* Iran poses a danger to Israel’s security German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the possibility of stronger sanctions against Iran before she met Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who planned to travel on to Teheran from Germany.

* US Official Hints at Delay in Middle East Summit Associated Press reports that a U.S. State Department official says that the Middle East conference, scheduled by U.S. President George W. Bush for late November in Annapolis, Md., might be delayed.

* Turkish govt to seek go-ahead for Iraq incursion The Turkish government met Monday to prepare a motion seeking parliamentary approval for a military incursion into neighboring Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebel bases there.

* Mini-Earthquake Sets Off Predictions of a Larger One The Patzael region in the central Jordan Valley, just 20 kilometers north of Jericho, was touched by a small earthquake on Saturday night, registering 3.0 on the Richter scale.

* Putin to visit Iran amid nuclear tension Russian President Vladimir Putin has been told of a plot to assassinate him during a visit to Iran this week, a Kremlin spokeswoman said Sunday.

* Majadle slams renewal of Mughrabi dig A decision by the governmental committee on Jerusalem affairs to renew digging at the Mughrabi Gate to the Temple Mount may spark riots ahead of the Annapolis peace conference, Science, Culture and Sport Minister Ghaleb Majadle wrote Sunday in a letter to Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel.

* Turkish general warns of ‘irreversible’ damage if genocide resolution passes Turkey’s top general has warned that military ties with the US will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide, a report said Sunday.

* China rules out West’s democracy China will never have Western-style democracy, a senior official said as the country began its most important political meeting in five years.

* Al-Sadr bloc rejects federalism The Muqtada al-Sadr bloc has rejected a suggestion made by another Iraqi Shia politician that the country should be split into regions based on sect and ethnicity.

* Rice says Kremlin’s consolidated power endangers democracy The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine Moscow’s commitment to democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.