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JERUSALEM – ReutersIsraeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon phoned Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday to congratulate him on his election as Palestinian president and offer cooperation, the highest-level contact between the sides in nearly four years. But Palestinian militants resumed rocket and mortar fire at Jewish settlements in Gaza, signaling tough challenges ahead …

Ramallah- west Bank -AFP PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas has been elected Palestinian president with more than 62 percent of the votes cast, according to official results.Abbas obtained 62.32 percent of votes cast, streets ahead of his nearest rival Mustafa Barghuti who won 19.8 percent, the figures by the central elections …

Iraq- Baghdad George Shahbaz was leaving a church service in Iraq when a truckload of American soldiers ordered him to stop in his tracks. “Do you have a weapon?” a soldier asked. Shahbaz, a Turlock minister who was in the country working as a translator, had a ready reply. “Of …

WASHINGTON – Reuters President Bush reached out on Monday to newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with a proposal for direct talks and a White House meeting, and urged him to quickly bolster Palestinian security forces to take on militants. In the wake of the election on Sunday of Abbas, …

By Patrick Seale It is now clear that the proposed political process in Iraq is fatally flawed. If a way is to be found out of the present bloodstained impasse, a fresh start on a new basis is essential. The moment of truth in Iraq is fast approaching. The first …

Mosul,Iraq One of the most ancient monasteries in the world, St Matthew’s, stands on a barren mountainside in northern Iraq, its last inhabitant a crusty old Syrian Orthodox priest. Nestled between sandstone crags with views of the hills around ancient Nineveh, now called Mosul, it looks like the final redoubt …

When Syrian president Bashar al-Assad took over from his late father amidst a wave of optimism, he promised major political and economic reform. Four years on, BBC World Service’s Assignment programme visited Syria to assess the extent things have changed. Damascus- BBC Mr Assad promised much when he came to …

NAIROBI – Kenya – Reuters Bare-chested warriors danced and turbaned heads bowed in prayer while Sudan’s Islamist government and southern rebels forged a comprehensive peace Sunday ending Africa’s longest-running civil war. Sudan’s First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and rebel leader John Garang signed the accord in Kenya’s capital …

RAMALLAH- West Bank -AFP The Palestinian leadership election moved into overtime with PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas poised for a victory that world leaders predicted could lead to a revival of the moribund Middle East peace process.Voting had been due to end Sunday at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) but election organisers …

U.S. sends retired army general to assess military operations ? Compiled by Daily Star staffIraq‘s Shiite political front-runner Abdel-Aziz Hakim said Friday that the country’s Sunni minority would be guaranteed posts in the next government, regardless of the outcome of the elections. Meanwhile, the Pentagon, concerned over a bold and …