Mideast Conflict

WASHINGTON - A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie "Bruno" is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Thousands of Jewish West Bank settlers and their supporters demonstrated near the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest his 10-month building freeze. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Thousands of demonstrators rallied outside the Israeli prime minister's residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's top court on Wednesday upheld a decision under which a Palestinian student was deported from Bethlehem to Gaza just two months before she was due to complete her bachelor's degree. Full Story »

GAZA (Reuters) - Egyptian earth-moving machinery was at work on the Gaza Strip border on Wednesday and an Israeli newspaper said a project was under way to build a subterranean metal wall to block Palestinian smuggling tunnels. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The European parliament demanded on Wednesday that Israel explain why it prevented a delegation of MEPs from travelling to the Gaza Strip despite initially authorising the visit. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli parliament on Wednesday passed the first reading of a bill requiring a referendum to approve a pull-out from annexed east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as part of any peace deal. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A US-born Jewish settler suspected of having murdered two Palestinians and carrying out a string of hate attacks against missionaries and gays went on trial Wednesday. Full Story »

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday there was no deal for now between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas on freeing an Israeli soldier held in Gaza. Full Story »

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - In the occupied West Bank, a bedouin community whose school is made out of car tires and mud faces the same problem as a developer planning a whole new Palestinian town: building controls imposed by Israel. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives Tuesday adopted a bill asking the US president to report to Congress on incitement to anti-American violence on television networks in the Middle East. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States Tuesday noted an EU statement welcoming the idea of Jerusalem becoming the future capital of two states, saying the US view was that the parties should decide that in final status negotiations. Full Story »

BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU nations agreed on Tuesday that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state, assuaging Israeli anger over earlier mention of east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. Full Story »

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Tuesday urged Israel to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a Middle East peace agreement and make the holy city the capital of two states. Full Story »

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Hospital masks and anti-bacterial hand gel vanished from shelves in the Gaza Strip as fear gripped the besieged Hamas-ruled territory after the first deaths of swine flu. Full Story »

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel says it's treating five suspected swine flu cases from Gaza in hopes of containing an outbreak of the virus in the blockaded Palestinian territory. Full Story »

AIN AL-HELWEH, Lebanon (AFP) - Despite the relative calm of Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps in recent months, experts warn that Islamist groups are still operating within and could strike at any time. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - European Union members should join "responsible nations" in opposing any plan to recognize Arab east Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state, a key US lawmaker said Monday. Full Story »