CAIRO — Iran’s president threw a deft trump card into his standoff with the West on Monday when he dispatched a letter to US President George W. Bush proposing “new solutions” to the crisis — a diplomatic overture that vastly complicates US hopes for UN Security Council sanctions to punish …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq’s political parties inched closer to sealing a deal on a unity government as Prime Minister-designate Nuri Maliki sketched out the sectarian balance among parliamentary blocs, officials said on Monday.

FOREIGN MINISTER Abdul Ilah Khatib left Monday for New York to join a meeting today of the Quartet of diplomatic powers seeking Middle East peace and hoping to revive its stalled efforts and unify its approach to the  new Palestinian leadership.