Middle East News - AP

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - President Bush is appealing to oil-rich Saudi Arabia to increase production just as oil prices have hit another record high.

DOHA, Qatar - More than a dozen rabbis, including two from Israel, were in attendance this week as this conservative Muslim sheikdom opened one of the Gulf's first scholarly centers dedicated to interfaith dialogue.

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has offered members of armed groups in Mosul an amnesty in exchange for surrendering their weapons.

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden said in a new audio recording released Friday that al-Qaida will continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.

BEIJING - The Sichuan government says the official death toll from this week's powerful earthquake in the Chinese province has risen to 21,000 people.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen ambushed an Iranian Embassy convoy in Baghdad, wounding three Iranians, including two diplomats, and an Iraqi, a spokesman said Friday.

As of Thursday, May 15, 2008, at least 4,078 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The Hezbollah-led opposition and U.S.-backed government reached a deal Thursday to end Lebanon's worst violence since the 1975-90 civil war, now that the Cabinet has reversed measures aimed at reining in the Iranian-backed militants.

VIENNA, Austria - Iran's new offer for international talks touches on a broad range of topics, but fails to address U.N. Security Council calls for Tehran to give up uranium enrichment, according to a copy of the offer obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

JERUSALEM - A Jewish-American billionaire questioned by police as part of a corruption investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday he has never given money to the Israeli leader and called suggestions of any wrongdoing "insulting."

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah has proven it can force Lebanon's U.S.-backed government to cave in on key issues. But the Shiite militant group's power is not absolute — the government is still in place and Hezbollah has lost support among the people by turning its guns on them.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinians marked the 60th anniversary of their uprooting with rallies, sirens and black balloons Thursday — an annual ritual made even darker this year by crippling internal divisions and diminishing independence hopes.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - An explosion Thursday at a factory near the capital, Ankara, killed at least two people and wounded five others, reports said.

JERUSALEM - An American businessman will give evidence in court this month as part of an investigation into allegations that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accepted illegal donations, according to court records released Wednesday.

BURSA, Turkey - Queen Elizabeth II listened to a recital of the Quran at an Ottoman-era mosque Wednesday, the second day of a state visit to Turkey.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police say a suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded at least 35 at the funeral of a Sunni school principal west of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - When a group of Iraqi envoys headed to Iran recently, they were fully prepared for some tense moments. But they also hoped to come away with something to show for it: pledges of cooperation on weakening Shiite militias in Iraq.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Israel is dying and that its 60th anniversary celebrations are an attempt to prevent its "annihilation."

AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan's military court convicted three militants Wednesday of plotting to assassinate President Bush during a 2006 visit to the kingdom and sentenced them to 15 years in jail.