BEIRUT — Rarely have Western news organisations wooed Arab hearts and minds so avidly — or with so little certainty of political or commercial reward.

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah approved Monday a new 16-member Cabinet that remains dominated by the ruling family despite the opposition’s victory in June elections.

BAGHDAD — While condemning in public the sectarian death squads that gunned down 40 people on Sunday in a Sunni part of Baghdad, some Iraqi Shiite leaders say in private retaliation for Sunni insurgent bomb attacks is understandable.