Zarqawi Attack Put Jordan Hot on His Trail (LAT)

Shocked into action by violence on their own soil, Jordanian officials months ago began an intensive campaign of spying on insurgents in neighboring Iraq, a gambit that ultimately helped lead to the death of militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, Jordan's top spies said Monday.

Palestinian Infighting Hits West Bank (LAT)

Clashes between rival Palestinian factions spread to the West Bank on Monday as armed followers of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement ransacked and set fire to the offices of the Hamas-led government and briefly abducted a Hamas lawmaker.

Oil, Politics and Bloodshed Corrupt an Iraqi City (NYT)

Politics, once seen as a solution to the problems of a society broken by years of brutal single-party rule, has paralyzed the heart of Iraq's south.

This once-quiet city of riverside promenades [Basra] was among the most receptive to the American invasion. Now, three years later, it is being pulled apart by Shiite political parties that want to control the region and its biggest prize, oil. But in today's Iraq, politics and power flow from the guns of militias, and negotiating has been a bloody process.

Life During Wartime (NYT Ed)

Reading the Iraqi bloggers who have been posting for The Times has helped to fill one of the big gaps in Americans' view of the war in Iraq.

[Ed. Note: The Iraqi blogs are fairly interesting, but they, like much else from the Times, can only be accessed through the NYT's premium service "Times Select", which costs ~$50/year unless you have a subscription the the paper. So, the summary provided by this editorial will have to do as a glimpse into what they say. I think the Times has made a terrible mistake restricting access to so much of its content, but that is a story for another day. The Times like so much of the MSM (particualrly the print media) is struggling to find a way to make money in the face of ever declinibg subscription rates.]

And, in what might be called the "bottom" story of the day:

German Brothels Expect Nil From Soccer Fans (LAT)

There'll be a lot of naughty boys in town during the World Cup, but few, if any, will be handcuffed and spanked on the leopard-skin rug of Karolina Leppert, a dominatrix with a wall of whips and a shrewd instinct for market economics.

That reporting is a tough and dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.