KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah on Thursday issued a decree approving a 16-member new Cabinet that includes three Islamists and saw the exit of two leading liberal ministers. Six ministers in the new government are members of the ruling Al Sabah family — …

TRIPOLI (AP) — The leaders of Sudan and Chad have signed a peace agreement to end increasing tension, pledging to deny refuge to each other’s rebel groups and to normalise diplomatic relations. The agreement, signed late Wednesday, was reached after a day of talks hosted by Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States, which came under fire for abusing detainees in Iraq, has spent millions of dollars creating a new prison system there as part of a programme to revamp the criminal justice system from top to bottom. A Bush administration official, who asked not to be …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli officials played down Thursday talk of a rift with the United States after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected any unilateral moves to finalise the borders with the Palestinians. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is to lead the centrist Kadima Party into March 28 …

KARBALA (AFP) — More than a million Shiites, many beating their heads with knives, marked the mourning ceremony of Ashura Thursday amid heavy Iraqi security presence to prevent stampedes and attacks. Commemorations of Ashura, which remembers the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein in the southern Iraqi city …

KIRKUK (AFP) — Iraqi army units are searching for Al Qaeda members in a remote hilly area where they are believed to have fled after falling out of favour with tribal leaders in former strongholds. For the past two days, Iraqi army units, with US air support, have been moving …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel has long pursued a policy of preemptive attack as its preferred form of defence. But when it comes to tackling arch-foe Iran, that option may have been put on hold under a protective “umbrella” on offer from the United States.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian elections should send a lesson to rulers and politicians in the Mideast and the world that voters want stable governments that are not corrupt and can serve their people. Annan said he didn’t view …

Russia invites Hamas leaders to Moscow for talks GAZA CITY (AP) — Masked gunmen kidnapped an Egyptian diplomat in a brazen daylight attack Thursday that underscored the spiralling lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, and showed that no one — not even an official from one of the Palestinians’ most important …

– التفاهمات التي تلت أوسلو هي تفاهات – لا أريد أن أكون رئيساً – لايمكن الوثوق بالولايات المتحدة الأمريكية -دعمت ترشيح أبو مازن في منصب رئيس السلطة الوطنية منعاً للفتنة – أوسلو ماتت وانتهت – لا يحق للقدوة أن يقيل أو يعين طبقاً للصلاحيات التي قبلتها السلطة – المؤتمر السادس …