Middle Orient

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Beleaguered Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced increased criticism and plummeting polls Friday after returning empty-handed from a summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just as debate rages over sending more US troops to Iraq, there are differing views about whether economic incentives such as micro-loans and US-funded jobs programmes would coax fighters to trade guns for tools.

RAMALLAH (AP) — Israeli undercover troops burst into a West Bank vegetable market Thursday afternoon, seized four men and exchanged heavy fire with Palestinian fighers in the first major raid since the Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to try to ease tensions between the sides.

SHARM EL SHEIKH (AP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak firmly condemned Israel’s raid into the West Bank on Thursday as he met with Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert in a summit aimed reviving the long-stalled peace process.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq postponed executing two of Saddam Hussein’s henchmen Thursday amid international pressure following the ousted leader’s bungled and much criticised hanging.

Speaker of the House-elect Nancy Pelosi blows a kiss Thursday while receiving applause after being nominated for the post  at a swearing in ceremony for the 110th Congress in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A year after Ariel Sharon’s stroke abruptly propelled him into the prime minister’s seat, Ehud Olmert finds himself badly out of favour and under a darkening cloud of scandal.

RIYADH — Saddam Hussein’s unruly execution on the feast of Eid Al Adha by masked Shiite hangmen taunting him on the gallows has revived Sunni Arab fears that the Iraqi government is run by vengeful sectarian Shiites backed by Iran.

GENEVA (AP) — The trial and execution of Saddam Hussein showed that Iraq has failed to move on from the era of injustice it endured under the former dictator, a UN human rights expert said Thursday.

GAZA CITY (AP) — A resurgence in factional violence in Gaza on Wednesday killed five Palestinians, including a  woman, indicating that a fragile truce between Hamas and Fateh has collapsed. After nightfall, warring sides in southern Gaza agreed to stop the violence, but it was unclear if this would end …