At the opening of their Amman trial, all six militants in custody pleaded not guilty before a Jordanian military tribunal to charges of firing rockets at two US warships docked in Aqaba Bay last August.

An Egyptian passenger ferry carrying around 1,300 people, mostly Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea overnight.

Coast Guard vessels have pulled dozens of bodies from the water today after an Egyptian passenger ferry carrying around 1,300 people (or up to 1,415 according to some reports), mostly Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea overnight.

Egyptian maritime director Mahfouz Taha Marzouk has said 12 survivors and 15 bodies have been picked up from a passenger ferry that has sunk in the Red Sea.

HUNDREDS of angry Jordanians rallied last night outside one of three hotels attacked by suicide bombers, shouting “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!”.

JORDAN is the homeland of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and has previously arrested scores of Islamic militants for plotting to carry out attacks in the moderate Arab kingdom.

At least 53 people were now believed killed and more than 300 injured after explosions rocked three hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman today.

Jordan has detained one of the four militants behind the weekend rocket attack on US warships in Aqaba bay, but it believes the other three have fled to Iraq.

The Iraqi government today criticised Jordan for allegedly allowing Saddam Hussein’s family to fund a network seeking to destabilise Iraq.

Police in Jordan today detained several suspects as the hunt widened for the militants who fired the rockets that narrowly missed a US Navy ship anchored off Aqaba.

An internet statement released by the al-Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades militant group claimed responsibility for today’s rocket attacks in Jordan and Israel.

An explosion was heard in Jordan’s port of Aqaba near a facility used by US military vessels, an official and Arab satellite TV stations said, but the cause of the blast was unclear.

Israel’s foreign minister offered peace talks to the Palestinians and Syria if they moved against violence, endorsing the US-backed “road map” peace plan again after a year of going it alone.

Prosecutors today said they will charge a 62-year-old Dutchman as an accomplice to genocide and other war crimes for supplying Saddam Hussein’s regime with lethal chemicals that were used in the 1988 chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja.

A Jordanian truck driver opened fire on a crowd of tourists crossing into Israel today, wounding five, in an attack near the Red Sea resort of Eilat that until now has been untouched by three years of Mideast violence.

Two gunmen tried to infiltrate a border crossing point from Jordan into southern Israel, wounding at least four people on the Israeli side of the border, Israel radio reported.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is preparing to meet in Jordan with leaders of Russia, the European Union and the United Nations in an effort to repair the tattered road map for peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians, US and diplomatic sources said yesterday.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is to meet officials from the UN, EU and Russia in a bid to get the Mideast road map to peace back on track.

US President George Bush arrived in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba today for crucial face-to-face peace talks with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers.

Palestinian and Israeli leaders were sitting down for face-to-face peace talks with George Bush today, as the US president attempted to build on the diplomatic momentum from his Arab summit.

ARAB leaders yesterday endorsed US President George Bush’s road map to peace in the Middle East and called on Israel to live up to its side of the deal.

President George Bush, in his first personal foray into Mideast peace talks, arrived in Egypt tonight pledging to “put in as much time as necessary” to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel eased some travel restrictions and the Palestinians predicted a ceasefire soon as they prepared for a crucial three way peace summit this week with US President George Bush.

The Israeli military has begun easing restrictions on the Palestinians, the first concrete results of a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers designed to smooth the path toward implementing a US-backed peace plan.

A Palestinian terror group linked to Yasser Arafat tonight threatened to scupper Mideast peace negotiations that Israeli and Palestinian leaders believed were making progress

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeated his offer last night to pull back troops from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but only if the Palestinians rein in the militant groups.

PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said he was convinced he could reach a truce with Hamas by next week, when he is due to join Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W Bush in a three-way summit in Jordan.

The Palestinian terror group Hamas could declare a limited ceasefire as early as next week, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said.

US President George W Bush plans to engage in a three-way summit in Jordan next week with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, the White House announced yesterday.

ISRAEL yesterday said US president George W Bush was likely to hold a summit with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers in Jordan next week to promote a US-backed “road map” for Middle East peace.

Fifty-two people have died after a bus carrying Muslim pilgrims careered off a road in Jordan and exploded into flames.

A Palestinian suicide bomber who killed himself and 14 others in a Jerusalem pizzeria wanted to avenge a recent Israeli attack on Hamas headquarters.

Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres was today leaving for the US to discuss peace efforts after talks in Egypt and Jordan about a ceasefire plan - but renewed violence between Israel and the Palestinians cast doubt on peace prospects.