Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (AP) — US and Iraqi troops raided Sadr City on Sunday, targeting Shiite insurgent cells in the Baghdad slum for a second day, while British forces stepped up pressure on Shiites in the southern city of Basra, killing three in an overnight operation, the US and British military said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM  (Reuters) —  A Hamas rocket attack from Gaza killed a man in Israel on Sunday and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged unlimited military action against the  group, saying “no one involved in terror” would be immune.

BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanon has given Palestinian factions until the middle of the week to negotiate a peaceful end to deadly fighting between the army and Islamists, a government source told AFP on Sunday.

AMMAN (Petra) —  His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday told US congressmen that the international community’s failure to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land would lead to further failures in the region.

TEHRAN (AFP) —  Iran said on Saturday that upcoming talks with the United States on Iraq could succeed only if Washington changed its policies in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AFP) —  US President George W. Bush  celebrated victory on Saturday after he signed into law a long-sought  bill committing $100 billion to the wars in Iraq and  Afghanistan.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A revised UN resolution to unilaterally establish an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister would give the Lebanese parliament a grace period until June 10 to ratify it.

BEDDAWI (AFP) —  With their long beards, Pakistani-style clothes and brand new weapons, the Fateh Islam guerrillas have long spread fear among Palestinian refugees in an embattled camp in northern Lebanon.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US and British forces on Saturday clashed with Moqtada  Sadr’s supporters in Baghdad and Basra, even as Iraq’s politicians cautiously welcomed the radical Shiite cleric’s return to the political scene.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Israeli air strikes killed five Hamas members in Gaza on Saturday, shortly after fighters floated the idea of halting rocket fire on Israeli border towns if Israel ended its 10-day-old air campaign.