OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — With his political fortunes plummeting after the summer’s war in Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scrambling to shore up his rickety coalition by courting a hardline party that favours redrawing Israel’s borders to exclude Arab citizens.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A witness in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial testified that the ousted leader’s agents ran a human trafficking ring that sold his sister and other Kurdish women in the 1980s. Defence lawyers and one of Saddam’s co-defendants on Wednesday immediately challenged the charge as hearsay based on a …

The seismological base of Southern Khorasan registered the quake at 03:27 hours local time (23:57 GMT). There are yet no reports on the likely number of casualties or damage to properties. Hectic fault lines have made Iran a host to frequent earthquakes of varying degrees in magnitude.