A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber standing in line at a crowded falafel stand blew himself up yesterday in the central Israeli town of Hadera.

A top Mideast envoy has criticised Israel in especially tough language for moving too slowly on negotiations to open Gaza’s borders, saying the country is behaving almost as if the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip never happened.

ISRAELI troops killed a top Palestinian fugitive and a close accomplice in a West Bank shoot-out yesterday, prompting threats of “unprecedented” revenge by the violent Islamic Jihad group.

Libyan international midfielder Saadi Gaddafi has stepped down from the Juventus board, clearing the way for him to make his playing debut with Perugia.

THE Israeli Cabinet yesterday approved an extension of a controversial security barrier — dubbed the ‘Iron Curtain’ by Palestinians — that would swing around Jewish settlements deep in the West Bank.

Israeli commandos today arrested a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group who was hiding under a parked car when he was seized in a West Bank refugee camp.

A DISPUTE over the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails deepened yesterday, as Israeli security officials warned that the Palestinian Authority will have to move soon against militant groups they say are using the break in Mideast fighting to rebuild.

IN 60 seconds, Street 602 in Baghdad’s Qadissiyah quarter was blasted into a scene from a nightmare, witnesses said yesterday.

IRAQ said yesterday it had nothing to hide over its arms programmes and that the United States was even welcome to send in CIA agents to direct UN inspectors to sites it deemed suspect.

ISRAELI media reported the country would go on high alert from January 15 in anticipation that hostilities would erupt in the month following January 27, date of a report to the UN Security Council

IRAQ yesterday said it was not worried by accusations that its weapons declaration to the United Nations contained little new, and said it would give UN inspectors a list of scientists linked to arms programmes.