Middle Orient

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain hopes a peace plan for Lebanon can emerge within days that could lead to a ceasefire, but only after details are worked out for an international force, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike aimed at the home of a suspected militant in the Gaza Strip wounded seven people from surrounding houses early on Tuesday, local residents said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his country will not slide into civil war but acknowledged that mounting sectarian violence is now killing 100 civilians a day.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pakistan is building a new nuclear reactor that could produce enough plutonium for 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year in what would be a major expansion of its nuclear

BAGHDAD (AP) — American troops are stepping up operations in the Baghdad area to combat “death squads” and dampen down the violence threatening the new unity government, a US general said Monday.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Saddam Hussein’s half-brother argued with the chief judge Monday and accused a court employee of shaking down a relative for money as the trial entered its final phase

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict has displaced Sroor and her family from their neighborhood near Beirut’s airport.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Lebanon on Monday and insisted Hizbollah must release two Israeli soldiers and pull back from the border before any ceasefire, Lebanese politicians said.

 Rice told Fouad Siniora that there could no ceasefire until Hezbollah released two Israeli soldiers captured during a raid and pull back from the border with Israel, a Lebanese source said.

 “Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Dahaya district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa,”