Middle Orient

DUBAI (AFP) — Osama Ben Laden’s right-hand man Ayman Zawahiri on Tuesday mocked US President George W. Bush’s plan to send extra troops to Iraq, saying he should send his entire army to be annihilated.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s power struggle has resurrected an old rivalry between Christian leaders whose followers clashed on Tuesday during some of the worst unrest since a 1975-1990 civil war.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem strongly rejected the alleged secret talks between Damascus and Tel Aviv, stressing that his country will never attend behind-the-scene negotiations with any other state.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber crashed his car into a busy central Baghdad market Monday just seconds after another car bomb tore through the stalls where vendors were hawking DVDs and used clothing, leaving behind a scene of torment, pools of blood and at least 100 people dead.

RAMALLAH — Talks on a Palestinian unity government will continue today in Gaza, after the Damascus meeting between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal ended inconclusively but on a positive note.

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on Lebanese to take part in an anti-government strike on Tuesday to topple leaders who he said wanted to take the country to civil war.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Boosted by the resignation of the army chief of staff over the failures of last summer’s conflict with Hizbollah, the fledgling Israeli protest movement over the war has turned to new weapons — cartoons and song.

ERBIL — A Christian shopkeeper who walks with a limp, Adison Brikha fled Baghdad after he was beaten in his shop. He made it to Erbil, in relatively peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan — but now he’s begging for work.

DAMASCUS (Agencies) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday his negotiations with Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal had been “fruitful” and that talks to form a unity government would continue.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — At least 25 US troops were killed across Iraq in one of the deadliest days for the American forces since the invasion began, as the military said Sunday 3,200 new troops had arrived to quell Baghdad violence.