BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq’s parliament, pushed to the brink of a midnight deadline, gave negotiators an extra week on Monday to complete a draft constitution after weeks of intensive talks failed to bridge sectarian and ethnic rifts. Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders now have seven more days to agree the …

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Powerful Somali warlord Hussein Mohammed Aidid said Monday he hoped to mediate an end to a bitter dispute in the lawless nation’s transitional government that has sparked fears of deepening anarchy. Aidid, the deputy prime minister in the government, travelled to Mogadishu on Sunday after a four-year …

THE DECISION BY Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull Israeli settlers out of the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank has shaken Israel’s Orthodox Jewish community to its foundations. Never before has an Israeli government relinquished what the religious population universally regards as holy land, promised to …