* Knesset opens battle to topple Olmert Thursday’s Knesset session will mark the opening battle in the war to topple the Olmert government.

* Iraq pleads for funds to rebuild Iraq’s prime minister has appealed for other countries to write off its debts, at the start of a summit called to try to rebuild and stabilise the country.

* Meridor offers reassurances to Syria Israel’s ambassador to the US said Wednesday his country is privately reassuring its Arab neighbor it is not seeking a confrontation.

* Warrants issued in Darfur conflict The International Criminal Court on Wednesday issued its first arrest warrants in Sudan’s Darfur conflict.

* Army meddling ‘threatens Turkey’s EU chances’ The European Union warned the Turkish military yesterday that its interference in the country’s politics could jeopardise its chances of joining the EU.

* Nasrallah praises Israel’s ‘admission of defeat’ In an unprecedented praise of developments in Israel, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday he “respects” his enemy’s verdict of failure in last summer’s war with his guerrillas in Lebanon.

* Turkey headed for snap polls in July A Turkish parliamentary committee Wednesday set July 22 as the date for snap general elections after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for polls to end a simmering crisis over a disputed presidential vote.

* ‘Israel has right to protect itself’ While asserting that Israel’s security is “nonnegotiable,” French presidential front-runner Nicholas Sarkozy also says it must not prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state if peace is to be achieved.

* Army undergoing revolution, Peretz says “The decision to go to war was the right one,” Defense Minister Amir Peretz insisted Wednesday, in a first response to the conclusions of the Winograd Commission.

* Jewish Agency downplays Iraqi aliyah An Iraqi family that reportedly immigrated to Israel this week is not the beginning of a “wave of aliya.”