ISRAEL

Israeli and Palestinian leaders began their first round of direct peace negotiations in more than a year on Thursday, pledging to meet again in two weeks as part of a U.S.-brokered quest for peace.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders began direct peace negotiations on Thursday, sitting down for U.S.-brokered talks even as hard-liners on both sides vowed never to accept a deal.

With a diplomatic push from U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli and the Palestinian leaders will start direct peace talks on Thursday shadowed by scepticism on all sides and fresh violence in the volatile West Bank.

President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away, bringing them together for ceremonial handshakes at the White House on the eve of relaunching direct talks.

President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away as he opened a U.S.-sponsored summit to relaunch direct talks shadowed by Middle East violence.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away as he opened a Washington summit shadowed by Middle East violence.

The mother of a 19-year-old female Syrian blogger who was arrested last year has appealed to President Bashar al-Assad for her release, saying her daughter does not understand anything about politics.

U.S. President Barack Obama vowed on Wednesday that a deadly Hamas attack in the West Bank is not going to stop us in the quest for Middle East peace as he opened a Washington summit to relaunch face-to-face Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday ...

Israel's defence minister said on Wednesday the Jewish state would be willing to hand over parts of Jerusalem in peace talks with the Palestinians to be launched by U.S. President Barack Obama.

U.S. President Barack Obama was poised on Wednesday to launch a new U.S. push for Middle East peace even as a flare-up of Hamas violence and a deadlock over Israeli settlements loomed as potential deal-breakers.

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for killing four Jewish settlers in the West Bank in an attack that blighted a Middle East peace summit before it even began in Washington Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Washington on Tuesday for peace talks with the Palestinians, leaving up in the air the question of future Jewish settlement construction once a partial freeze ends.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro told an interviewer there were times during his long illness when he was at death's door but now he is mostly recovered and trying to avert nuclear war.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Europe Monday to throw its weight behind U.S.-led efforts to secure a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.

Many clocks will be ticking during the next year when Washington hopes an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal can be hammered out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas every two weeks to improve the prospects of Middle East peace talks, a diplomatic source said on Friday.

Intel Corp said on Monday that it would buy the cable modem product line of chip maker Texas Instruments Inc in order to expand its consumer electronics chip business.

Russia is keen to create a national potash mining champion via the merger of its two biggest companies in the sector and may allow a small stake to be bought by an overseas player, analysts said on Friday.

A device that can detect if one has cancer or not through his or her breath alone can now also detect the type of cancer the patient has, according to scientists who developed the breath test.

Finally, India will have its first ever jewellery week, the India International Jewellery Week (IIJW), from August 15 to 19 in Mumbai. It is a fabulous platform for jewellery designers to come together and showcase their talent. This is the first time the jewellery industry will witness something like this.