Israeli forces have captured a top West Bank leader of the militant Islamic Hamas group, said by the army to have planned and ordered a string of suicide bombings which killed 55 Israelis.

Israel’s security chiefs have met to discuss the Jewish state’s response to a suicide bombing at a packed Tel Aviv fast-food restaurant during the Passover holiday that killed nine people and injured dozens.

A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up at a fast food restaurant in a bustling commercial area of Tel Aviv during the Jewish holiday of Passover yesterday, killing himself and nine people and wounding dozens in the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year.

Two people were killed as police fought with voters trying to break the police blockades of polling stations in opposition strongholds today, the final day of Egypt’s parliamentary elections.

US FORCES hunting down followers of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist pushed into a lawless region north of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border yesterday.

Gunmen have kidnapped the governor of Iraq’s western Anbar province and told his family he would be released when US forces withdraw from Qaim, the site of a major new offensive against followers of Iraq’s most wanted militant, relatives said today.