* Friday prayers end relatively peacefully About 6,000 Muslim worshipers arrived at the Temple Mount at noon Friday, as police forces deployed by the thousands.

* Olmert: J’lem won’t cut ties with Abbas There is no need to cut off ties with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as a result of the Mecca agreement.

* Palestinian unity deal under way Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya has resigned his post and has been asked by President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new national unity government.

* Report: Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq hurt US and Iraqi forces pushed deeper Thursday into Sunni militant strongholds in Baghdad.

* Anglican leaders discuss U.S. church’s liberal stance on gays Anglican leaders were meeting on Friday after spending a day discussing a report that found the church’s American wing has taken steps to heal a rift.

* Unity government complicates peace efforts, says Rice The United States has informed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that it may shun the imminent Fatah-Hamas unity government.

* Chad may face genocide, UN warns The violence in Chad could turn into a genocide similar to that in Rwanda in 1994, the UN refugee agency has warned.

* U.S. Attempts to Calm Down Russian Missile Defense Fears U.S. plans to deploy missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic are in no way directed at Russian strategic forces, the State Department has said.

* Rice on Summit: Full Steam Ahead – More or Less U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will arrive in Israel on Saturday to hold preliminary discussions with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

* Violent protests in Kashmir over al-Aqsa dig Police fired teargas in Indian Kashmir’s main city on Friday to disperse hundreds of people protesting against Israeli excavations near Islam’s third holiest shrine in Jerusalem, police and witnesses said.

* Giants meet to counter US power India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads.

* Abbas cancels Mecca Accord speech Less than a week after the signing of the Mecca “national unity” agreement, a new crisis is looming between Fatah and Hamas over the formation of a coalition government.

* Russia may leave arms reduction treaty A top Russian general said Thursday that Moscow may unilaterally opt out of a key Soviet-era arms reduction treaty with the United States that banned medium-range missiles, Russian news agencies reported.

* Turkey to send team to J’lem to inspect Mughrabi dig Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to a Turkish inspection of the construction work at the Mughrabi ramp in Jerusalem’s Old City.

* Iran jets in long-range training Israel could be a target of recently reported Iranian air force drills aimed at giving jets long-range attack capabilities.

* Serbia rejects UN plan for Kosovo Serbia’s parliament has overwhelmingly rejected a United Nations proposal on the future status of Kosovo.

* Webcast for Jerusalem excavations The Israeli authorities have installed cameras to film excavation work being carried out near the Temple Mount or Haram Sharif in East Jerusalem.

* Radical Shia cleric ‘is in Iran’ Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr is currently in Iran.

* U.S., Iraqi Forces Expand Operation U.S. and Iraqi forces expanded a security sweep to a southern Baghdad neighborhood Thursday, but suspected Sunni insurgents struck back with car bombs that killed four people.

* PA Planning New City Between Jericho and Ramallah A meeting took place this week in the Herzliya home of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Richard H. Jones.

* Baghdad security crackdown begins Iraq has imposed a raft of draconian new security rules on its war-torn capital.

* Aides deny claims Sadr has fled Iraq Supporters of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr today denied he had fled to Iran to evade a US crackdown aimed at curbing the spiralling violence in Iraq.

* Nato strike targets Taliban leader A Nato air strike has destroyed a compound housing a Taliban leader responsible for a wave of violence across southern Afghanistan.

* Thousands rally in Lebanon on Hariri anniversary Tens of thousands packed into a city square Wednesday to mark the second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

* Golan belongs to Syria, Druze protest “The Golan is an inseparable part of Syria,” protested some 1,000 Syrians and 500 Druze.

* Lieberman Says Israel is On Its Own With Iran Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of Russian immigrant party Yisrael Beiteinu said that the Jewish State will not be able to depend on the international community to protect Israel from the Iranian threat.

* Former Mossad chief: Assassinate Ahmadinejad Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should “be made to disappear from the arena,” Meir Amit, a former director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, advocated.

* Ashkenazi takes over as IDF chief, says army ready to implement Lebanon war lessons Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi took over as the 19th Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Wednesday morning, replacing Dan Halutz.

* Mugrabi bridge built for attack on mosque, Salah says The Israeli works near the al-Aqsa Mosque are meant as a direct attack on the holy Muslim site, Sheikh Ra’ed Salah of the Islamic Movement stated.

