WASHINGTON — Washington and Tehran open their first substantial talks in 27 years in Baghdad today, with both countries setting modest goals and limiting discussions to ways to quell the chaos in Iraq.

LONDON (Reuters) — A Palestinian official said on Sunday missing BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston was alive and well and he hoped he would be released soon.

DAMASCUS —  Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, starting a second term after an unopposed referendum on Sunday, has repeatedly offered to resume peace talks with Israel, only to rebuffed by the Israelis and their US ally.

DAMASCUS  (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad cast his vote at a polling station at Damascus University on Sunday as part of a one-day public referendum to endorse him for a second term.

BAGHDAD (AP) — US and Iraqi troops raided Sadr City on Sunday, targeting Shiite insurgent cells in the Baghdad slum for a second day, while British forces stepped up pressure on Shiites in the southern city of Basra, killing three in an overnight operation, the US and British military said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM  (Reuters) —  A Hamas rocket attack from Gaza killed a man in Israel on Sunday and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged unlimited military action against the  group, saying “no one involved in terror” would be immune.

BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanon has given Palestinian factions until the middle of the week to negotiate a peaceful end to deadly fighting between the army and Islamists, a government source told AFP on Sunday.

AMMAN (Petra) —  His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday told US congressmen that the international community’s failure to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land would lead to further failures in the region.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A U.N. peacekeeper was killed in Darfur, the first U.N. casualty since the world body began sending small reinforcements to a beleaguered African Union force deployed in the violent western Sudan region, the AU and the United Nations said Saturday.

AFP – Afghanistan’s efforts to stem opium production have left 18 police dead and another 33 wounded this year, most of them in clashes during poppy eradication, a deputy minister said.