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KUWAIT CITY : Kuwaitis are voting Saturday to elect a new parliament in this oil-rich Gulf state which has been rocked by political turmoil, with many saying they want change and an end to political feuding.
"I voted for a new face that was not in parliament before and whom I think has new ideas," Fatima Mubarak, a young housewife, told AFP after casting her ballot in Jabriya district, 12 kilometres (seven miles) south of Kuwait City.
"We are fed up with political crises which halted any achievement. We are fed up with lots of talk and no action," she said, adding that "I voted for change and achievement."
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt : US President George W Bush arrived in Egypt on Saturday for talks with Palestinian leaders amid growing Arab criticism of his perceived bias towards Israel and of the faltering peace talks.
He went straight into talks with President Hosni Mubarak with discussions focused on the Middle East peace process, the situation in the Palestinian territories and on lifting the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, the official MENA news agency reported.
Bush was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, having arrived from oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia at the end of a regional tour, most of which was spent celebrating Israel's 60th birthday.
DOHA : Lebanon's bickering political leaders on Saturday began Arab-brokered crisis talks in Qatar in a bid to end a long-running feud that drove their country to the brink of a new civil war.
After 65 people were killed in nearly a week of fighting, the US-backed Beirut government and the Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Syria and Iran agreed to a national dialogue aimed at electing a president and forming a unity government.
The talks officially started on Friday evening with a brief opening session chaired by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani who stressed the need to preserve Lebanon's unity and hoped the rivals would reach an agreement.
JERUSALEM : Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to be questioned again soon by police in connection with a corruption investigation, media reports said on Saturday.
The private channel two television station said the premier would be questioned "by Sunday," while the Ynet Internet site of the daily Yediot Aharonot said it would be "within the next 48 hours."
Ynet said police wish to question Olmert before his lawyers are made aware of testimony by Morris Talansky, a US millionaire businessman suspected of illegally funding the prime minister.
SANTO DOMINGO : Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez has been re-elected to a third term in a first round of voting, as rival Miguel Vargas conceded after a mostly peaceful election in the Caribbean nation.
The progressive liberal Fernandez was ahead with 53.22 percent of the vote - enough to avoid a runoff - with more than 62 percent of ballots counted, the Central Election Committee announced on Friday.
Social Democrat Vargas was at 41.10 percent, while PRSC party candidate Amable Aristy Castro was in third with 4.73 percent, the committee reported.
WASHINGTON : Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain traded furious foreign policy barbs Friday, in a three-way row over how to deal with US foe Iran originally sparked by President George W. Bush.
Obama, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, said he was ready to do battle at anytime and at any place on the foreign policy records of Bush and McCain, the Republican presumptive nominee.
"They are trying to fool you, and trying to scare you. They are not telling the truth," Obama said in South Dakota, a day after Bush ignited the row by implying in a speech in Israel that Democrats want to appease terrorists.
PARIS - Police in France, Germany and the Netherlands arrested on Friday 10 people suspected of providing funding to Islamic extremists in Uzbekistan, officials said.
Eight arrests took place in France, one in the Netherlands and one in Germany. One suspect was later released in France.
The eight suspects of Turkish origin thought to have ties to Al-Qaeda were arrested in a suburb of the eastern city of Mulhouse and in the central Rhone region, a police source said.
The source said anti-terrorism units moved in on the group as a "pre-emptive" measure and that none of the suspects had committed attacks.
Police found several firearms and a large amount of cash during searches of the suspects' homes on Friday, a police source said. Computer discs and files were seized.
WASHINGTON : Six world powers have completed the details of a "refreshed" offer they will present to Iran in an effort to persuade it to halt its controversial nuclear activities, a US official said Friday.
The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China agreed earlier this month to make a new offer to Iran, but a date has yet to be set for it to be delivered to the Islamic republic.
"We have completed work on the details of the package and the accompanying letter," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
LIMA : Leaders from Latin America and the European Union gathered in Peru Friday for a summit aimed at tackling poverty and climate change, but which was bogged down by differences over trade.
Some 50 leaders attended the event under heavy security, including European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva.
Issues such as the recent spike in food prices, and the rising demand for energy in developing nations, were also on the table.
LAGOS : Nigerian firefighters Friday managed to douse the flames from a burst oil pipeline a day after a huge explosion triggered a blaze that lasted more than a day.
"The fire has now been completely put out," National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) official Abdulsalam Mohammed told AFP.
Thousands of people were milling around the site of Thursday's explosion at Ijegun, north of Lagos.
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