Middle Orient

TYRE — The lights went out across Tyre Saturday for the first time since the war began, but finally there is a hint of optimism that the end may be in sight.

IBL EL SAQI, Lebanon — During Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, a Norwegian UN peacekeeper at a junction checkpoint stepped forward and hailed approaching Israeli military vehicles. He was gunned down on the spot.

King discusses Lebanon crisis with Prodi, renews support for Siniora’s plan to end war MARJAYOUN (Reuters) — Hizbollah fighters fought Israeli troops who seized a key town in southeast Lebanon on Thursday, as the United States and France moved closer to a breakthrough in diplomatic efforts to end the four-week-old …

NAJAF (Reuters) — A suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 120 on Thursday near one of Shiite holiest sites, the Imam Ali shrine in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. An Iraqi Sunni insurgent group said it had carried out the attack, the bloodiest since …

‘This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation’ — Bush LONDON (AP) — British authorities said they averted “mass murder” in the skies by thwarting an alleged plot to blow up passenger planes …

BEIRUT — Hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies in southern Lebanon on Thursday and aid groups said fighting and a ban on movement meant they could not reach thousands trapped in the area.

BEIRUT (AFP) — The medical relief organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) announced Thursday that it would defy an Israeli threat to bomb any vehicle moving south of Lebanon’s Litani River, an area that includes the port city of Tyre.

YAROUN — They move on foot by moonlight. They set up hilltop sniper nests and lookouts. They hit enemy forces at vulnerable points and then quietly retreat.

AMSTERDAM — Both Israel and Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon have been accused of war crimes during four weeks of conflict, but they are unlikely to go on trial anywhere but the court of public opinion.

BAGHDAD (AP) — About 1,500 people died violently last month in Baghdad — many shot execution-style by sectarian death squads, Iraqi officials said.