And some good news from Australia

Geographically, Australia is not part of the West, but socially it is. So it's a victory for our side down there in the War on Terror.

Two Islamic terror cells were rushing to become the first to stage a major "jihad" terror bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said Tuesday after armed police arrested 17 suspects in a string of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities.

"Thankfully, the police forces of this country might just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism ... either in Melbourne or in Sydney," said New South Wales state Police Minister Carl Scully.

One of the suspects, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and still has hundreds of troops in the country.