OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli minister said on Tuesday his country should exchange jailed Palestinian Intifada leader Marwan Barghouthi for an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza fighters more than a year ago.

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Haidar Abdel Shafi, who led the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid international peace conference in 1991, died in a Gaza City hospital early on Tuesday, officials said. He was 88.

DAMASCUS – Syrian participation in a US-sponsored peace conference could ease its troubled ties with the international community but Damascus is unlikely to back down on its terms, diplomats and officials say.