Middle Orient News

Hamas yesterday rejected as “unconstitutional” the government sworn in by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Friday. The Islamist movement wants to convene parliament to vote on the government, but Abbas’ Fateh faction has already said it will not attend any such session.

Rival Lebanese politicians met at a state-owned chateau near Paris on Saturday in a French-sponsored attempt to discuss ways of ending the eight-month-old political crisis gripping their country.

Lebanon’s army resumed its bombardment of Al Qaeda-inspired gunmen entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday, pounding them with artillery and tank fire, a senior military official said.

King Abdullah has said regional peace can only be sustained if people in the Middle East have the opportunity to “lead a productive and satisfying life”.

At least 12 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in a series of bomb blasts and an exchange of fire with fighters in the northwest region of the country.

Osama bin Laden praised martyrdom in a new videotape posted on a Web site on Sunday by Al Qaeda’s media production wing.

The British military death rate in Iraq is proportionally worse than that of the United States, for the first time since the 2003 invasion, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said.

The Lebanese army has continued its bombardment of the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp with artillery and tank fire, a senior military official has said.

Israel is to allow a key Palestinian leader to travel to the West Bank, in a measure seen as another attempt to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas.

Away from the headlines and debate over the “surge” in U.S. ground troops, the Air Force has quietly built up its hardware inside Iraq, sharply stepped up bombing and laid a foundation for a sustained air campaign in support of American and Iraqi forces.