OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli officials played down Thursday talk of a rift with the United States after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected any unilateral moves to finalise the borders with the Palestinians. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is to lead the centrist Kadima Party into March 28 …

KARBALA (AFP) — More than a million Shiites, many beating their heads with knives, marked the mourning ceremony of Ashura Thursday amid heavy Iraqi security presence to prevent stampedes and attacks. Commemorations of Ashura, which remembers the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein in the southern Iraqi city …

KIRKUK (AFP) — Iraqi army units are searching for Al Qaeda members in a remote hilly area where they are believed to have fled after falling out of favour with tribal leaders in former strongholds. For the past two days, Iraqi army units, with US air support, have been moving …