Fatah al-Islam, the Sunni militant group which fought the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) for three months at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the summer of 2007, said on Monday it had planted the bomb that killed an LAF

Hizbullah has approved a prisoner-swap proposal drafted by German mediator Gerhard Konrad, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Monday. The first stage of the reported draft consists of Israel handing over the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel, Samir Qontar,

MP Robert Ghanem said on Monday he did not favor the formation of a government joining all factions but that it was necessary in the current situation. "The government cannot rule properly if all parties are represented in it, for

The Amal Movement urged the Lebanese on Monday to "continue building trust" among one another to advance the project of state-building and the implementation of the Doha agreement and speed up the formation of a national unity government. After a

The vice president of the Higher Shiite Council, Sheikh Abdel- Amir Qabalan, said on Monday that Lebanese Shiites were not in favor of Iran-style "rule of the jurisprudent." "We don't want the rule of the jurisprudent in Lebanon," Qabalan said

All the arguments Australia used to justify sending troops to fight in Iraq proved to be wrong, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Parliament Monday as he fulfilled an election vow to bring them home. Rudd, who ousted long-term conservative leader

The South Korean Cabinet has approved a motion to extend the peacekeeping operation of South Korean troops in Lebanon by one year until July 2009, the Korea Times newspaper reported over the weekend. "The Korean troops in Lebanon will continue

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday that King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz discussed with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the latest developments in the Middle East, including the situation in Lebanon, during a meeting in Saudi Arabia.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit Lebanon Saturday to meet his newly elected counterpart Michel Suleiman and French UN peacekeeping troops, Suleiman's information office said on Monday. "The two presidents will hold discussions concerning the latest developments and means to

A would-be suicide bomber who was shot dead outside a Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon over the weekend was carrying a false identity card, a senior Palestinian official said on Monday. The Lebanese Army said 28-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Yassin al-Ahmed

Five alleged terrorists accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, attacks are to appear in public for the first time in years during a military hearing in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay Thursday. Seven years after some 3,000 people

International forces in Afghanistan have mismanaged the fight against the Taliban, leading to a rise in violence, and now risk losing people's goodwill, President Hamid Karzai told an Indian news channel. Karzai has often criticized the Western conduct of the

Egypt's Parliament approved a two-year extension of the country's longstanding emergency law last week. While opposition figures and human-rights groups blasted the decision, government officials justified the move by pointing to the ostensible threat of terrorism.

Iran on Monday ordered the Fars news agency, one of the country's most prominent news organizations and normally considered close to the government, to close for three days for publishing "false news." "We have received a letter from the commission

Somalia's president told a UN Security Council mission Monday that the United Nations must deploy peacekeepers in his insurgency-racked nation before Ethiopian troops can withdraw. "The eventual withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops from Somalia is contingent on the deployment of

The UAE said on Monday it would provide some 500,000 tons of wheat to Syria to help it cope with rising prices, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited the oil-rich Gulf country. The aid was decided by UAE President Sheikh

The United States has operated more than a dozen "floating prisons" to hold and question suspected Islamist extremists as part of its so-called "war on terror," a British rights group said Monday. Reprieve, a legal action charity, said it believed

Afghan security forces under attack in northwestern Afghanistan called in NATO air strikes in heavy clashes that left dozens of Taliban fighters dead, authorities said Monday. The deputy governor of Badghis Province, Abdul Ghani Saber, told AFP that around 55

At least six people were killed in violence in Iraq on Monday, officials said. Faris Younis, professor of agriculture from the University of Mosul, was killed when a bomb planted in his car exploded as he drove out on Monday