On Thursday about 2,250 Americans left Lebanon, and another 3,000 are expected to depart Friday, State Department officials said.

Speaking to CNN from Haifa, Israel, the wife and father of Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and the brother of Eldad Regev, 26,

DUBAI — Thousands of Israeli bombs have fallen on Lebanon’s homes, roads, bridges, ports, broadcasting towers and even a lighthouse.

HIZBOLLAH FOUGHT FIERCE battles with Israeli troops on the Lebanese border Thursday, as thousands more foreigners fled the nine-day-old war in Lebanon, including 1,000 Americans evacuated by US Marines.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — After nine days of bombing Lebanon, Israel has begun to doubt the effectiveness of an offensive that has failed to stop Hizbollah fire, eliminate its leaders or push fighters back from the border.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Israeli forces killed three people and wounded six in the Gaza Strip, officials said Thursday,

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Tens of thousands more Iraqis have fled their homes as sectarian violence looks ever more like civil war two months after a US-backed national unity government was formed, official data showed on Thursday.

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran announced Thursday it would reply to the Western incentives on its nuclear programme on August 22 — the first time it has given a precise date after weeks of being accused of stalling.

CAIRO — The Lebanese group Hizbollah is riding a wave of popularity in the Arab world because of its confrontation with Israel, despite some misgivings about the group’s cross-border raid on July 12.

BEIRUT — Shoes, photo albums, teddy bears and a cash register poke through the debris.