The head of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has told the BBC that fighting the insurgency is a “long term endeavour” which could take decades.

The 22-country Arab League will send envoys on a historic first mission to Israel this week to discuss a sweeping Arab peace initiative and how it might prop up embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Arab diplomats said Sunday.

Iraq’s foreign minister has warned that a quick withdrawal of U.S. forces could lead to civil war and the collapse of the Iraqi government. From northern Iraq, VOA’s Margaret Besheer reports the Iraqi diplomat was reacting to growing debate about the future of American troops in Iraq.

The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say.

Lebanese troops have fought new battles with Islamist militants around a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country, reports say.

Egypt should receive record net foreign direct investment of more than $10 billion in the current fiscal year ending in June, according to the country’s primary governmental authority on investment.

Egypt agreed Monday to offer 80 percent of the country’s third-largest public sector bank, Banque du Caire, to a strategic investor, a cabinet spokesman said.

A special Israeli envoy gave Egypt last week a list of Hamas prisoners Israel is prepared to release in an exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported.

A delegation of Israel’s liberal Meretz party will on Sunday travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials, the party said in a statement.

Dubai: Egypt is well on its way to establishing itself as an important player in the lucrative and fast-growing offshore outsourcing market. But it must take some steps to facilitate its ascendance in this market if it is to become the India of the Middle East, says a Yankee Group …