Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said the United States is “very concerned” about the plight of the Palestinians and pledged to improve living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Islamic militants to cooperate with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying the Hamas government cannot govern in the region.

Syria, one of Hezbollah’s main backers, said in remarks published today that it will press for a ceasefire to end the fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group but only in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative, signalling it was ready to help defuse the Lebanese crisis.

Two Palestinians helped fund and train members of an Egyptian terrorist group blamed for bombings in Sinai, authorities said today.

The father of September 11 hijack leader Mohammed Atta has insisted his son did not carry out the 2001 attacks, blaming a “Jewish conspiracy” for the outrage.

Hundreds of Bill Clinton fans queued outside bookstores across America today to get their hands on the former president’s hotly-anticipated autobiography.

Anti-Israel demonstrations erupted across the Arab world today after Israel assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, with a missile attack outside a Gaza City mosque.

Yasser Arafat’s wife today accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of being behind reports of a probe by French prosecutors into alleged transfers of millions of pounds to her Paris bank accounts.

PALESTINIAN leader Yasser Arafat declared the roadmap for peace plan dead as his rival, Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas, said he would quit if he doesn't win a vote of confidence.

A bomb that blew apart a Jerusalem university cafeteria, killing seven people, claimed victims from around the world, in what an Islamic terror group said was revenge for an Israeli attack.

Osama bin Laden today continued to taunt the United States-led coalition ranged against him with a new video message accusing the allies of ‘‘exterminating’’ innocent Afghan civilians.

Hackers yesterday knocked out the Internet website of the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

Former US president Bill Clinton was today set to meet survivors of the IRA Poppy Day bombing massacre and launch a peace project on the site of the 1987 blast which killed 11 people.