Lebanese officer killed as helicopter comes under fire

A Lebanese army officer was killed on Thursday when gunmen opened fire on a military helicopter flying over a village in a Hizbullah stronghold in the south of the country.

An army official said the helicopter was conducting a training mission over the village of Sejoud when it came under fire and was forced to make an emergency landing, adding that several members of the crew were also wounded.

A Lebanese army statement identified the dead officer as First Lieutenant Samer Hanna.

The incident occurred in an area near the border with Israel, which was the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbullah fighters and Israeli forces before their withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

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Sleiman urges world to open up to Syria

President Michel Sleiman on Wednesday urged the international community to open up to Syria because of its key role in the region.

"The international community must open up to Syria, following the example set by France, because Syria plays a fundamental role at the regional level," Sleiman said in a statement released by the presidential palace.

He made his remarks at a meeting with an American delegation led by Deputy Assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Near East Affairs David Hale.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to visit Damascus on September 3 and 4 in the wake of the announcement by Syria and Lebanon that they will establish diplomatic relations for the first time.

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Russia recognizes South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states

Russia formally rec ognized Tuesday the Georgian rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states in a new challenge which angered the Western powers.

President Dmitry Medvedev's declaration prompted bursts of celebratory gun fire in the streets of South Ossetia and Abkhazia but immediate censure from the US and its allies.

"We're not afraid of anything," Medvedev declared when asked on television if he feared the stand-off would lead to a new Cold War. Russia condemned a build-up of NATO ships in the Black Sea, said by the West to be delivering aid and conducting previously arranged exercises.

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Siniora says all parties committed to adopting electoral law inked in Doha

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Monday that all Lebanese parties were committed to implementing what was agreed on in Doha last May regarding the drafting of a new electoral law for next year's parliamentary elections.

"All parties are committed to implementing the Doha Agreement in this regard, but it is left for Parliament to decide whether to adopt the law at once or do that in different stages," Siniora told reporters after meeting President Michel Sleiman at the presidential palace.

Parliament is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss drafting the new electoral law amid conflicting opinions on whether Parliament should adopt the law on Tuesday or wait for further reforms.

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Choice of Biden shows Obama campaign refocus

Democrat Barack Obama got what he may need most when he chose Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate – a vice presidential candidate with encyclopedic foreign policy know how and a political brawler ready to take on Republican John McCain's frontal assault on his opponent's newness on the national stage.

Through the month of August – in the days leading up to the national party conventions – McCain whittled away at Obama's slight lead in the polls with relentless attacks designed to paint the first-term Illinois senator as an inexperienced celebrity-seeking elitist not ready for the White House.

While the 47-year-old Obama fought back blow-for-blow and even adopted some negative tactics himself, his campaign has not adopted the kind of visceral sharpness he is facing from McCain's operation.

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Twin suicide blasts kill 64 at Pakistan munitions factory

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside Pakistan's main army munitions factory Thursday, killing 64 workers in the deadliest attack on a military installation in the country's history.

In the second bombing to rock the feuding coalition government since President Pervez Musharraf resigned Monday, the attackers struck a crowd of workers leaving the huge complex in Wah, near Islamabad.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the atrocity and threatened to carry out further attacks if an army offensive against militants near the Afghan border is not stopped.

It's a massive attack," local police chief Nasir Durrani told AFP. "Two men apparently blew themselves up outside the factory during a shift change.

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Twin car bomb attacks kill 11 people in eastern Algeria

Two car bomb at tacks in eastern Algeria killed at least 11 people, state radio reported Wednesday, with the country still in shock from a suicide bomber who killed 43 people a day earlier.

At least 31 people were wounded in the latest attacks in the town of Bouira, one on a passenger bus and another near a military headquarters,Algerian radio said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but an AlQaeda group has staged several attacks in Algeria over the past year and has been involved in clashes with government forces in the oil and gas rich state.

Bouira is part of a so-called "zone of death" it forms with Algiers,Tizi Ouzou and Boumerdes where attacks have been rife.

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Some of Iraq's public art returns to Baghdad streets

Shahryar has recovered his hand and Abu Nuwas will soon be clutching his wine goblet again. Statues damaged during the US-led invasion are being restored to their former glory across Baghdad.

Legendary king of Samarkand in "OneThousand and One Nights," Shahryar is back on his pedestal near a statue of storyteller Sheherazade overlooking the Tigris River, complete with a new hand to replace the one hacked away by vandals.

Abu Nuwas, the famed eighth-century poet who wrote about wine and the joys of drinking, will soon recover the bronze cup spirited away by thieves after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime following the March 2003 invasion.

Craftsmen and artists commissioned by Baghdad municipality are busy restoring the cup and other items that have vanished since US-led troops entered Baghdad more than five years ago.

