CAIRO — Arabs across the Mideast on Wednesday criticised an Israeli ground offensive into Gaza aimed at pressuring Palestinian fighters to release a captured soldier, even as Arab leaders continued to work behind-the-scenes to get the soldier freed.

Israeli warplanes have flown over one of the Syrian president’s palaces to warn Damascus against supporting Palestinian fighters who abducted an Israeli soldier, the Israeli army says.

GAZA CITY (AP) — A Palestinian group said Tuesday an abducted Israeli soldier was alive in a “secure place”, as thousands of Israeli and Egyptian troops massed along the borders with Gaza in anticipation of an Israeli invasion.

The United States invasion of Iraq in March-April 2003, and the occupation of the country since then, has cost more than three thou­sand American lives and many tens of billions of dollars, and has brought death to tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Taliban shot down a US helicopter in Mirabad area of Uruzgan province at night, June 24. The chopper was targeted with an anti-aircraft missile which left all the people onboard dead.

An Iraqi Mujahideen group posted a web video showing the execution of three of the four Russian spy “embassy workers” captured earlier this month in Iraq.

Tehran says any talks must be ‘without preconditions’BERLIN (Reuters) — Germany made clear to Iran on Saturday it must halt uranium enrichment if it wants to negotiate with six world powers on an offer of incentives aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff with the Islamic republic.

KUWAIT — Kuwaiti women competing for the first time in a general election are shattering social taboos and campaigning in the uncharted territory of the all-male “diwaniya”, the Gulf Arab state’s version of a gentlemen’s club.

DUBAI — Construction worker B. Lal arrived in the affluent Gulf Arab city of Dubai more than a year ago, hoping to end the grinding poverty of his family in India.

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian judges rejected Friday a bill on the judiciary, with their elected body saying it does not ensure judicial independence and allows the state to retain too much power.