BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Hizbollah-led opposition joined labour unions on Tuesday in a protest against tax increases proposed by embattled Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, stepping up pressure to force the government into resigning.

BEIJING (Reuters) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in Beijing on Tuesday aiming to lobby China to close ranks with Western powers against Iran’s nuclear programme.

KHARTOUM (AP) — US governor and potential presidential candidate Bill Richardson pressed Sudan President Omar Bashir to open the wartorn Darfur region to UN troops, part of a global push for an elusive peace in the African nation.

CAIRO (AP) — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is considering a major Cabinet reshuffle soon, the first since he ascended to the throne of the oil-rich kingdom, diplomats and Saudi media said Monday.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Hamas said Saturday it would double the size of its paramilitary force in Gaza, defying President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to outlaw the unit and raising the stakes in an increasingly bloody power struggle between the two rivals.

BAGHDAD (AP) — In the opening battle of a major new drive to tame the violent capital, the Iraqi army reported it killed 30 gunmen Saturday night in a firefight in a Sunni insurgent stronghold in the centre of the city, just to the north of the heavily fortified Green …

WASHINGTON (AP) — President George W. Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq is already running into trouble on Capitol Hill, with Republicans joining Democrats in raising eyebrows before the president even makes his case.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) — Ethiopian troops and Somali protesters exchanged fire in Mogadishu on Saturday killing three people, witnesses said, as hundreds of Somalis demonstrated against the foreign forces and a government disarmament drive.

DUBAI (Reuters) — Saudi Arabia has urged the United States to change course in Iraq and warned against the break-up of the country along ethnic or religious lines amid growing sectarian violence, a newspaper said on Saturday.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) —The UN interim special representative for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, said he will leave for African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa later Friday to find a solution to the bloodshed in Darfur.