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President Barack Obama will try to repair America's tarnished image in the Muslim world on Thursday, as he looks to mobilize support for restarting Middle East peacemaking and thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Pope Benedict said on Saturday he still had difficulty understanding why God had chosen him to lead the Catholic Church worldwide, recalling his isolated upbringing in a rural community of southern Germany.

U.N. human rights investigators will travel to the Middle East this weekend to examine the three-week offensive Israel launched in Gaza last December, the group said Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama is likely to hear Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah air his worries about the festering Arab-Israeli conflict and rising Iranian influence when he visits Riyadh next week.

An Iranian official accused the United States on Friday of involvement in a mosque bombing that killed more than 20 people in volatile south-eastern Iran, two weeks before the Islamic Republic's presidential election.

President Barack Obama on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on Israel to freeze settlements as he sought to reassure visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of U.S. support for Palestinian statehood.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met President Barack Obama on Thursday to urge stronger U.S. pressure on Israel to halt settlement building even as the Jewish state rebuffed Washington's latest appeal.

Israeli troops shot dead a fugitive leader of Hamas's military wing in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

The United States wants Israel to stop expanding Jewish settlements without exception, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday, promising that Washington would push this point with its ally.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on the eve of a White House visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Palestinians must also be pressed to meet commitments under a U.S.-backed peace plan.

BP Solar will join forces with SolarEdge to test new products designed to help solar modules operate more efficiently in harvesting the sun's rays, the companies said on Wednesday.

North Korea, irked by South Korean and Japanese criticism of its nuclear test, said on Tuesday it may not support moves to curb production of nuclear bomb-making material, jeopardizing the start of global talks on the issue.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will urge U.S. President Barack Obama at their first White House talks to press Israel to halt expansion of Jewish settlements, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday.

Iran has no missile or nuclear cooperation with North Korea, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday, after North Korea conducted a second and far more powerful nuclear test.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday defended cuts to U.S. missile defense programs, saying Washington would still invest in boosting defenses against long-range missile threats, like those posed by North Korea and Iran.

Vice President Joe Biden, the most senior U.S. official to visit Lebanon in 26 years, took a swipe at Hezbollah on Friday, but denied seeking to sway an election that may unseat a Western-backed coalition.

The consequences of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon would be calamitous and major powers must act together to prevent it, the top U.S. military officer said on Thursday.

Israeli police broke up an unauthorized settler outpost in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, bulldozing makeshift cabins, police said.

The U.S. administration of President Barack Obama will not force Israel to state publicly whether it has nuclear weapons, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

Israel is ready to open peace talks with Syria immediately and without preconditions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Iran launched a missile with a range of close to 2,000 km (1,200 miles) on Wednesday and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Islamic state could send any attacker to hell, official media reported.