President Bush is making a new push for Middle East peace. VOA White House correspondent Paula Wolfson reports he is calling for an international conference this year to move the peace process forward, and is pledging to increase aid to the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas.

President George W. Bush on Monday called for a Middle East peace conference later this year and pledged $190 million in new aid to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A suicide truck bomber ripped through a busy commercial district in Kirkuk on Monday afternoon, leaving a large crater surrounded by dozens of mutilated bodies, police and military officials said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said on Monday he expected the privatisation of Banque du Caire to raise more than $1.6 billion in a public auction that would be open to foreign bidders with no restrictions.

An Egyptian official has cast doubt on the authenticity of a recently-released Fatah video showing Hamas members planning the assassination of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas via a tunnel bomb, Israel Radio reported on Monday morning.

Cairo ­ International figures, representatives of international rights groups, journalists and members of the legal profession, continue to huddle around Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood following a trial session of its top members that was described as “shameful” and its legality was seriously questioned.

An Egyptian military court barred former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark from observing a trial session on Sunday for 40 opposition Islamists on charges that include money-laundering and terrorism, an Islamist source said.

Egypt’s powerful chief of intelligence, who acts as a key diplomatic link with the United States and Israel, flew to Washington on Sunday for talks with administration officials on bilateral ties and Mideast issues, officials said.

Egypt’s main stock indexes rebounded on Sunday from last week’s correction, carried by a strong rally in the housing sector and a rise in investment bank EFG-Hermes, traders said.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s new ambassador to the United Nations Organization Mohammad Khazayee left Tehran for New York on Tuesday to start his mission in the world body. Khazayee told FNA here today that he would start his mission at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday.