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CNN.com delivers the latest breaking news and information on the latest top stories, weather, business, entertainment, politics, and more. For in-depth coverage, CNN.com provides special reports, video, audio, photo galleries, and interactive guides.

CNN.com delivers the latest breaking news and information on the latest top stories, weather, business, entertainment, politics, and more. For in-depth coverage, CNN.com provides special reports, video, audio, photo galleries, and interactive guides.

CNN.com delivers the latest breaking news and information on the latest top stories, weather, business, entertainment, politics, and more. For in-depth coverage, CNN.com provides special reports, video, audio, photo galleries, and interactive guides.

CNN.com delivers the latest breaking news and information on the latest top stories, weather, business, entertainment, politics, and more. For in-depth coverage, CNN.com provides special reports, video, audio, photo galleries, and interactive guides.

The Rolling Stones'

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will travel to the Middle East

Power may pass peacefully from the late President Hafez Assad to his son Bashar, but it will be considerably diminished in the passage -- which is why nobody's in a hurry to restart the stalled Israeli-Syrian peace talks. The elder Assad, who will be buried Tuesday, had been an air force officer who parlayed his position as defense minister into an iron-fisted presidency that began in 1970, mainta...

Israel's coalition crisis may have hobbled Prime Minister Ehud Barak, but he's not half as lame a duck as President Clinton. And that's why nobody's expecting any breakthroughs from Secretary of State Albright's Mideast visit this week. Barak managed to persuade the ultra-Orthodox Shas party to stay on board by doling out the cash and favors they'd demanded as the price for their support.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem Tuesday to determine if Israeli and Palestinian leaders have resolved enough of their differences to hold a summit aimed at putting together a final Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

With just seven months left in office, Bill Clinton is desperate for a foreign policy triumph. Anything that helps push the Monica Lewinsky scandal to a footnote when historians write his presidency. Moscow won't be any help.

Pass the rabbis some (political) pork and Israel's political

It may not be kosher, but pork is a staple of democracy -- and as the only democracy in the Mideast peace process, Israel is being reminded that that can make life difficult.

There's no better thumbnail sketch of the Mideast's shifting sands than an important funeral. As in the Cold War science of

It's not quite now or never, but certainly now-or-a-lot-later for Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat. President Clinton held talks with the Israeli leader in Portugal Thursday, hoping to jump-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian track of the Middle East peace process.

It's not quite now or never, but certainly now-or-a-lot-later for Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat. President Clinton held talks with the Israeli leader in Portugal Thursday, hoping to jump-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian track of the Middle East peace process. Both sides had previously committed themselves to concluding a final agreement by September, but that looks increasingly difficult as ma...

He may be of a new generation and Western-educated, a healer rather than a warrior by profession and a Netizen rather than a nationalist by instinct, but don't expect to see Bashar Assad even talking to Israel any time soon. No matter how much Washington cajoles, peace with the old enemy isn't going to feature on the agenda of a presumptive president whose priority will be political and even, perh...

American envoy Dennis Ross resumed mediation in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Tuesday, a day after deadly gun battles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip brought the two sides to the brink of a full-scale conflict.

American envoy Dennis Ross resumed mediation in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Tuesday, a day after deadly gun battles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip brought the two sides to the brink of a full-scale conflict.

The U.N. Security Council, after marathon negotiations, agreed Sunday to endorse Secretary-General Kofi Annan's verification that Israeli troops had pulled out of Lebanon.

The U.N. Security Council, after marathon negotiations, agreed Sunday to endorse Secretary-General Kofi Annan's verification that Israeli troops had pulled out of Lebanon.

The U.N. Security Council, after marathon negotiations, agreed Sunday to endorse Secretary-General Kofi Annan's verification that Israeli troops had pulled out of Lebanon.

For years, Saudi Arabia's government has indignantly dismissed charges it abuses human rights.

President Clinton met briefly Thursday with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to discuss her trip to the Middle East to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Britain distributed a compromise proposal Tuesday to extend the U.N. humanitarian program in Iraq and add some enhancements to improve the delivery of goods, diplomats said.