Fresh off a whirlwind yachting break, French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy returned to work with a meeting due today with Tony Blair.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced today that he would call new presidential and parliament elections at the earliest possible date, in a bold challenge to ruling Hamas militants that risked sparking a full-scale civil war.

Iraqi security forces today said they have arrested the head of an al-Qaida cell in a western Iraqi city, as the US military announced the deaths of two soldiers and a Marine.

The top Hamas leader today told Mahmoud Abbas that the Islamic militant group was ready for a political partnership after trouncing the Palestinian leader’s Fatah Party in legislative elections – a shocking upset sure to throw Middle East peacemaking into turmoil.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon underwent additional tests and evaluations in a Jerusalem hospital today after suffering a mild stroke.

AS Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was fighting for his life in a French hospital last night after slipping into a coma, a senior official said some of his powers had been handed to his prime minister.

AFTER a slugfest campaign that intensified through the year, US President George W Bush, voting in Texas, said “I’ve given it my all,” while John Kerry, campaigning in Wisconsin, promised to take the nation “to a better place”.

In an election that could rival the photo finish of 2000, US voters were today choosing between President George Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry.

Mourners today heard how Irish rugby legend Mick Doyle was a great giant of a man and a loveable character who touched every one he met.

A Palestinian blew himself up outside a packed cafe in northern Israel today, wounding 30 bystanders in what the Islamic Jihad group called “Palestine’s gift to the heroic people of Iraq”.

US President George W Bush has told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that his forces must withdraw from the West Bank immediately and expressed ‘‘deep concern’’ about the escalating offensive.

Israel’s largest military offensive in a generation, which allegedly included an assault on the birthplace of Christianity, tonight spurred President Bush into action.