THE CRISES IN Somalia and Sudan are pitting Arabs and African governments against each other, sharpening a centuries-old continental divide.

GENEVA (AP) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the United Nations’ human rights watchdog on Monday to focus its attention on Sudan’s war-ravaged region of Darfur, even as Muslim states demanded the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) address the Pope’s recent comments on Islam and alleged Israeli rights violations.

SANAA (AFP) — Veteran Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces his first real electoral test in 28 years in power Wednesday when the Middle East’s poorest country goes to the polls amid persistent Islamist and tribal unrest.

HEBRON — Ibrahim Zedat is a chemistry teacher, but he has been sneaking into Israel to work on a building site since a strike by Palestinian government workers over unpaid wages closed many schools.

BAGHDAD — Shuhada Mosque in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Shaab is covered in banners singing the praises of cleric Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army, in a building which intelligence reports claim is a centre of factional activities.

Staffers of the Headquarters for Promoting Prayer called on the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei on Monday, September 18.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underlined that the era of imperialism and big powers has come to its end.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Columbian Vice-President stressed his country’s full support for Iran’s right of access to peaceful nuclear technology.

A report published in the Washington Post concerning U.S. Marine intelligence Col. Pete Devlin assessing a dire state in al-Anbar governorate and prospects dim for improvement, is cited by the Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq in a statement issued on September 14, 2006.

Many adults in Russia believe their russian government should negotiate with Chechen mujahiddeen, according to a poll by the Yury Levada Analytical Center. 68 per cent of respondents believe their country should attempt to begin peace talks.