ISRAEL

U.S. President George W. Bush has set himself the Herculean task of shepherding an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of next year, but doubts remain about his commitment. As Bush proudly beamed behind them, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shook hands on Tuesday over an agreement to immediately begin their first formal peace negotiations in seven years.

President George W. Bush told Israeli and Palestinian leaders gathered for a Middle East conference on Tuesday that the time was right to work toward peace but cautioned the path would be difficult.

President George W. Bush meets Palestinian and Israeli leaders on Monday in a drive for Palestinian statehood before he leaves office in 14 months.

Saudi Arabia has not ruled out the possibility of taking part in a Middle East peace conference with Israel next week, according to comments by Crown Prince Sultan carried by state television on Thursday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks on Thursday with Jordan's King Abdullah and was due to meet the Palestinian president to coordinate positions ahead of a U.S.-sponsored peace conference.

The Internet has become a key teaching tool for Islamist militants who are using it to educate recruits in cyber training camps, crime and security experts said on Wednesday.

Israeli authorities plan to issue a new anti-hijack identification system to incoming aircraft which they say is foolproof, but some experts are not convinced it will plug all the security holes on the horizon.

An OPEC summit ended on Sunday in sharp political division over whether to take action over the weak dollar, as heads of state vowed to keep providing Western consumers with an adequate supply of oil.

China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) and U.S. private equity firms offered up to A$3 billion ($2.75 billion) on Monday for Australia's Nufarm Ltd, a deal that would create the world's largest generic farm chemicals firm.

Canada's CIBC said on Sunday it would sell a major part of its U.S. capital markets business to Oppenheimer Holdings Inc as it focuses on its core operations.

Condoleezza Rice urged Israel on Sunday to be bold in pursuing peace with the Palestinians after Israeli leaders warned her there could be no deal on a Palestinian state until their own security was guaranteed.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading mobile and telecommunications equipment provider as well's as well as world's biggest memory chipmaker on Wednesday announced that it had bought an Israel non-memory chip developer, Transchip.

Mazda Motor Corp., the Japanese affiliate of Ford Motor Co., announced on Friday that its July-September period net profit soared 29 percent to 26.6 billion yen due to strong sales overseas.

U.S. President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III as he tried to shore up international opposition to Tehran amid Russian skepticism over its nuclear ambitions.Bush was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western pressure to toughen his stance over Iran's nuclear program, made clear on a visit to Tehran that Russia would not accept any military action against Iran.

Israel killed nine Palestinians and injured 20 in military operations in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, and threatened a major ground sweep of the Hamas-run territory to stem cross-border rocket fire.

Vilified as a Holocaust denier, a supporter of terrorism and a backer of Iraqi insurgents, the president of Iran was actually able to make New Yorkers burst into laughter but not at a joke.

In the apparently pure Arctic air, a research station on a Norwegian island mountain ridge finds tiny chemical traces from factories in Russia, pesticides in Israel or China's coal-fired power plants.

Oil rose slightly on Thursday as profit-taking cut into an earlier rally driven by rising tensions between Syria and Israel and a drop in U.S. inventories.

Aniboom, an Internet home for animators to create and share original clips, is launching its own channel on video site YouTube with the aim of hatching the next animated blockbuster that could rival The Simpsons or South Park.

Conductor Zubin Mehta hopes to have an Arab-Israeli in his Israel Philharmonic within 10 years, but he's in no hurry to program Wagner again in Israel.

The United States sealed a deal on Thursday to provide Israel with $30 billion in defense grants over the next decade, a 25 percent boost that Washington describes as strengthening a regional bulwark against Iran.