WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President George W. Bush’s plans to increase troops strength in Iraq on Wednesday as “not in the national interest”, an unusual wartime repudiation of the commander in chief.

BEIRUT (AFP) — Calm returned to Lebanon as roads were cleared and Beirut airport reopened on Wednesday after the opposition called off a general strike that sparked deadly street fights ahead of a donor conference in Paris.

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