* Turkish artillery pounds Kurdish rebel camps in n. Iraq Turkish troops pounded suspected Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq with artillery fire.

* At NY Rally: ‘Olmert is Dangerous to Diaspora Jewry’ Thousands of people took part in an emergency protest rally this week at the World Lubavitch Center in Brooklyn, New York.

* Abbas lays out land for state Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday laid out his most specific demands for the borders of a future independent state.

* Putin plays down Iran bomb fears Moscow has no information that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

* Doors closing on Iraqi displaced A growing number of Iraqi provinces are refusing entry to internal refugees, the UN refugee agency has warned.

* Cabinet okays new plane defense system The Security Cabinet on Wednesday approved a new Israeli-made system for the protection of civilian aircraft against missile attacks.

* Nuclear Deal Threatens India Government In the new capitalist India, old-line communists are playing the spoiler, threatening to bring down the government over a nuclear energy deal with the United States.

* Egypt signs treaty with NATO Egypt has signed a treaty with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), thus becoming the second Middle Eastern country, after Israel, to sign such a pact.

* Barroso worried commission could take a hit in new EU treaty European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso is worried that his institution will be sidelined under the new EU treaty.

* Petition calls for two-state solution More than half a million Israelis and Palestinians have signed a petition calling on the Israeli and Palestinian governments to reach a peace agreement within the next year.