BAGHDAD (AFP) — US troops may start withdrawing from Iraq next March, a US general said Tuesday, as the new US ambassador to the volatile country pledged to help Iraqis crush a ruthless insurgency. As many as four or five US military brigades (up to 20,000 people) could leave then …

AN UNPRECEDENTED SUMMIT between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders broke up in Jerusalem on Tuesday amid bitter arguments and recriminations over continuing violence, yielding few tangible results. Palestinian officials at the meeting said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began the two-hour summit with a humiliating 20-minute lecture to Palestinian President …

BRUSSELS (AP) — Iraq’s justice minister said Tuesday that Saddam Hussein’s trial on war crimes charges will be over by the end of the year and accused the United States of trying to delay interrogations of Saddam. Abdel Hussein Shandal’s comments underlined the Iraqi government’s determination to bring the ousted …