* Anglicans face difficult summit Leaders of the Anglican Church have gathered in Tanzania for a summit which is likely to be dominated by the divisive issue of homosexuality.

* Arab MP: Only nukes will erase Israel A member of the Egyptian Parliament from President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party said Monday that nothing short of a nuclear bomb would “work” with Israel.

* N Korea agrees disarmament steps North Korea has agreed to take the first steps towards nuclear disarmament, as part of a deal reached during six-nation talks in Beijing.

* Ruins discovered at Mughrabi site As the controversy swirls around the construction of the new bridge leading to the Temple Mount at the Mughrabi Gate, archeologists have already uncovered finds from the medieval period.

* Iran on course for nuclear bomb, EU told Iran will be able to develop enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear bomb.

* Putin calls for international conference on Mideast Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday reiterated his proposal for convening an international conference on the Middle East.

* Teraflops chip points to future A chip with 80 processing cores and capable of more than a trillion calculations per second (teraflops) has been unveiled by Intel.

* Jordan’s king talks with Abbas on reviving Mideast peace Jordan’s King Abdullah II urged Israel and the Palestinians Monday to actively engage in negotiations to end their lingering conflict.

* French MEP sees way out of EU constitutional crisis As proposals to chop, add to or scrap the EU constitution continue to crop up almost daily, a French MEP believes he has found the solution to the bloc’s institutional impasse.

* Israel: No Final Status Talks at Summit As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepares to convene a three-way summit with the leaders of Israel and the PA, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is sticking to his refusal to discuss three major elements of any final-status agreement.

* Mugrabi bridge plan to be reexamined The Jewish Quarter Development Company announced on Tuesday that it was withdrawing its request to build a new bridge at the Mugrabi Gate area in Jerusalem.

by: Khaled Abu Toameh – Jerusalem Post

Hamas leaders have every reason to laugh all the way back from Mecca to Damascus and the Gaza Strip. The unity government agreement they signed with Fatah on Thursday, which has become known as the Mecca Accord, does not require Hamas to make any far-reaching concessions.

Read more…

* Iran president attacks US claims Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says US accusations Tehran is fomenting violence in Iraq are an attempt to hide Washington’s own failures.

* Israel test fires Arrow missile The defense establishment on Sunday evening test fired the Arrow system – the anti-ballistic missile system – for the first time during the night.

* EU addresses Palestinian boycott EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss the new deal on a Palestinian national unity government, and how they should respond to it.

* Israel must accept new PA gov’t, Abbas says Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has said that Israel must accept the new national unity government being set up between rival factions, a news agency reported.

* Israel to delay work at holy site Controversial construction work near the holiest site for Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem is to be put off to allow public consultations, officials say.

* Russia seeks closer ties with Saudi Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has offered to help Saudi Arabia develop atomic energy and pledged to boost ties with the Islamic world.

* EU agrees on Iran sanctions but open to new talks The European Union agreed today to implement United Nations sanctions on Iran while holding a door open to fresh talks on defusing a standoff over what Western powers suspect is a covert Iranian bid to make atom bombs.

* U.S. officer: Iran sends Iraq bomb parts U.S. military officials on Sunday accused the highest levels of the Iranian leadership of arming Shiite militants in Iraq.

* Report: Saudi Arabia reaching out to Israel Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have been sending overtures to Israel.

* Putin speech raises alarm on EU-Russia relations Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s tough speech in Germany this weekend is a wake-up call to the harsh realities in EU-Russia relations.

* Lieberman: World accustomed to Muslim violence Right-wing minister slams Muslim riots on Temple Mount, demands more severe Israeli response.

* Quartet: Israel key to Mecca deal The Quartet of Middle East mediators has insisted any future Palestinian government must recognise Israel, while expressing “hope” that a deal on forming a unity government in Gaza will end violence.

* Holocaust scholar Wiesel may be victim of anti-Semitic attack Nobel Peace laureate and Holocaust scholar Eli Wiesel was dragged from an elevator and roughed up, possibly by a Holocaust denier, during a peace conference at a San Francisco hotel last week.

* Israel snubs Mecca deal In first official statement, officials in Jerusalem say Hamas-Fatah deal fails to meet Quartet preconditions and ‘is not what Israel expected’.

