OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that he hopes to hold a long-delayed meeting with Mahmoud Abbas in the coming days, but ruled out releasing prisoners or offering other goodwill gestures to the Palestinian president until a captured Israeli soldier is freed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday announced plans to visit the Middle East next week to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace moves but analysts doubt she will make much headway. Rice will leave Washington on Sunday and plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel’s prime minister said Thursday he did not expect another fight with Hizbollah soon, amid stalled talks on a timetable for the Jewish state to withdraw its remaining troops from Lebanon. “The chances that Hizbollah would be persuaded to mount in the short term a major …

BAIDOA, Somalia (AP) — Somali police investigating a car bomb assassination attempt on the president arrested three suspected members of a fundamentalist Islamic group and recovered explosives Thursday, an official said. Baidoa Governor Ahmed Madey Issaq told the Associated Press police in three armoured vehicles raided a house Thursday morning …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Sudan in firm terms on Wednesday it must choose between “cooperation and confrontation” with the rest of the world and accept a UN force for Darfur. Khartoum’s new military offensive in the western region of Darfur makes international pressure all …

MARUN AR-RAS — At home, Lina and her family tread on dangerous ground. The house, partly destroyed by rockets, has two unexploded bombs still buried underneath it. Israeli soldiers are still controlling the entrance of the hilltop village which was the first area to be occupied in southern Lebanon at …

TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has tightened his grip on the interior ministry by appointing his right-hand man to a key post just weeks ahead of two sets of elections, analysts said. The naming of Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh as deputy interior minister for political affairs is a tactical move …

Mr Roman Kanaev, Chief Technologist at the Volgograd section of the gas pile line ” Asia-Center” which had been blown up Thursday morning, September 29, undirectly confirmed to a local newspaper, “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Volgograd”, that the blast had been caused by a sabotage operation.

RAMALLAH — Israel yesterday released Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer, the most senior of 31 Hamas legislators and ministers detained after the June capture of an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip. The release comes a day after an Israeli military court had reversed a decision to release 21 …

NEGOTIATORS FOR IRAN and the European Union met Wednesday in Berlin for talks amid suggestions the US might be willing to defer seeking sanctions for a few weeks if there is a chance for a diplomatic resolution of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana …