Witnessing a row of women weeping openly at the Western Wall, Deirdre Reynolds couldn’t help but wish she had some of their faith on a trip the Holy Land.

A Palestinian man has been shot dead by security forcesafter he stabbed a police officer in Jerusalem.

Two Palestinians shot dead by police after three stabbing attacks

Palestinians have carried out three stabbing attacks against Israelis and police in Jerusalem, with two of the attackers shot dead, Israeli police said.

Israeli police have taken the unprecedented step of preventing Palestinian residents of Jerusalem from entering the walled Old City after two Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis.

A Palestinian man rammed his car into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem today.

There were fierce clashes in East Jerusalem and fears of a new Palestinian uprising after Israeli police shot dead a 32-year-old Palestinian man suspected of having tried hours earlier to kill a far-right Jewish activist.

The Syrian regime has agreed to allow women and children to leave besieged rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs, UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said at peace talks in Geneva.

Pope Benedict XVI used his Easter Sunday message to urge the Syrian regime to heed international calls to end bloodshed and commit to dialogue.

Syrian troops opened fire on protesters in the southern city of Daraa today as crowds set fire to a bronze statue of the country’s late president, reports say.

CROWDS of Palestinian youths went on violent rampages in east Jerusalem yesterday, stoning buses, overturning cars and facing down Israeli riot police at the holy city’s most sensitive religious site following the shooting death of a local man.

Crowds of Palestinian youths went on the rampage in east Jerusalem today as a sudden burst of violence clouded fragile peace efforts.

HUNDREDS of Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces across east Jerusalem yesterday in the worst rioting in years as a senior Hamas leader called for a new “intifada,” or uprising.

The rift in US-Israel relations deepened today after American envoy George Mitchell cancelled a visit and Jerusalem insisted it would not back down over building plans at the heart of the row.

Israel is coming under increasing US pressure to scrap the east Jerusalem building project which has sparked the most serious diplomatic feud in years.

Palestinian militants Hamas stepped up their verbal attacks on President Mahmoud Abbas today on the eve of the US Middle East conference, saying his policies had failed and undermined prospects for statehood and unity.

Israel must control all of Jerusalem forever, said former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, taking a stand against a key compromise that could seal an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

SENIOR Israeli officials expressed support yesterday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Middle East conflict.

Gala celebrations will mark the 40th anniversary of the moment many Israelis see as their most glorious – the dramatic unification of Jerusalem under their control in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israeli troops hunted for Palestinian militants in and around the West Bank city of Nablus today, trading gunfire with armed men in a mosque and storming an apartment building where gunmen were thought to be hiding.

Israel today clamped down on the West Bank city of Nablus for the second time in a week, confining tens of thousands of people to their homes as troops moved searched for militants.

Palestinian teenagers threw rocks at Israeli police and attacked a Canadian tourist bus today in a new wave of protests against ongoing Israeli construction near a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

An Israeli Islamic leader warned of “religious war” and Iran’s supreme leader urged retaliation against Israel today over new excavations and repairs in Jerusalem’s Old City, outside the Holy Land’s most explosive religious site.

Police today scuffled with an Israeli Islamic leader and several of his followers near a hotly disputed holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem where Muslims have been protesting excavations and repairs.

Palestinian militants today seized three French citizens in the West Bank, and the French government said it was trying to free the men.

AT least 11 Filipino devotees were nailed to the cross during Good Friday reenactments of Christ's final hours.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in his first policy statement today that he hopes to start working on a final peace deal with Palestinians after Israel’s March 28 elections, and hinted that Palestinians in Jerusalem might not always be under Israeli rule.

Thousands of police fanned out across northern Israel and Jerusalem today to prevent possible rioting as a grieving and angry Arab community prepared to bury four Israeli Arabs gunned down by a Jewish soldier opposed to Israel’s impending pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Heads of state from around the world jetted into the Saudi capital of Riyadh amid tight security today to attend the funeral of King Fahd, the oil-rich country’s ruler for almost a quarter of a century who died yesterday from a long illness.

The Jerusalem municipality will push ahead with plans to demolish 88 homes in an Arab neighbourhood in the disputed city to make room for a national park, the city engineer overseeing the project said today.

Palestinian presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas cancelled a campaign stop planned in Jerusalem today, worried that Israeli security arrangements would have embarrassed him.

THOUSANDS of pilgrims streamed into the Imam Ali Shrine yesterday as militants handed the keys to Shi'ite religious authorities after Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric brokered a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting.

Militants filed out of the revered Imam Ali Shrine and turned its keys over to representatives of Iraq’s top Shiite cleric today in the wake of a peace agreement to end three weeks of fighting with US and Iraqi forces in this holy city.

IRAQ’S most powerful Shi’ite cleric arrived home from Britain yesterday and his aides called for a nationwide march to Najaf to end nearly three weeks of fierce fighting between US forces and Shi’ite militants in the holy city.

Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric arrived home from Britain today and his aides called for a nationwide march to Najaf to end nearly three weeks of fierce fighting between US forces and Shiite militants in this holy city.

Najaf’s Shiite uprising appeared to be weakening today as Iraqi forces moved to within 200 yards of the revered Imam Ali Shrine.

REBEL forces inside the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf were warned yesterday they have “hours to surrender” or face attack from US and Iraqi forces.

Plumes of black smoke rose above the embattled city of Najaf today after American warplanes bombed insurgent positions overnight and supporters of a radical cleric charged that shrapnel from a US attack had hit parts of the Imam Ali Shrine. The military denied the claim.

US FORCES and Shi'ite militants fought fierce battles yesterday near a revered shrine in Najaf, as the US military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to quickly hand over the holy site to Shi'ite religious authorities.

US forces and Shiite militants fought fierce battles today marked by explosions and gunfire near a revered shrine in Najaf, as the US military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to quickly hand over the holy site to Shiite religious authorities.

Sporadic gunfire, explosions and a US bombing raid shook the city of Najaf today as militants retained control of a revered shrine, raising fears that a plan to end the crisis could collapse amid bickering between Shiite leaders.

Militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr removed their weapons from the revered Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf today as a two-week-old uprising centred on the holy site appeared to be drawing to an end.

Sporadic gunfire echoed through Najaf today after a night of heavy US bombing that saw radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr order his fighters to hand control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shiite religious authorities.