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In Georgia, Russia sends clear message United States, Israeli influence will not be tolerated

South Ossetian separatists, supported by Moscow,escalated their machinegun and mortar-fire attacks against neighboring Georgian villages last week. In response, Georgia attacked the separatist capital South Ossetian Tskhinvali with artillery to suppress fire. Tskhinvali suffered severe damage, thus providing the pretext for Moscow's invasion of Georgia. Russians in Abkhazia are also fighting the Georgians.

As Russia responded with overwhelming force, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew from the Beijing Olympics to Vladikavkaz, taking control of the military operations. Putin sidelined his successor, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, thereby leaving no doubt as to who is in charge. Medvedev's role is to handle the international diplomatic front which seems to be not on the table. Under Putin's orders, the 58th Russian Army of the North Caucasus Military District rolled into South Ossetia, reinforced by the 76th Airborne "Pskov" Division. Cossacks from the neighboring Russian territories moved in to combat the Georgians as well.

The Black Sea Fleet is blockading Georgia from the sea,while Russian ballistic missiles and its air force are attacking Georgian military bases and cities including Tbilisi.

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As national political and security conditions improve, resort town of Aley sees tourism resurgence

After three summer seasons filled with disturbing and depressing events, Aley is trying to make its way back on stage and recover its pre-Civil War title of "The Bride of Summer Resorts."

Aley is the first place one approaches when going up to Mount Lebanon along the Damascus Highway – other resorts like Bhamdoun and Sofar are further up the road. After the railroad linking Beirut with Damascus was built,Aley's location became the reason tourists preferred spending their summer vacation there. The small village of Aley eventually took on the urban features of a city, with a variety of shops, restaurants and cafes spread along the main street.

Aley's nights this summer have been lasting into the wee hours, as singers serenade Aley's streets and various neighborhoods of the Mount Lebanon town, which attracts domestic and foreign visitors, mostly Gulf Arabs.

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Tens of thousands attend funeral for Darwish

Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered for the state funeral on Wednesday for Mahmoud Darwish, the towering Arab poet who gave voice to their bitter decades-old struggle.

Darwish, considered the national poet of the Palestinians and the author of their 1988 declaration of independence, won a number of international prizes and is widely considered one of the Arab world's greatest writers.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presided over a ceremony attended by senior officials,Arab Israeli parliamentarians and dozens of foreign dignitaries at the Muqataa, his headquarters in the Occupied West Bank town of Ramallah.

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Divided Parliament approves new unity Cabinet

Lebanon's new na tional unity government won a vote of confidence in Parliament on Tuesday following stormy debates among rival lawmakers on the thorny issue of Hizbullah's arms.

"One hundred MPs have given their confidence to the cabinet, five voted against and two abstained," Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced to the assembly, which currently has 127 MPs.

The vote of confidence was made after 62 lawmakers delivered speeches in seven sessions which extended from Friday to Tuesday.

MPs Solange Gemayel, Bahij Tabbara, Atef Majdalani, Mohammad Kabbara, and Ousama Saad voted against, while MPs Ghassan Tueni and Elias Atallah abstained from voting.

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Jordan's king visits Iraq, urges Arabs to support country

Jordan's King Abdullah II held talks with Iraqi leaders on Monday on the first visit to Iraq by an Arab head of state since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.

The monarch went immediately on arrival in the Iraqi capital into talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before meeting Vice President Adel Abdel-Mehdi, officials said.

Discussions focused on means "to improve bilateral relations in all fields" and were "frank and positive," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

Maliki's hailed the ties between the neighbors.

"This visit will open a new page in relations between the two countries which will help to maintain the stability and security in Iraq and all the region," Maliki said.

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Washington must be ‘very clear' on timeline for withdrawal - Iraqi minister

The United States must provide a "very clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to stay beyond this year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Ze bari said on Sunday.

It was the strongest public assertion yet that Iraq is demanding a timeline. US President George W. Bush has long resisted setting a firm schedule for pulling troops out of Iraq, although last month the White House began speaking of a general "time horizon" and "aspirational goals" to withdraw.

Iraq's leaders have become more confident of their ability to provide security as the country has become safer. But attacks which killed at least 15 people on Sunday, including a US soldier, were a reminder it is still a violent place.

In an interview with Reuters, Zebari said the agreement, including the timeline, was "very close" and would probably be presented to the Iraqi Parliament in early September.

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Israel approves new settlement construction

Israel on Thursday approved construction of 400 new homes for colonists in a Jewish neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem and invited bids for construction of another 416 settler homes in the Occupied West Bank.

