Middle Orient

Darfur’s rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has split again, a spokesman said on Monday, ahead of a United Nations and African Union (AU) meeting to unite the insurgents before peace talks with the Sudanese government.

Israel launched an air strike on Monday against a vehicle in the central Gaza Strip, wounding seven people, three of them activists, medics said.

JORDAN ON MONDAY took part in the meeting of the Arab League to discuss the efforts of the league’s ministerial committee tasked with rallying support for the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Iraq’s parliament went into summer recess for a month on Monday after political leaders failed to agree on a series of laws that Washington sees as crucial to stabilising the country.

Up to eight million Iraqis require immediate emergency aid, with nearly half of the population living in “absolute poverty”, according to a report by Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi groups.

Israel said on Sunday it cut fuel supplies to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, increasing pressure on the Islamist group after it seized control of the impoverished territory.

The Public Security Department (PSD) has taken all the necessary security procedures to facilitate the voting process at all polling centres on July 31, Police Spokesperson Major Basheer Daaja said on Sunday.

The Water Authority on Sunday resumed pumping drinking water from 20 artesian wells to citizens in the northern governorates after lab tests indicated they were free of pollutants, a Water Ministry official said on Sunday.

The Bush administration will ask Congress to expand multibillion-dollar aid and weapons sales packages to “friendly” nations in the Middle East, partly to counteract Iran, senior officials said Friday.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Sunday left Lebanon without any breakthrough and after warning of the danger of violence if the eight-month political standoff is not resolved through talks.