Eurasia Press & News

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that he hoped the ceasefire with Lebanon could lead to a permanent peace deal, but Lebanon’s premier rebuffed the idea, saying his country would be the last Arab nation to make peace with the Jewish state.

GENEVA (AFP) — The number of people killed by cluster bombs in southern Lebanon since a ceasefire  two weeks ago has climbed to 13, and clearance teams face a tough task as they try to lower the risk, experts said on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Bombers killed nearly 50 Iraqis on Wednesday, mostly in Baghdad, but the top US commander said a security drive in the capital was making progress and local forces could largely be running Iraq within 12 to 18 months.

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community on Wednesday to “halt Israeli aggression” after nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops.

Monarch condoles Mubarak, writer’s family CAIRO — Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, died Wednesday at the age of 94, bringing tributes from literary figures and world leaders for an author who became a symbol of liberalism in the face of extremism.

VIENNA (AP) — A defiant Iran continued to enrich uranium up to two days before the UN Security Council’s deadline Thursday for Tehran to freeze such activity or face the threat of sanctions, UN and European officials said Wednesday.

SRIFA — Every window in Srifa’s main school has been blown out by Israeli bombs.

UNITED NATIONS — Britain on Tuesday circulated a revised draft resolution in the Security Council urging the deployment of UN troops in Sudan’s Darfur region with Khartoum’s consent, hoping to put it to a vote by Thursday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that the current tight arms race in the world has caused such vast and deteriorating global insecurity that no country feels safe anymore.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Larijani said that the US predictions about Iran’s nuclear move may not come true as its forecasts about Hezbollah’s conditions were not materialized.