The Israeli Interior Ministry announced that a committee had approved a plan first unveiled in March to build 400 housing units in the Jewish neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities also called for bids for the construction of 286 homes in Beitar Ilit, a Jewish settlement in the Occupied West Bank, just south of Occupied Jerusalem.

They also called for bids for construction of 130 homes in Har Homa, a Jewish district in East Jerusalem,which Israel captured and annexed in 1967 in a move that has not been recognized by the international community as well as one that runs counter to international law.

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Israel transfers Fatah fugitives to West Bank

Israel sent dozens of Fatah members who had fled clashes in the Gaza Strip to the Occupied West Bank on Monday amid concern that others who returned to the Hamas-ruled territory were in mortal danger.

A total of 87 members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' party, which was largely expelled from Gaza when Hamas seized power there in June 2007, arrived in the desert town of Jericho in the Occupied West Bank.

Israel "decided to take the humanitarian decision to transfer to Jericho 87 residents of the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza because of the violence carried out by Hamas," Colonel Yoav Mordechai of the Israeli army said.

"We talked with them on the bus, and we told them that Jericho and the [Occupied] West Bank are different from the Gaza Strip and that the Israeli army controls this region. They have to respect the law," he said.

The Palestinians were among more than 180 Fatah members who had fled Gaza into Israel on Saturday following the deadliest clashes with their Hamas rivals since the Islamist movement seized control of the impoverished territory.

Israeli authorities initially said they would be sent back to Gaza, but eventually decided that those not considered a security risk could be taken to the Occupied West Bank, where Abbas' forces are based.

An Israeli security official said 16 members who were hospitalized for wounds sustained in the fighting will remain in Israel until they recover.

Another 13 were being held by Israeli internal security ser vices for questioning,the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said 60 Fatah members had been sent back to Gaza,where several were immediately detained for questioning by Hamas-run security forces.

The Defense Ministry said it halted the process when it "received information that they were being arrested by Hamas and that their lives were in immediate danger."

Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan had earlier said that 35 people had returned, adding that 10 of them had been arrested and the others had fled.

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Ahmadinejad assures Assad Iran is taking nuclear talks seriously

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday told visiting Syrian President and staunch regional ally BasharAssad that Tehran was serious about finding a practical solution to the nuclear crisis.

"We are serious in talks and we want the talks to be based on the law so it will bear practical results. We hope that other sides are serious too," Ahmadinejad told Assad in remarks broadcast live on staterun television.

On Saturday evening Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling his Syrian counterpart that Tehran "will not give up an inch on its nuclear rights."

His comments coincide with this weekend's US deadline for Iran to respond to an international package of incentives for it to freeze its drive to enrich uranium amid warnings of new sanctions if it does not.

After meeting Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili on July 19 in Geneva, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana asked for a response in two weeks, but "if it's in 16 days instead of 14 it's not a problem. We are not obsessed with a date," an EU diplomat said earlier on condition of anonymity.

The Syrian leader's visit fol lows a trip to Paris a month ago during which French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Syria to "persuade Iran" to prove that it is not seeking nuclear weapons.

"When we were in France we told them about the Syrian position on Iran's nuclear issue but they asked us if we have details of the Iranian program," Assad said on Sunday in Arabic through a translator.

"On this trip we got details, so in the future if we are asked again we know Iran's position." Iran has so far been slapped by three sets of Security Council resolutions demanding that it halt uranium enrichment. This process to produce fuel for nu clear power plants can also be used to make the fissile core of an atomic bomb if refined to significantly higher levels.

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Sleiman reminds troops of ‘duty' to preserve unity

The 63rd anniversary of anything is usually not one that gains particular notice.

Anniversaries in multiples of five usually hog all the attention.

But 63 years was a cause for major celebration on Friday at the Military Academy in the Fayyadieh district of Beirut, as scores of new military officers graduated and the Lebanese Armed Forces celebrated the anniversary of its formation as an independent fighting force in 1945. President Michel Sleiman headed the ceremony, After presenting the swords to graduates, Sleiman delivered a brief address to the assembled.

Pomp and patriotism were the order of the day as Sleiman stood in a white suit before the parade grounds and presented swords to graduating officers for nearly an hour. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Speaker of the House Nabih Berri, also in white, sat next to the president in gilt-edged chairs on a red carpet.

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Abbas vows to pursue peace with any Olmert successor

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that he would carry on working with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has announced that he would resign, and deal with any leader elected in his place as opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu called for early elections.

"We will work with any premier elected in Israel and we will continue with Ehud Olmert until the arrival of his successor," Abbas told a news conference at the end of a visit to Tunisia.

Abbas called Olmert's shock resignation an "internal matter" and added that he did not want "to become immersed in Israel's internal affairs."

Olmert, whose rule has been overshadowed by corruption allegations, announced Wednesday that he would step down as prime minister in September.

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