* Czech leader signs Lisbon Treaty Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the Lisbon Treaty, the final step in the agreement’s ratification.

* Egypt: Israel taking ‘racist steps’ to rid Jerusalem of Arabs The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Sunday urged the international community to protect Jerusalem from the “racist steps” being taken by Israel to change the demographics of the city.

* Hamas ‘tests long-range rocket’ The Palestinian militant group Hamas has test-fired a rocket capable of reaching Tel Aviv from Gaza.

* Abbas tells Obama envoy he’s adamant on settlement freeze The Palestinian Authority would not resume peace talks with Israel until all construction in the West Bank settlements stopped.

* 20 years after wall fell, study finds less support for democracy Twenty years after the collapse of Soviet-backed communist governments across the bloc, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall, support for multiparty democracy has fallen in almost every country in the region.

* Sanhedrin to UN: Goldstone Will Bring Judgment Upon You The Sanhedrin has warned the UN General Assembly not to hold a plenum debate this Wednesday on the anti-Israel Goldstone Report.

* Iran: Anti-Semite appointed deputy minister A top advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is considered the “brains” behind the president’s Holocaust denial, was appointed Monday as the Islamic republic’s new deputy minister of culture.

* Saudi court upholds child rapist crucifixion ruling A Saudi court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man convicted of raping five children and leaving one of them to die in the desert.

* Iran’s Khamenei says US ‘arrogant power’ Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday the United States was a “really arrogant power”.

* EU presidency trio lays claim to political power Leaders of the countries next in line to take on the day-to-day running of the European Union have made it clear that they do not wish to be sidelined by any future EU president.