WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States has stepped-up contacts with some Iraqi insurgent groups in a bid to exploit tensions between home-grown rebels and foreign militant groups such as Al Qaeda, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

RABAT — The first of more than a dozen new towns designed to relieve overcrowding in Moroccan cities and empty the country’s slums will be ready for inhabitants this year, Housing Minister Ahmed Taoufiq Hejira told Reuters.

RAMALLAH — One year after his election, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas faces an increasingly uncertain future with the demise of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and a spiralling security crisis.