please.

• France could be a strategic ally of France, according to a study by the Washington Institute.

• Iraqi WMD might have been moved to Syria by unofficial... officials. If that makes sense.

• Islamists have (again) dominated Saudi municipal elections, this time in Jeddah.

• Terrorists are sometimes drug addicts, according to the Saudi Interior Minister.

THE AMERICAS

• PIJ leader Sami al-Arian's lawyers want his beliefs kept out of trial. They're concerned that the defendant being a genocidal anti-semite might politicise the trial. More here.

• Hasan Akbar, the murderous traitor who killed two American soldiers, has stabbed an M-P. Judge Stephen Henley said he didn't think what he called an "opportunistic stabbing" two years after the attack inside the Army camp in Kuwait showed a pattern. Maybe if he was better at killing Americans, it'd be a pattern?

• New York firefighters discovered a room covered in clippings about Osama Bin Laden, beheadings and Iraq. The JTTF says they don't suspect terrorist activity. The building owner might be worth a look: Hamdan, 53, of Brooklyn, served jail time in the late 1970s and early 1980s for arson, reckless endangerment, weapons possession and conspiracy, according to the records.

• Hemant Lakhani has been found guilty of trying to sell a shoulder-launched SAM to terrorists.

• An Islamic scholar has been found guilty of preaching holy war.

• The LAX bomber has been singing like a canary. Since he's done talking, maybe he should be sent to Gitmo with his compatriots?

EUROPE

• Abu Dahdah says he supports jihad as a defensive concept. He doesn't know what 'radical' means. Another suspect has had a case of amnesia.

• Europe's Mujahideen: Where Mass Immigration Meets Global Terrorism.

• A witness claims they told Dutch intelligence about the plot to murder Theo van Gogh.

• Two Belgians have been returned home from Guantanamo Bay.

• Are Russian intelligence agents planning to use jihadi groups to attack American targets in the Caucasus?

• Grassroots Vice & Virtue squad in Bradford. Two Asian Muslims are jailed (and listed as sex offenders) for attacking and sexually assaulting prostitutes.

ASIA & AUSTRALASIA

• Pakistani investigators have connected Daniel Pearl's killer to a terrorist-financing charity called Al-Akhtar Trust International.

• A bomb on a Pakistani railway line has wounded three police officers.

• An Indian court has convicted a terrorist of organising an attack on an American cultural centre in Calcutta in 2002. Five police officers were killed.

• Jihadi incitement in Kyrgyzstan.

• Indonesian police are investigating a JI training camp. The Indonesian security forces never fail to fill me with confidence: "They have already left," General Rasyid said. "We have not identified the goal of the training."

• Two Filipino soldiers have been killed by an Abu Sayyaf landmine.

• Malaysia has rejected the UN's definition of terrorism. Root causes, colonialism, why can't we kill Jews, etc.

AFRICA

• The U.S. is warning of an A-Q attack in Tunisia.

• 24 Algerian GSPC arrested in Algeria, and 20 GIA surrounded...

• Plus four Tunisian volunteers arrested in Algeria.

• The GSPC murdered a small town's mayor, as well as two civilians and two security guards.

• Nigerian Christians are concerned about threats of jihad by northern Muslim leaders.

• Mauritanian authorities have arrested several Islamist leaders.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.