SOFIA (Reuters) — President George W. Bush said on Monday it was a high priority for the United States to win the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with HIV.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House Sunday backed an eventual withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq after a report said detailed plans are afoot to retain a smaller military presence in the war-torn country for years.

CAIRO (AP) — Elections for Egypt’s upper chamber of parliament turned violent Monday as one man was killed in clashes between ruling party supporters and independents outside a polling station in the northern Nile Delta region, police and state television reported.

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Renewed Palestinian factional fighting killed 11 people on Monday in Gaza, where gunmen fired on government offices forcing ministers to interrupt a Cabinet meeting.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US troop losses in Iraq topped 3,500 after a bridge bombing near Baghdad on Monday, as Britain’s visiting future prime minister rejected domestic calls for a probe into the war’s failings.

NAHR BARED (AFP) — Two Red Cross workers and three soldiers were killed on Monday around a besieged camp in northern Lebanon where the army has struggled to crush Islamist gunmen for the past three weeks.

Monarch in Cairo today for talks with Mubarak AMMAN (JT) — King Abdullah on Monday reiterated that there is no question of forming a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation or federation at the current time, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

One person has been killed in violence outside a polling station in Egypt’s northern Nile Delta region, as Egyptians go to the polls in parliamentary elections. A number of opposition groups boycotted Monday’s election, the first held under constitutional amendments approved by a referendum in March, but the Muslim Brotherhood …

A court in Ethiopia has found 38 senior opposition figures guilty of charges connected to mass protests after disputed elections two years ago.  The charges ranged from armed rebellion to “outrage against the constitution”.

Pakistan’s suspended chief justice has won the first round in a lengthy legal battle with the government. The Supreme Court decided on Monday to consider his challenge against accusations of misconduct.