officials said U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of increasingly bloody engagements in the region.

His Majesty King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday discussed efforts to ensure the success of the US-hosted international peace meeting to take place before the end of this year.

President Abdullah Gul warned Kurdish rebels on Thursday that Turkey’s patience was running out after Turkish forces said they had repelled a guerrilla attack near the Iraqi border.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet on Friday in an effort to bridge gaps over a joint statement being crafted for a US meeting, an official said.

Police in Basra have detained 267 foreign “criminals” as Iraq’s second city witnessed clashes between Shiite militiamen and security forces, officials said on Thursday.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak approved electricity and fuel cuts against Palestinians living in the impoverished Gaza Strip on Thursday in an effort to curb rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

It’s stalemate on the border with Iraq after Ankara slammed Baghdad’s proposals to deal with the PKK threat in the north of the country as “insufficient”.

It was a summit between Russia and the EU.However comments about American defence policy dominated headlines, with Vladimir Putin comparing US plans for a missile shield in Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

A prominent Iranian lawmaker dismissed US efforts to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran as a violation of the international rules and regulations, saying that the measure is indicative of the failure of Washington’s policies. 

Iran has decided to reopen its consulate centers in the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Suleymaniah, an Iranian official said here on Saturday.