BEIRUT — “Gone fishing” says the notice on the door of a club in a usually bustling Beirut bar district which has been deserted since bomb attacks last week.

TEHRAN (Reuters) — Iran’s judiciary confirmed on Tuesday the detention of an Iranian-American social scientist on charges of spying, one of a number that US officials and think tanks had reported held.

WASHINGTON — Confronted with strong opposition to his Iraq policies, President George W. Bush decides to interpret public opinion his own way. Actually, he says, people agree with him.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — President George W. Bush imposed new US sanctions on Sudan on Tuesday and sought support for an international arms embargo out of frustration at Sudan’s refusal to end what he called a genocide in Darfur.

RAMALLAH — Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters battled it out for over 45 minutes in Ramallah yesterday evening, when a large contingent of Israeli soldiers entered the West Bank city in what the Israeli army said was an “arrest operation”.

BEIRUT (AP) — Heavy clashes between the army and Al Qaeda-linked gunmen broke a weeklong truce Tuesday as Lebanon’s government stressed its determination to defeat the group but said it was willing to give mediation a chance to end the fighting at a Palestinian refugee camp.

38 dead in blast, 5 Britons seized BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen in police uniforms kidnapped five Britons in Baghdad on Tuesday and the deaths of 10 US soldiers were announced, making May the deadliest month for the US military in more than two years.

AMMAN/DAMASCUS (AFP & Petra) — King Abdullah on Tuesday telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad to congratulate him for winning a second seven-year mandate, officials announced on Tuesday.

Former Bulgarian President Peter Stoyanov resigned as leader of the right-wing opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) on Tuesday (May 22nd), two days after his party suffered a crushing defeat in Bulgaria’s first European Parliament (EP) elections. He was the second rightist leader to step down in as many days, …

Twenty-one Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) nations participated in a NATO-led exercise, IDASSA 2007, which took place last week in the coastal areas near the Croatian city of Zadar. The event provided an opportunity for the countries to test their equipment, expertise and preparedness.