More than 30 bodies recovered from a plane that crashed on a Thai island have not been unidentified because they were so badly burned, officials said today.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jordan today for talks that the Jordanian government hopes will culminate in renewed American efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Politics – and not religion – is at the heart of the growing rift between the West and the Muslim world, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday after scholars, politicians and religious leaders convened in Turkey to discuss ways to improve the increasingly violent relations between the societies.

The US elections are front page news in almost every newspaper in the Middle East.

BREDA C SMITH (Irish Examiner letters, July 8) appears to be at least as ignorant as she claims Damien McBride (July1) to be in relation to the genesis of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Jordan’s King Abdullah today flew to London for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the future of Iraq and how to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The makers of Sesame Street are planning a Belfast-based version of the children's show.

An Israeli government official today accused Egypt of trying to meddle in politics – bringing into the open a rift over Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s overtures to the Israeli left and his harsh criticism of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

President Bush planned to press for the creation of a Palestinian state last month but the terror attacks in New York and Washington put the move on the back burner, a senior US official said.