Arab rulers secretly lobbied America to launch air strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme according to leaked US diplomatic cables, it was reported tonight.

Clashes in Darfur between Arab nomads and south Sudan’s army along the country’s volatile north-south border left dozens dead and more wounded, Sudanese officials said.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the divided Security Council to work toward a speedy end to the escalating crisis in Gaza and planned to meet today with Arab ministers flying to New York to press for an immediate halt to the violence.

THE article by Palestinian Delegate-General Dr Hikmat Ajjuri (Irish Examiner, November 12) regarding the origin of Israel and the current state of Israeli-Palestinian relations was not only bitterly partisan and inflammatory, it was riddled with untruths and historical inaccuracies.

YOUR editorial (‘Aggression will not end this insanity’, January 22) ignores the fundamental issues that led to the current situation in Gaza.

Arab states became increasingly worried today about the worsening situation in Gaza following Israel's fuel cuts.

An Arab wanted in connection with the failed bomb plots in London has been deported from Thailand to the UK, news reports said today.

A five-month ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza was threatened when Hamas called for retaliatory attacks after weekend army raids killed nine and moderates called for cutting contacts with Israel.

Iraqi president Jalal Talabani fell ill yesterday and was taken unconscious to a hospital before being flown to neighbouring Jordan for a medical check-up, medical and government officials said.

Arab leaders were deeply sceptical today of the US plan for Iraq, a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to sell it to them.

SAUDI ARABIA and other Arab states are expected to speed money within days to the Palestinian Authority to help keep it afloat after Israel halted its tax payments.

US and Iraqi troops swept into the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar early today, conducting house-to-house searches and battering down walls with armoured vehicles in a second bid to clean the city of militant fighters.

“ABBAS is Jewish, Abbas is Jewish,” chanted 41,000 delirious Israelis after the Bnei Sakhnin midfielder had equalised against Ireland at the Ramat Gan Stadium. The irony of it all wasn’t lost on any of them.

SEYMOUR HERSCH’S allegations that US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon were behind the decision to abuse the Arab prisoners sexually so that they would talk must be taken seriously.

The kings of Bahrain and Jordan today urged the US and British forces in Iraq to swiftly hand over the government of the country to the Iraqi people.

IRAQI President Saddam Hussein yesterday called an emergency session of parliament to consider the UN resolution to disarm, while Arab ministers indicated he was ready to accept the document.

Fighters in Afghanistan’s civil war have held their fire as health workers fanned out to immunise children against polio during a temporary truce.