Meast [4]

Israeli police said they would partially lift security restrictions to allow all Palestinian Muslims from Jerusalem to attend Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque over the holy month of Ramadan.

A Palestinian gunman has killed an Israeli soldier and wounded two others before being shot dead during fresh clashes in the Gaza Strip.

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

Israel will reopen the Gaza International Airport on Friday as part of a variety of confidence-building measures meant to bring an end to more than two months of bloodshed, a Palestinian official said.

Israel, which has been told it faces sanctions unless it clamps down on money laundering, said Wednesday it would set up a financial intelligence unit to fight the practice.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged Iraq on Monday to permit the return of U.N. weapons inspectors as part of a deal to lift the U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged Iraq on Monday to permit the return of U.N. weapons inspectors as part of a deal to lift the U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990.

Bombs, clashes and siege conditions make Kfar Darom an unlikely draw for newlyweds Sarah and Nachshon Friedman who moved to the Jewish settlement in Gaza just before a wave of violence shuddered through the region.

Women for and against praying aloud from the Torah at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, argued their cases Sunday before an expanded Supreme Court panel that agreed to rehear the controversial issue.

Jordan's lower house of parliament re-elected Abdul Hadi al-Majali Speaker for a third year in a row on Saturday, officials said.

Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu al-Ragheb arrived in Baghdad Wednesday, the highest-ranking Arab official to visit Iraq for a decade, Iraqi airport officials said.

A Jordanian plane left for Baghdad late Thursday with fare-paying passengers in a symbolic protest against a U.N. ban on regular commercial flights to Iraq.

Jordan has agreed in principle to help Iraq rehabilitate six of its U.S.-built civilian aircraft grounded in Amman for nearly 10 years, the Jordan Times reported on Friday.

An Iranian citizen has filed a lawsuit in a local court for the release of billions of dollars of Iranian assets frozen in the United States, newspapers said on Tuesday.

Thousands of supporters of Turkey's main Kurdish party gathered for a congress on Sunday, confident that steps towards EU membership will help see off the threat of a party ban for alleged ties to armed rebels.

Kuwait's court of cassation said on Monday it will hear defense arguments in December in the case of Alaa Hussein, a Kuwaiti sentenced to death for heading a puppet government under Iraq's occupation.

Kuwait's elected parliament agreed on Monday to formally question a Cabinet minister accused by some deputies of failing to carry out his duties.

An appeals court overturned the acquittals of four men accused of assaulting a college student because they considered her improperly dressed and sentenced each of them Monday to a year in prison.

Kuwait is immunizing livestock against Rift Valley Fever which has killed at least 187 people on the Arabian Peninsula in recent weeks, an official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Three Kuwaiti MPs called on parliament Saturday to question a senior minister, in a move that could trigger a fresh political crisis in the OPEC state.

Police have arrested three Kuwaitis on charges of planning terrorist attacks in and outside the country, the government said Thursday.

Kuwait's parliament decided on Monday to hold a no-confidence vote on December 4 against a cabinet minister following a 12-hour questioning session.

The Kuwaiti coast guard seized an Iraqi ship Friday that was carrying 280 tons of crude oil allegedly being smuggled out of Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Leah Rabin, widow of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, died Sunday of cancer at the age of 72, hospital officials said.

Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's 30-man Cabinet won a vote of confidence Monday after a five-day parliamentary debate dominated by the divisive issue of Syria's presence in Lebanon.

A military court sentenced 25 people, mostly former Israeli-allied militiamen, to prison terms ranging from three weeks to three years after convicting them of collaborating with Israel during its occupation of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said on Thursday roadside bombs detonated by its guerrillas hit an Israeli military patrol in the disputed Shebaa Farms on the border with Israel.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon demonstrated on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of a symbolic declaration of independence made from Algiers 12 years ago.

Lebanon accused Israel on Thursday of harboring aggressive intentions towards it and warned it would offer a

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called on Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore to share the U.S presidency to spare the United States civil war.

An envoy of the Libyan president is in Iran with a message for the Iranian president asking him to boycott an Islamic summit in Qatar unless the tiny Gulf Arab nation agrees to sever ties with Israel, an Iranian official said Tuesday.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has dismissed a French appeals court ruling that he could be prosecuted in France over the 1989 bombing of an airliner in which 170 people died. Gadhafi called the ruling an act of spite.

Members of a messianic Shi'ite Muslim group go on trial in the Revolutionary Court on Saturday, providing a rare glimpse of hidden theological tensions in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

CNN Correspondent Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report.

The Israeli army, battling a Palestinian revolt in the West Bank and Gaza, came under attack in the Lebanese border area as Prime Minister Ehud Barak tried to enlist Egypt's help in peace negotiations.

Six children were injured when a mine dropped by U.S. and British forces during the 1991 Gulf War exploded in southern Iraq, the state INA news agency reported on Saturday.

Iraq flew two civilian planes to its south and north on Monday, a day after it resumed domestic flights through Western-imposed no-fly zones, the Iraqi News Agency INA reported.

Iran will begin the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on Tuesday, when the new moon will be visible to the naked eye throughout the country, the official IRNA news agency said at the weekend.

A Saudi Arabian minister has cautioned against speculation over the motives behind an explosion that killed a Briton in the capital Riyadh.

An outspoken Syrian deputy cast doubt on Monday on the ability of his government to live up to wide expectations of economic reforms, saying it had failed to take concrete steps towards liberalization.

Leaders of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims began a summit on Sunday calling for tough action against Israel for what they said were war crimes against Palestinians.

Fresh attempts have failed to gain the freedom of a Swedish man held hostage in Yemen for more than two weeks after tribesmen holding him renewed their demands, government officials said on Wednesday.

A new round of U.N.-sponsored talks aimed at ending the 26-year division of Cyprus opened on Wednesday with a downbeat assessment of prospects from the U.N. special envoy on the issue.