WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A former senior White House official testified that President George W. Bush authorised the leaking of classified material on Iraq, according to court papers made public on Thursday that immediately ignited a political storm.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak called interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to congratulate him for being named to head a new government and the two leaders decided to meet “immediately after a government is formed” in Israel.

GAZA (Reuters) — Palestinian Prime Minister and senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday rejected a decision by President Mahmoud Abbas to assume security control over the Gaza Strip’s border crossings.Abbas’ overnight move underscores tensions with Hamas in the wake of the Islamic group’s crushing win against the president’s long-dominant …

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Palestinian Interior Minister Said Siam said Sunday it could take a year for his Hamas government to end armed chaos in Gaza after three people were killed in clashes between rival gunmen.

MOGADISHU — Somali warlords are destroying Muse Suldan’s dream to be a teacher. The 12-year-old often flees Mogadishu and misses school to escape gunbattles between rival militias. Like a generation of young Somalis, he has never known peace or lived under a formal government, growing up in anarchy after strongman …

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AFP) — Ethnic riots in southeast Turkey in the past week left nine dead in the worst urban violence to hit the region in a decade, reviving memories of the height of a Kurdish rebellion that has claimed more than 37,000

AMMAN — Iraq’s resistance has replaced Abu Mussab Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama Ben Laden’s mentor told AFP Sunday in Jordan.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israel on Sunday took its first steps towards forming a new government expected to be led by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who wants to set the country’s final borders with or without Palestinian agreement.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Asad have signed a joint declaration on the further development of friendship and cooperation between the two countries. The declaration signed on Tuesday during Asad’s visit to Moscow said that “the world order

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of blocking Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization. At a meeting with Russian businessmen on Wednesday he said progress in the Russian-US talks on WTO entry was being artificially delayed, Mayak radio station reported.