AMMAN (AFP) — Key Middle East players were hopeful Saturday that a UN Security Council resolution would bring an end to the Lebanon conflict, even as Israel expanded its military offensive.

BEIRUT — Heavy fighting between Israel and Hizbollah fighters paralysed efforts to reach 100,000 people trapped in southern Lebanon on Saturday, aid workers said, despite a UN Security Council resolution to end the war.

BAGHDAD (AP) — US forces raided a funeral gathering and detained 60 men suspected of links with an Al Qaeda cell blamed for a spate of car bomb attacks in Baghdad, the US military said Saturday.