Jakarta — The Indonesian government has asked Israel to stop excavation work near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Palestine as it could trigger new tensions and hamper the peace process in the region, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said here Friday.

Jerusalem: Hundreds of angry worshippers threw stones at police and scuffled with them on Friday in an eruption of outrage over contentious Israeli renovation work at a disputed holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City.

A federal jury awarded $16 million to a Jewish man who claimed that Palestinian groups backed a terrorist attack in Israel in which he was injured, but he could get triple that amount under a law allowing U.S. citizens to sue organizations involved in overseas terrorism.

The United Nations nuclear agency has curbed almost half its aid projects in Iran to uphold U.N. sanctions imposed on Tehran over its disputed atomic energy program, according to a report obtained by Reuters.

Iran is storing at least 14 million barrels of crude on supertankers in the Gulf, a tanker industry source said on Wednesday, in a strong sign Tehran was complying with an OPEC pledge to cut supply.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a House panel yesterday that the United States should know in a few months if the Iraqi government is making progress toward peace and whether the United States “is going to have to look at other alternatives and consequences.”

MECCA — In a palace overlooking Islam’s holiest site, rival Palestinian leaders vowed yesterday to work out a power-sharing agreement to avert a civil war, asking their followers to abide by a truce during the marathon talks crucial to the peace process with Israel.

BAGHDAD — A U S Marine transport helicopter crashed in flames yesterday in a field northwest of Baghdad, killing all seven people aboard, the U S military said. It was the fifth U S aircraft lost in less than three weeks and the latest sign of growing problems with aviation …

WASHINGTON — A major consequence of the installation of a Shiite majority government in Iraq, a first in the Arab world, is the rise of Shiite power in other countries of the Middle East. Although the Shiites represents only

An exasperated Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) put his colleagues on notice Wednesday that he would look to attach his resolution opposing President Bush’s plan to boost troop levels in Iraq to any measure moving across the Senate floor.