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A popular Cypriot bishop was acquitted of homosexuality charges by a specially convened council of top church officials, bringing to a close one chapter of a scandal that has shaken the Greek Orthodox church in Cyprus for months.

Cyprus is cracking down on illegal copying of computer software, a practice that accounts for as much as 70 percent of all software used at workplaces on the island, a legal adviser to the industry said Saturday.

Tens of thousands of Israelis danced to techno music Friday in the

Japanese and Egyptian archaeologists will conduct DNA tests on the mummy of child Pharaoh Tutankhamun next month to solve mysteries about his true identity, Egyptian officials said on Sunday.

Cairo airport officials on Friday foiled an attempt to smuggle 22 falcons worth about 2.2 million pounds ($560,000) to the United Arab Emirates by hiding them in crates of ducks.

For decades, one party has maintained a firm grip on Egypt's politics. The National Democratic Party probably will win most of the seats in the current three-stage legislative elections, but the results so far show that it is no longer unchallenged.

President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party comfortably held its majority in parliament but the opposition made gains in Egyptian elections, according to preliminary results published Wednesday.

Egyptian prosecutors on Monday remanded in custody 148 people suspected of involvement in clashes with police during parliamentary elections, security sources said.

Egyptians began voting in the run-offs for the third and final stage of a parliamentary election on Tuesday, witnesses said.

Police fired tear gas at protesting opposition supporters who appeared to be blocked from voting in the final stage of Egypt's parliamentary elections Wednesday, causing more than 50 people to be treated in hospital.

Iraq and Egypt have turned their interest sections back into embassies for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, but have yet to restore full diplomatic relations, an Iraqi diplomat said on Wednesday.

An explosion in the Gaza Strip early Monday wounded 12 people, four of them seriously, Israeli radio reported.

An explosion in the Gaza Strip early Monday wounded 12 people, four of them seriously, Israeli radio reported.

Thirteen people died and eight others were injured on Sunday when a bus and minibus collided on a south Egyptian road and plunged into an irrigation canal, security sources said.

Eleven schoolchildren were trampled to death on a stairway during a rush to leave a school in northern Syria, hospital sources said on Friday.

The European Union failed Thursday to placate Arab anger over its response to the Israeli killing of Palestinians in the violence gripping the Middle East.

The European Union opened a conference Wednesday with Israel and its Arab neighbors, maintaining a thin hope the forum could help tip the balance toward peace in the volatile region wracked by violence.

A former Israeli-allied militiaman was sentenced to death Saturday and 54 others received prison terms of anywhere from three weeks to 15 years for collaborating with Israel during its occupation of southern Lebanon.

Experts will use DNA tests on two mummies to solve a centuries-old mystery as to whether one of Egypt's most famous kings had truly pharaonic blood, archaeologists said Wednesday.

Israeli tank fire has killed four Palestinians outside a Jewish settlement in Gaza.

The wives of Arab leaders ended an extraordinary summit Monday with a call to eliminate legal and traditional obstacles keeping Arab women out of public and political arenas.

Five years after assassinating Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, his killer said Monday he had only one regret -- that he hadn't shot him earlier.

For many in an Arab world caught up in a 50-year-old conflict with Israel and convinced that the United States is biased in favor of the Jewish state, it makes little difference who occupies the White House next: Democrat Al Gore or Republican George W. Bush.

Former U.S. Senator and Northern Ireland mediator George Mitchell will chair a fact-finding commission to look into weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence, the White House said Tuesday.

Four dead, 60 hurt in Egyptian election violence

Four men have been arrested over the past two days and are being questioned about last month's bombing of the USS Cole in which 17 American sailors were killed, sources close to the investigation said Monday.

Israeli tank fire has killed four Palestinians outside a Jewish settlement in Gaza.

It looks official, but the

Freak storms lashed Cyprus for a third successive day on Wednesday, bringing badly needed rain but causing havoc with flooded roads and homes.

Oil companies can continue loading Iraqi crude onto tankers beyond Friday, but cannot pay for it until Iraq proposes prices for December that are in line with fair market prices, the U.N. sanctions committee on Iraq decided Thursday.

A group of Greek celebrities said they would fly to Iraq on Friday to protest against international sanctions on Baghdad.

Chana Pikar likens the nightly exchange of gunfire at her Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip to a symphony.

Masked gunmen attacked a bank in southern Egypt on Tuesday and at least six people were killed in a shootout, security sources said.

Hezbollah guerrillas mounted an attack against Israeli troops in a disputed southern area Thursday, declaring in a statement their right to the land and their support of the Palestinians.

Iraq revived one of its grandest cultural traditions Wednesday when more than 250 poets and intellectuals from Arab and other nations gathered for the opening of the Mirbad Poetry International Festival.

Hundreds of human rights activists and relatives of inmates marched through Ankara on Saturday to protest government plans to transfer prisoners to newly built prisons with smaller cells.

In an unusual move, Pope John Paul II Saturday named an Eastern rite patriarch to head a major Vatican office, a post in the past headed by cardinals of the Latin rite.

U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Saturday that oil-producing countries should consider boosting output to moderate prices, but Iran's oil minister suggested that Washington's sanctions against some exporters were to blame for market instability.

Iran's minister of health warned on Sunday that the AIDS virus was a

As legislators chanted

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami challenged the conservative-led judiciary Wednesday to defend Iran's constitution, the latest salvo in an escalating war of words between the two branches of government.

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami may boycott an important Islamic summit in Doha this month to protest Qatar's commercial ties with Israel, a senior official in the Iranian president's office said Sunday.

For the first time since his 1997 election and in the clearest sign yet of the ongoing power struggle in Iran, President Mohammad Khatami accused his hard-line opponents Sunday of constitutional violations and said he was powerless to stop them.

A decision by U.S. President Bill Clinton to extend economic sanctions against Iran for another year would mainly hurt U.S. companies, Iran's oil minister said Saturday.

Iran's constitutional watchdog body on Thursday approved legislation passed by parliament allowing local courts to impose punitive damages on the United States for

Iran's top investigative journalist accused security forces of torturing him while he was in detention and showed reporters bruises on his face and body during a court appearance Thursday.

Iran's most popular woman politician went on trial in a Revolutionary Court on Tuesday, a day after the prosecutor said he was seeking a possible death penalty for a co-defendant.

Iran's conservative judiciary has ordered a close aide of moderate President Mohammad Khatami in charge of overseeing elections to appear before a court for interrogation.