WASHINGTON – US President George W. Bush on Saturday threatened to veto emergency money for Iraq and Afghanistan if it includes measures aimed at forcing a US withdrawal or unrelated domestic spending. “Congress needs to approve emergency funding for our troops, without strings and without delay. If they send me …

Lebanese troops on Saturday set up checkpoints and searched cars going in and out of a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli where a militant group blamed for last month’s deadly bus bombings is based, camp residents and military officials said.

Masked gunmen fired on a UN convoy yesterday on Gaza’s main north-south highway after trying to kidnap a high ranking official from one of the vehicles.

In Iran 300 has triggered bewilderment and anger. Just off Tehran’s central Haft-e Tir Square, customers cram into a shop selling bootleg DVDs to flip through pirated action and art-house films while an employee keeps a lookout on the street for approaching police.

Multiple suicide bombings struck areas in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, and about 350 Iraqi civilians and six US troops had to be treated for exposure to chlorine gas, the military said today.

The new Hamas-Fatah coalition was to set to clear a final formal hurdle today, approval by the parliament, before taking on the challenge of persuading a sceptical world to end a crippling year-long boycott of the Palestinian government.

A suicide bomber driving a tanker truck detonated his explosives in a line of cars waiting to enter Fallujah, killing at least six people and wound dozens, police said today.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the complementary role the Iranian and Syrian nations play has established the best type of brotherly ties between the two countries beyond cordial relations or common interests.

Islamic Republic’s Prosecutor General Dorri Najaf-Abadi described the Warner Brothers film ‘300’ as a great insult to the Iranian nation, and reminded that no one can raise doubts about the identity and grandeur of the Iranian nation.

Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Utri stressed the need for the consolidation of Tehran-Damascus ties under the present sensitive juncture of time, reminding that Iran and Syria are, as always, siding with each other to develop regional stability and security.