Among the impoverished Iraqi refugees queuing for food aid at a Catholic charity in Damascus stands 65-year-old Hirmiz Hanna, puzzled and upset at his fate.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The plight of some 200 Gazans, stranded in no-man’s-land on the Israeli border in a desperate bid to flee last week’s Islamist takeover of the territory, is dividing Israeli opinion.

In a world where more people are on the move than ever, governments jittery about cross-border criminals, terrorists and illegal migrants must not shirk their duty to protect refugees, a UN official said on Tuesday.

International pressure forced Sudan to accept a plan to deploy a combined UN and AU peacekeeping force of at least 20,000 troops in its troubled Darfur region, opposition parties said on Tuesday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party has won almost all the 16 seats in the runoff elections for Egypt’s upper house of parliament, according to official results and media reports on Tuesday.

Lebanese troops inched towards Islamic strongholds in a north Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday as mediators hinted at a possible ceasefire deal that includes the disarmament of the Al Qaeda-inspired gunmen.

US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged on Tuesday to bolster Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, as Israel sought to tighten the screws on Hamas Islamists who control Gaza.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — A massive truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in the heart of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing at least 65 people in the deadliest attack there in two months.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and other major powers have begun preliminary consultations on a new set of U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment, the State Department said on Tuesday.

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – Kuwait has strongly protested to Iran over a physical assault on one of its diplomats in Tehran and demanded an apology, the state news agency KUNA reported on Wednesday.