Israel’s foreign minister said today his country would not negotiate with a new Palestinian government that included the Hamas militant group.

A passenger plane travelling from the UK to Egypt made an unscheduled landing tonight after a note containing a bomb threat was apparently found on board, airport officials said.

Arab nations have backed indirect peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, which could pave the way for the start of long-stalled US-brokered negotiations.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Micheál Martin is expected to attempt to enter the Gaza Strip tomorrow.

US President Barack Obama challenged Iran’s government to halt a “violent and unjust” crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Tehran’s post-election response.

US President Barack Obama says he will use next week’s speech in Cairo, Egypt, as an effort to improve America’s image in the Muslim world.

Canadians are being invited to hurl their footwear at Montreal’s US Consulate on Saturday in solidarity with an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George Bush this week.

A SON of Osama bin Laden who grabbed headlines by marrying a British woman last year has flown to Spain and requested asylum, the Spanish government said yesterday.

A RARE crystal jug mistakenly valued at £100 (€130) in January, has sold for more than £3 million (€3.8m) at auction.

BBC correspondents held a rally in Cairo, Egypt, today demanding the release of their colleague who was kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen seven weeks ago in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli troops and tanks massed on Lebanon’s border today and officials said the army was preparing for a limited incursion in Lebanon in the near future.

Hamas’ political chief today laid out conditions under which the militant Palestinian group would work to calm anger in “the Muslim street” over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in some Western media.

Foreign ministers and diplomats from 21 Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority met in Cairo, Egypt, today to begin talks on reforming the 60-year-old Arab League and rewriting its charter.

FOUR US Army soldiers died in a roadside bombing, gunmen killed a Sunni Arab candidate for parliament, and militants tried to blow up a leading Shi’ite politician in separate attacks yesterday.

Mystery continued to surround a firefight that broke out when US and Iraqi forces surrounded a house in the northern Iraq city of Mosul that was believed used by members of al-Qaida in Iraq. Eight insurgents and four Iraqi policemen died in the assault, officials said.

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

Cairo police have detained an Egyptian biochemist sought in the probe into last week’s London bombings and are questioning him, a government official said today.

Yasser Arafat fought for the Palestinian cause all his life – and his indomitable style of leadership over 35 years ensured he never lost control.

Yasser Arafat has lapsed into a coma, a senior Palestinian official said today after the ailing leader was rushed into intensive care at a French military hospital following a sharp deterioration in his health.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair last night congratulated George Bush on his election victory and said he intended to maintain his strong relationship with the president in his second term.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees proposed autonomy for the troubled Darfur region of Sudan – an extreme measure that Khartoum has resisted but said today it would be willing to discuss.

The father of September 11 hijack leader Mohammed Atta has insisted his son did not carry out the 2001 attacks, blaming a “Jewish conspiracy” for the outrage.

President Jacques Chirac has vowed to spare no effort to free two French reporters held hostage in Iraq by militants reportedly demanding that France scrap its ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools.

PALESTINIAN officials said yesterday an American decision to deduct $289 million from loan guarantees to Israel was insufficient to force Israel to stop building a security barrier or to end continued settlement construction.

President Bush today widened his financial assault on terrorism, naming an additional 39 individuals and organizations to have their assets frozen.

US transport planes airdropping relief supplies into Afghanistan will fly with fighter escorts.

The United Nations should be restructured to become more representative of all member states, human rights activists said today at the end of an anti-racism conference.

Israeli tanks moved into the West Bank town of Hebron from three directions early today, destroying Palestinian police posts during a fierce exchange of fire, witnesses said.

A stern call by Arab ministers to sever all political contacts with Israel has thrown into question whether recent Egyptian-Jordanian efforts to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire will be dropped even as Middle East violence escalates.