* Putin attacks ‘very dangerous’ US Russian President Vladimir Putin has attacked the United States for what he said was its “almost uncontained” use of force around the world.

* Report: US will be ready for strike on Iran in the spring Despite repeated denials by the US administration, preparations for a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites are in “advanced” stages.

* Excavation sparks world protests There has been strong worldwide reaction over Israel’s decision to carry out construction work near the Al Asqa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

* Riot police fire tear gas to break up protest in Kosovo by ethnic Albanians Thousands of ethnic Albanians demonstrated Saturday in downtown Pristina, protesting against a U.N. proposal for Kosovo they say doesn’t go far enough in granting the province independence.

* US Iraq forces under new command The new commander of US forces in Iraq, Lt Gen David Petraeus, has assumed control ahead of a fresh push to quell violence in Baghdad.

* Lebanese army to keep Hizbullah arms Lebanon’s defense minister said on Friday that a truckload of ammunition belonging to the Hizbullah seized the previous day in an east Beirut suburb, would be used by the Lebanese army in case of future Israeli attacks.

* Violence at Jerusalem holy site Violence has broken out at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque after Israeli police moved in to break up crowds of stone-throwing Palestinian protesters.

* EU cautiously optimistic on new PA deal European Union officials said Friday they were cautiously optimistic about a Palestinian Authority power-sharing deal.

* Muted response to Mecca agreement Israel and the United States have reacted with caution to an agreement by Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to form a national unity government.

* ‘Border clash was an isolated incident’ A top officer in the Northern Command told The Jerusalem Post Thursday that Hizbullah – as a result of the border flare-up – had readied itself in preparation for additional violence.

* Kosovo independence will open up Pandora’s box – Russia’s Ivanov Russia’s defense minister said granting independence to the Serbian province of Kosovo may set a dangerous precedent.

* Security Minister slams Egypt over arms flow into Gaza Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said Thursday that Egypt is not doing enough to curb arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip.

* Barroso puts pressure on The Hague over EU constitution European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday (8 February) urged the Netherlands to start “moving” towards a compromise on the EU constitution.

* Gaza celebrates unity deal Palestinians in Gaza have been celebrating in the streets after Hamas and Fatah leaders signed a power-sharing agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

* Islamic body urges Israel to stop mosque dig Malaysia, which chairs the Islamic world’s largest grouping, urged Israel on Friday to stop excavations near Jerusalem’s most important holy Islamic site.

* Top cleric: US within Iran’s ‘firing range’ A top Iranian cleric said on Friday the United States was within Iran’s “firing range”.

* Palestinian talks into second day Leaders of Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas are to continue crisis talks for a second day in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca.

* Saniora tells LAF to counter IDF threats Prime Minister Fuad Saniora on Thursday ordered the Lebanese Armed Forces to respond to Israeli threats to Lebanese sovereignty.

* Hundreds gather in Jerusalem to protest Temple Mt. construction Hundreds of people gathered outside the Old City of Jerusalem’s Dung Gate on Thursday to protest against the construction of a new bridge to the Temple Mount.

* Iran successfully test fires land-to-sea missile Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards successfully has test-fired a land-to-sea missile with a range of about 350 kilometres (210 miles).

* Rice rejects Middle East ‘linkage’ concept US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected Wednesday the linkage concept.

* Deputy health minister arrested in U.S.-Iraqi raid U.S. and Iraqi forces raided an Iraqi Health Ministry complex in central Baghdad Thursday morning and arrested the deputy health minister.

* Archeologist: Ancient cistern proves location of Second Temple An Israeli archeologist said Wednesday that he has pinpointed the exact location of the Second Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.

* U.S., Africans Vow to Fight Terrorism Military chiefs of nine African countries pledged Wednesday to work with U.S. forces to prevent the spread of terrorism in the Sahara desert region.

* Syria says firm in support of Hizbullah, Hamas President Bashar Assad vows to keep supporting Hizbullah and Hamas despite US pressure on Syria to stop backing groups.

* Cameras to track Mughrabi excavations Israel plans to install security cameras at the Mughrabi excavation site which will broadcast real-time footage of the controversial construction outside the Temple Mount.