* Hunger levels soar in East Africa Nearly 17 million people in the Horn of Africa are in urgent need of food and other aid – almost twice as many as earlier this year.

* Livni Wants Olmert to Resign; Ramon Says Not So Fast The elected leader of the Kadima party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said at the faction’s Friday session that it was time for Ehud Olmert to resign as Prime Minister.

* Livni works for unity in Kadima Tzipi Livni, new leader of Israel’s ruling Kadima party, is working to restore unity after her victory in a leadership election opened wide rifts.

* EU: Concerned by Iran’s behavior The European Union on Friday threw its diplomatic weight behind the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

* Medvedev: Russia won’t be pushed into isolation President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russia would not yield to Western pressure or be pushed into isolation over the war in Georgia.

* Palin Dropped from Rally Following Threats from Democrats Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Vice Presidential candidate on Senator John McCain’s Republican ticket, has been dropped from the list of dignitaries that are to speak at a key rally in New York on Monday.

* Abbas: Failure to reach peace will ‘change parameters of debate’ Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Friday that if Israel and the Palestinians fail to reach a peace accord soon, “the parameters of the debate are apt to shift dramatically.”

* Iraq: A Precarious Peace In the words of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, we are all aware of the painful trajectory Iraq has gone through over the course of the last five years.

* Palestinians despairing of independence effort Prominent Palestinians are lighting a fire under Israel’s feet by proposing a peace in which there would be no separate Palestine and Israel.

* Pope’s trip highlights church-state struggle in Europe Is the Roman Catholic Church a beleaguered underdog, fighting for a voice in secular Europe?