Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has called for early elections in the Palestinian territories, denouncing Hamas and declaring “even the devil cannot match their lies”.

The U.S. military on Wednesday announced the arrest of a senior leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, an insurgent who, the military said, is casting himself as a “conduit” between the top leaders of al Qaeda and al Qaeda in Iraq.

Ahmed Hussein may well have one of the scariest jobs in Egypt. Every morning, at about 7 a.m., he takes his position in the middle of some street, somewhere in this city of two million vehicles, and tries to direct traffic.