Labor Party Appoints Israel’s First Muslim Cabinet Minister By a vote of 253 to 225 in the Labor Party Central Committee, Arab Knesset Member Raleb Majadle has defeated Druze community representative Shakib Shanan.

Gates Visits Iraq as U.S. Holds Aide to Shiite Cleric Gen. George Casey, the top American commander in Iraq, said today that the additional troops being sent to Iraq could begin to be withdrawn again by late summer.

Alon Liel: Prime Minister’s Office was updated about Syria talks Senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office were updated on the meetings with Syrian government representatives on a peace agreement with Israel and a settlement in the Golan.

400 Mehdi Army militants arrested, al-Maliki says Iraqi authorities say they have been quietly taking a bolder stance against Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia.

Abdullah to Haaretz: Jordan will develop nuclear power Jordan aspires to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

Concern over China’s missile test China is facing international criticism over a weapons test it reportedly carried out in space last week.

US says ‘no rift’ with al-Maliki George Bush, the US president, has insisted that his new Iraq plan will work as Washington dismissed suggestions of a rift with Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister.

Radicals vs. moderates: British Muslims at crossroads At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed’s message to nonbelievers is: “I come to slaughter all of you.”

EU ready for more military operations, Solana says Europe says it is ready for more military action under the EU flag in 2007.

Olmert rejects calls to step down over Lebanon war Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defense minister Thursday refused growing pressure to follow the military chief of staff and resign over failures of the war on Hezbollah.