Middle Orient

Benedict issued his latest plea as he greeted some 3,000 pilgrims in a meadow near his Alpine vacation retreat on a day that he had dedicated to prayers for peace in the Middle East

Will it make it easier or harder to resolve the pressing problems of Palestine and Iraq – and the much bigger battle against Islamic extremism? The more immediate question is: Who will emerge with what?

In Sidon, 14 people were injured and a mosque was destroyed in the first strikes on the southern port city.

A routine patrol discovered five Katyusha rockets aimed and ready to fire at a base housing around 200 soldiers of the Light Infantry.

The barrage of rockets landing in and around Haifa Sunday morning wounded 11 people, witnesses and local officials said.

The first suicide car bomb exploded at 9 a.m., ripping open a packed open-air market in the Sadr City section of eastern Baghdad, Baghdad police said; 32 were killed and 65 were wounded.

A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the blasts and warned of more as NATO prepares to take control of the volatile southern Afghan region.

TANKS, BULLDOZERS AND armoured personnel carriers knocked down a fence and barrelled over the border Saturday as Israeli forces stepped up a small-scale ground offensive into southern Lebanon to try to attack the Hizbollah group.

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush’s uncompromising support for Israel in its battle with Hizbollah, a stance now backed by Congress, is threatening to isolate the United States even further from the international community.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraqi leaders met in a show of sectarian and ethnic solidarity on Saturday before a White House visit by the prime minister