In his little office at Stony Brook University east of New York City, the former director of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad has hung a maxim of Martin Luther King: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”

The White House said Tuesday the international meeting on the Middle East proposed by President George W. Bush should not be viewed as “a big peace conference” and it is too early to say where or when it will be.

About 100 Palestinians smashed doors and windows inside an airport building in this Egypt-Gaza Strip border town early Tuesday after being trapped there for more than a month since the border’s closure, police and one of the rioters said.