GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - A boat loaded with humanitarian aid has left Libya and will try to reach Gaza despite an Israeli naval blockade, a Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza said Wednesday, raising the possibility of a confrontation between an Arab vessel and Israeli sailors.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House said Wednesday that Saudi King Abdullah knows that his country has "a long way to go" on religious tolerance and is trying to make progress on the issue.

(AP) IDF troops and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire on Saturday on the border between Gaza and Israel, Palestinians said.

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas fired dozens of rockets at Israel on Wednesday after Israeli forces killed six Palestinian militants in an eruption of violence that disrupted a four-month-old truce along the Gaza Strip's frontier.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The price of property in the West Bank is rocketing beyond the reach of most local businesses and home buyers, pushed up by a weak dollar and Israeli control of large chunks of the territory, a World Bank report said Thursday.

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari said Saturday that finding jobs for more than 1 billion young people in the Middle East and Asia will be a major challenge to peacebuilding in the next decade.

AMMAN (Human Rights Watch) – Jordan should end routine and widespread torture in its prisons, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch called on the government to overhaul mechanisms for investigating, disciplining and prosecuting abusers, and in particular to transfer prosecutor’s investigations into prison abuse from police to civilian prosecutors.

(Jerusalem Post) Israeli officials and American Jewish leaders pressing for tougher sanctions against Iran at the United Nations' annual General Assembly opening this week will be competing with the distractions posed by the US financial meltdown and the diplomatic crisis in Georgia.

(Ynet) Ruling party's 114 polling stations open nationwide, candidates cast their votes at their hometowns. Livni calls on 'everyone to come and vote,' Mofaz predicts 'a good ending to this evening.' Sheetrit: I have a great feeling. Dichter: Polls have been proven false in the past

CHOUF (Daily Star) With common goals of promoting coexistence, preserving Lebanese heritage and enhancing a better understanding of the "other," the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) joined Food and Feast (Akl w Eid) organizers Souk al-Tayeb over the weekend for their latest joint venture.

DAMASCUS, Syria (UNHCR) – The death of a nine-year-old boy in a road accident on the Iraq-Syria border has focused attention once more on the extremely dangerous and harsh living of hundreds of Palestinian refugees stranded at a makeshift desert camp.

BEIRUT (IHT) President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said Thursday that his country had made specific proposals to Turkish mediators for peace with Israel.

(Gulf News) Tehran: Iranian women's rights activists on Tuesday celebrated a parliament decision to indefinitely delay a vote on a bill on families.