Iran will begin large-scale air defense war games Sunday aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from possible attack, a senior military commander says.

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Around 3,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrate outside an Intel plant in Jerusalem to protest its operating on the Jewish Sabbath, which they view as a desecration of the sanctity of the holy city.

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Hamas announced Saturday evening that it has reached an agreement with other militant groups in Gaza to stop firing rockets at southern Israeli towns to prevent retaliatory attacks.

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Iranian state TV is reporting that the country will begin large-scale air defense war games Sunday aimed at protecting nuclear facilities against any possible attack.

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Herman Van Rompuy's appointment as the first European Union president provoked fears in Turkey that he might hinder Ankara's hopes of joining the bloc, with some media declaring outright that he is anti-Turkish.

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Palestinian officials announced Friday that a new date for parliamentary and presidential elections will be set next month now that President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to postpone the January vote, though the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers maintain they will boycott the voting.

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Senior officials from six world powers expressed disappointment on Friday that Iran had not accepted proposals intended to delay its potential ability to make nuclear bombs and urged Tehran to reconsider.

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A bloody spike in Israel-Hamas fighting put the Israeli city of Ashkelon and its 110,000 residents at the center of an intensifying militant rocket barrage Thursday - and Israel's defense minister warned he would invade Gaza, if necessary, to halt the attacks.

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The militant Hezbollah group announced Thursday that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has been re-elected as the Shiite Muslim group's leader for a sixth term.

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Increasing numbers of English-language Web sites are spreading al-Qaida's message to Muslims in the West.

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A famous Lebanese pop singer, known for her seductive dresses and provocative dancing, is now accused of singing a song with racist lyrics that compares black Egyptians to monkeys.

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The United States and five other world powers will meet Friday in Brussels to discuss what measures can be taken to punish Tehran for its refusal to halt its nuclear enrichment program.

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Israeli warplanes bombed two smuggling tunnels and a military training compound in the Gaza Strip Thursday, wounding three people, said officials in the Palestinian territory ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.

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President Barack Obama says the United States has begun talking with allies about fresh punishment against Iran for defying efforts to halt its nuclear weapons pursuits.

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Iran's foreign minister on Thursday dismissed the possibility of sanctions over Tehran's rejection of a deal to send enriched uranium abroad for further processing.

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President Barack Obama may be telling Israelis that building settlements round Jerusalem risks dangerously fuelling Palestinian anger, but some of his fellow Democrats brought the opposite message to the city on Wednesday.

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Iran's foreign minister says his country would not export its enriched uranium for further processing, brushing aside the latest U.N. plan aimed at stopping nuclear weapons.

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A Gaza charity headed by the interior minister of the militant Hamas group on Wednesday offered $1.4 million to any Arab citizen of Israel who abducts a soldier.

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An Iranian doctor who went public with reports of tortured protesters he treated at Tehran's most feared detention facility dies, amid conflicting reports of a heart attack, a car accident or suicide - raising opposition accusations that the 26-year-old was killed.

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Iraq's election commission has halted all preparations for elections in January, an electoral official said on Wednesday.

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Iran's chief of staff has warned Saudi Arabia over its military offensive against Shiite Yemeni rebels, saying it signals the start of "state terrorism" and endangers the entire region.

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy was quoted Tuesday as saying his country was ready to facilitate a resumption of talks between Syria and Israel and he warned that extremists could benefit from a continued deadlock in the Middle East peace process.

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Iran has sentenced five people to death over the unrest that followed the country's disputed June presidential election, state television reported Tuesday.

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Defying the United States, Israel approved on Tuesday the building of 900 homes for Jews on West Bank land it occupied in a 1967 war and annexed to its Jerusalem municipality.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced concern on Tuesday over a mutiny by pro-settler soldiers that raised fears of more rebellion in the ranks in any future land-for-peace moves with the Palestinians.

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