Palestina

LEBANESE AUTHORITIES HAVE arrested two Palestinians in connection with a roadside bombing that targeted UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon last month, a security official said Thursday.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to hold legislative and presidential elections within six months, PA officials in Ramallah said Sunday.

President Mahmoud Abbas promised Palestinians on Tuesday their lives would improve as a result of his talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. “Many issues which affect the Palestinians in their day-to- day lives will be resolved,” Abbas told Voice of Palestine radio in his first public comments …

Ehud Olmert on Monday became the first Israeli prime minister to visit a Palestinian town since the outbreak of fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to talk about the creation of a Palestinian state.

Six months pregnant and exhausted, British mother Jessica Barhoum is still shocked that Israeli authorities ordered her, her husband and their baby out of bed at daybreak and pulverised their home.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Palestinian leaders Thursday that a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall is aimed at getting them closer to establishing an independent state and that Israel is ready now to discuss the main issues that need to be resolved.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed an agreement giving the Palestinian Authority $80m (£39m) to reform their security services.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned that Iran poses the biggest threat to US Middle East interests, as she begins a major regional tour.

WITH America determined to thwart Iran’s possibly nuclear-tipped ambitions, and the Islamic Republic set on blocking the superpower’s regional sway, some are calling the contest between Iran and the United States a new cold war.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced a proposed $13 billion military aid deal with Egypt and a $30 billion military package for Israel.