AFP - Israeli settlement expansion on Palestinian territory must stop immediately, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday as he seeks to position Brazil as a player in the Middle East.

AP - Palestinian officials announced Friday that a new date for parliamentary and presidential elections will be set next month now that President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to postpone the January vote, though the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers maintain they will boycott the voting.

AP - Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is joining his Palestinian counterpart in calling on Israel to stop building new settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians.

AFP - Opposition chief Tzipi Livni reiterated her support Friday for a Palestinian state and the resumption of peace talks as she made a rare foray by an Israeli leader into the Arab world.

AFP - The school dropout rate among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is alarmingly high with 50 percent of 17-year-olds and 40 percent of 16-year-olds receiving no education, UN officials warned on Friday.

Reuters - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said presidential and legislative elections scheduled for January will be postponed, confirming that he has accepted advice not to hold the vote.

AFP - An Israeli minister said on Friday he was to travel to Turkey, in the first such visit since Israel's military offensive in Gaza at the turn of the year strained ties with Turkey.

AFP - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday received Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas here Thursday for the first in a series of discussions on forging peace in the Middle East, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

AFP - Hassan Nasrallah was re-elected head of Hezbollah on Thursday following a congress that also adopted a new manifesto, which is to be revealed in coming days, the militant Shiite party announced.

AFP - Hassan Nasrallah was re-elected head of Hezbollah on Thursday following a congress that also adopted a new manifesto, which is to be revealed in coming days, the militant Shiite party announced.

AP - The militant Hezbollah group announced Thursday that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has been re-elected as the Shiite Muslim group's leader for a sixth term.

Reuters - Fearing loss of life and money, Palestinians are abandoning tunnels that supply the blockaded Gaza Strip with everything from food to fridges to weapons.

AFP - Israeli warplanes on Thursday attacked a building and two tunnels in the Gaza Strip following the launch of rockets by Palestinian militants, a military spokeswoman said.

AP - Israeli aircraft struck a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, in response to recent rocket attacks on Israel, the military said.

AFP - The Obama administration is hardening its tone against Israel, but analysts warned Wednesday the tough talk was mere bluster hiding the lack of a viable plan to revive the Middle East peace process.

Reuters - President Barack Obama may be telling Israelis that building settlements round Jerusalem risks dangerously fuelling Palestinian anger, but some of his fellow Democrats brought the opposite message to the city on Wednesday.

AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unwilling to make sufficient concessions on Jewish settlement building to stop the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, one of the Israeli architects of the deal that created it said on Wednesday.

AFP - Israel defended on Wednesday its decision to build hundreds of new Jewish homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem as US President Barack Obama warned the "dangerous" move pushed peace further away.