LONDON (AFP) — Israel has plunged the Palestinians into unprecedented levels of poverty and despair through 40 years of occupation, yet failed to ensure its own security, Amnesty International said Monday.

KHARTOUM — Business leaders managing Sudan’s economic boom predict the new US sanctions imposed because of Darfur will have little impact on this country’s oil-based economy, mostly because they avoid targeting key Chinese interests here.

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Violent attacks and retaliation by security forces led to the deaths of two police officers and five civilians in Mogadishu Monday, a day after Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammad Gedi escaped a suicide car bomb attack.

ISTANBUL — Turkish women are on the street protesting as never before as the fight to preserve Turkey’s secular status gives them a louder political voice that could translate into parliamentary seats in this summer’s elections.

TUNCELI, Turkey (Reuters) — At least eight Turkish paramilitary police were killed when Kurdish rebels attacked their headquarters in eastern Turkey on Monday, security sources said, in the worst attack of its kind in a year.

CAMP ANACONDA (Reuters) — The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said on Monday it was too early to judge whether a Baghdad security crackdown was successful because the last of five extra brigades had yet to be deployed.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli and Palestinian peace groups are staging demonstrations this week to protest at 40 years of Israeli occupation following the 1967 war that changed the shape of the Middle East.

GAZA (Agencies) — The Hamas-led Palestinian government endorsed on Monday President Mahmoud Abbas’ proposal for a ceasefire between fighters and Israel, a Cabinet spokesman said.

SIDON (AFP) — Deadly firefights in a Palestinian camp in south Lebanon and a bus bombing in the capital opened new fronts for the army on Monday as it battles to crush an Al Qaeda-inspired group in a 16-day standoff in the north of the country.

At least eight Palestinian Muslims were rounded up by the invaders and occupant troops in a number of raids in the West Bank cities of Jenin, Qalqilia, and Ramallah in the early hours of Monday morning.