A test has shown activity in both lobes of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s brain, but he remains comatose and in critical but stable condition, Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem said today.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has promised freedom, jobs and homes for the people of Gaza once Israel completes its pullout.

Hundreds of Gaza pullout opponents barricaded themselves behind rolls of barbed wire in the synagogue of the hard-line Jewish settlement Kfar Darom today, as security forces surrounded the building on the second day of the forcible removal of settlers.

The Material Girl was flying to the Holy Land today on a spiritual quest.

Sporadic gunfire echoed through Najaf today after a night of heavy US bombing that saw radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr order his fighters to hand control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shiite religious authorities.

Suicide car bombers claimed responsibility for explosions in two synagogues in central Istanbul today, killing 23 people on the Jewish Sabbath, the interior minister said.

Palestinian gunmen infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the West Bank today and killed three residents, shortly after Israel ended its latest raid on a Palestinian city in search of militants, warning that it would pursue militants wherever it must.

Eight foreign aid workers appeared today before the Taliban’s Supreme Court, charged with preaching Christianity in Afghanistan.