BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen in uniforms seized 30 or more Iraqi sports officials, including the national Olympics chief, and their bodyguards in Baghdad on Saturday, barely an hour after parliament voted to extend a state of emergency.

ST PETERSBURG — Middle East conflict muscled its way onto the Group of Eight (G-8) agenda on Saturday, setting the United States, a strong backer of Israel, against those who say the Jewish state has been too violent.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, having stayed mostly on the sidelines during the latest Middle East crisis, now faces the threat of a broader regional conflict with few options for defusing it.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — A missile fired by Hizbollah, not an unmanned drone laden with explosives, damaged an Israeli warship off Lebanon, the army said Saturday.

SANAA (AFP) — A Yemeni court has jailed 12 intelligence officers for up to three years after convicting them of negligence in the February escape of 23 suspected Al Qaeda members, official media said Friday.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s leadership has rejected demands to freeze sensitive nuclear work contained in an international proposal aimed at resolving the crisis over Tehran’s nuclear drive, an official was quoted as saying Saturday.

Following are excerpts from an Egyptian parliamentary debate on the recent Israeli-Palestinian clashes, which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, on July 4, 2006: MP Ibrahim Al-Gogari: It is not enough to demand the recalling of the Egyptian

Following are excerpts from an interview with Lebanese TV news presenter May Chidiac, who was injured in an assassination attempt last year. This interview was aired on LBC TV on July 2, 2006.

The Israeli army has warned Lebanon to evacuate all residents from a southern Beirut neighborhood where it believes Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lives, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly Gholam Ali Haddad Adel stressed Iran’s sensitive position and standing in the region and reminded that his country has never posed any threat to the region all throughout the history.