KHARTOUM (AFP) — Former southern Sudanese rebels met leaders of the ruling party in Khartoum on Saturday for the first time since a peace deal was signed last year to end Africa’s longest running war.

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were killed this week in Baghdad because they were wearing shorts, authorities said Saturday, one of a series of recent attacks attributed to Islamic fundamentalists.

GAZA (Reuters) — Hamas on Saturday rejected a deadline set by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept a plan that indirectly calls for recognition of Israel, which he has threatened to put to a referendum. Abbas had stunned the Islamist group by giving it 10 days to accept the plan, …