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More than 100 Kurds who fled Turkey in the early 1990s to escape fighting between the army and Kurdish separatists returned from Iraq on Saturday, security sources said.

Kuwait's highest court said Saturday it will rule next month on whether women should have the right to vote and run for office, or remain excluded from the political scene of this small oil-rich state.

A few thousand Kuwaiti men voted on Thursday to fill a parliamentary seat that could determine whether the country's women will gain the right to vote and stand for election.

Some 5,000 Kuwaiti men will go to the polls on Thursday to cast ballots in a parliamentary election that could determine whether the country's women will gain the right to vote and stand for election.

A Kuwaiti minister on Monday survived a no-confidence vote in the country's elected parliament in a dispute which could have forced the government to resign.

Kuwait said on Thursday that it had seized five vessels loaded with goods shipped from former occupier Iraq in violation of United Nations sanctions.

A prominent lawyer launched a court challenge Monday of the army's surprise decision to free Pakistan's former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, from prison and send him into exile in Saudi Arabia.

An Iranian court freed a leading secular journalist on Saturday after four months in jail, the official IRNA news agency reported.

A Lebanese teenager was seriously wounded on Sunday by an artillery shell that exploded while he was trying to defuse it, hospital officials in the southern town of Nabatiyeh said.

Lebanon on Saturday freed seven political prisoners, turned over to Beirut this week after being jailed in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that Damascus was willing to hand over to Beirut all Lebanese prisoners, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's press office said.

A leftist underground group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a police bus which left two officers dead and 11 others wounded, a news report said Tuesday.

Libya has begun to release 149 Egyptian fishermen detained for the past month on suspicion of fishing illegally in Libyan waters, a foreign ministry official said on Thursday.

Two people, one a 14-year-old boy, have been killed in clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, Palestinian Red Crescent has confirmed.

Israeli Premier Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are due to hold a summit in Egypt on Thursday, to discuss peace proposals put forward by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Peace talks could begin Tuesday

Mideast peace process limps along, shadowed by violence

Israeli Premier Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are due to hold a summit in Egypt on Thursday, to discuss peace proposals put forward by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Two people, one a 14-year-old boy, have been killed in clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, Palestinian Red Crescent has confirmed.

Two people, one a 14-year-old boy, have been killed in clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, Palestinian Red Crescent has confirmed.

In a rare move, a member of Iran's parliament called Tuesday for ending the house arrest of the country's most prominent dissident cleric.

Riding high on the political comeback trail, Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to show Israelis he is a changed man.

Ultra-nationalists express frustration

Former Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, front-runner in a prime ministerial election based on opinion polls, said Thursday he would not run against Prime Minister Ehud Barak unless the vote was also for parliament.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the front-runner in opinion polls, said Monday Israel was at

Fresh violence erupted in the West Bank on Tuesday as Palestinian and Israeli leaders studied U.S. proposals to revive peace talks.

Two people, one a 14-year-old boy, have been killed in clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, Palestinian Red Crescent has confirmed.

Lebanon said on Thursday that Syria was no longer holding any Lebanese political detainees.

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to seek re-election -- despite legal hurdles -- following the surprise resignation of Ehud Barak.

A 7O-year-old Palestinian man died on Saturday from wounds caused by Israeli gunfire during a confrontation on Friday between Israeli troops and Palestinians, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Mideast peace process limps along, shadowed by violence

A Palestinian held for three years on secret evidence without being charged walked out of jail a free man Friday, into the arms of his weeping family.

A high-ranking Palestinian police official, Abdul Muti Sabawi, has been killed in Gaza in an explosion.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat urged Washington and Moscow on Monday to save peace efforts from what he called Israel's military escalation.

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to seek re-election -- despite legal hurdles -- following the surprise resignation of Ehud Barak.

A Palestinian court on Thursday convicted a 25-year-old Palestinian laborer in the bombing death of an Islamic militant leader and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The World Bank said on Wednesday it would give $12 million to the Palestinian Authority to alleviate hardship in the West Bank and Gaza caused by Israeli restrictions on Palestinians working in Israel.

The Palestinians, Jordan, and Egypt are working on a plan to revive peace talks with Israel regardless of who leads the country, Palestinian officials said on Sunday.

The Pakistan military's pardon for ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his exile abroad was seen by analysts Monday as damaging its own anti-corruption drive while threatening the survival of an opposition alliance.

A Turkish parliamentary committee decided on Thursday to postpone examination of a proposed constitutional change that would make it more difficult to close political parties.

The Iraqi army moved several hundred troops into a Kurdish zone in northern Iraq last weekend but no shots were fired and the Iraqis have withdrawn, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.