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.

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.

Syria has expressed readiness to help curb Middle East instability in exchange for peace with Israel but will not easily give up its alliance with Iran as demanded by the Jewish state.

A roadside bomb explosion in the Somali capital on Tuesday killed five women and a man and wounded nine other people, witnesses said.

Acting on a request from Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it will send a team to Tehran as soon as possible to work jointly on a plan meant to clear up suspicions about the Islamic republic’s nuclear activities.

Iraqi commandos raided the home of a Sunni Cabinet member Tuesday after a warrant was issued for his arrest, prompting outrage from Sunni politicians and dealing another blow to US-backed reconciliation efforts within the Shiite-led government.

An Israeli official on Tuesday promised “dramatic” action to improve life in the West Bank, and Palestinians expressed optimism that a high profile summit in Egypt a day earlier could lead to a resumption of long stalled peace talks.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas Movement, has released a recording of captured zionist serviceman Gilad Shalit asking his government to accept his captors’ demands and to set free Palestinian prisoners in return for his freedom.

Ishmael Haniya, premier of the PA caretaker government, on Tuesday affirmed that the Israeli policy of Premier Ehud Olmert aimed at driving a wedge in Palestinian national lines.