Jordan is ready to establish a joint free zone at the Karama border with Iraq to facilitate increasing flows of goods on border, said an official of Jordan’s free zones authorities after a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart.

Pope Benedict XVI has urged Israelis to make every effort to alleviate the hardship suffered by Palestininas, allowing them the freedom necessary to go about their business so that they can enjoy greater peace and security.

After a few weeks of dispute between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the coalition with the ruling party also known as March 14, under the leadership of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, over the issue of dismantling the internal telecommunication system of Hezbollah and firing the chief of security of Beirut International Airport, Arab League mediated and subsequently the involved parties reached a six-article agreement to end the rift and resume talks in Doha.
It is obvious that the organized effort of March 14 and collaboration of Walid Jumblatt, leader of Druze community, for taking over Hezbollah’s telecommunication system and the repeated baseless accusations against Hezbollah Leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah for engineering a political coup in Lebanon are merely parts of a scenario masterminded by Washington and Tel Aviv. As Nasrallah recently said, the internal telecommunication system was Hezbollah’s trump card in the 33-day war, which helped protect the resistance against Zionist attacks. The timely move of Hezbollah in handing occupied territories to Lebanon’s Army and the group’s preparedness for holding direct talks revealed that despite the assumptions of resistance’s enemies, Hezbollah is willing to do whatever possible to protect national interests. This way Hezbollah are rest assured that tension would not spread, a civil strife would be avoided and the conditions would eventually become ripe for establishment of a legitimate government and prevalence of the rule of law in Lebanon.
Another good omen is that the doctrine of Israel being undefeatable proved false during the 33-day war and Hezbollah managed to assume a direct political role in Lebanon’s internal developments in wake of their enhanced popularity both at home and abroad. In the meantime, Zionist leaders directly supported the March 14 Front in a bid to prevent Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon and severe the spiritual support of Iran and Syria for the militia. Moreover, being disappointed with their defeat, America and Israel resorted to the UN Security Council to start a new political war against Hezbollah, Iran and Syria. This led to the ratification of Resolution 1559 by the Security Council against Syria, which in turn intensified international pressures against Damascus and Hezbollah.
The financial and propagandistic support of Saudi Arabia and Egypt for March 14 Front and their increasing efforts for widening their political influence in Lebanon reveals that conservative Arab states, under the influence of Zionist policies and strategies, are working to block the increase of Iran’s spiritual influence in the volatile region. The two countries have leveled the baseless accusations against Iran that it poses a threat against the Arab world due to its so-called doctrine of ’Shiite crescent’. In fact, the Saudi and Egyptian stance fully complies with the American-Zionist notion of a “New Middle East“, on the basis of which the resistance and all forces against regional peace should be disarmed and grounds should be paved for reconciliation with Israel.
Hezbollah’s move in handing the territories it has occupied in Beirut to the army hints at the indisputable fact that the group’s leaders are farsighted and prepared to hold direct negotiations. Hezbollah is even ready to be disarmed and join Lebanon’s Army if a legal government is established. This can not only boost the militia’s popularity among the people of Lebanon, but also provide them with a significant advantage in the future developments.
It is also shown one more time that Syria will not cease to support its strategic partner Iran despite the propaganda warfare of Israel, the west and some Arab states that the Islamic state intends to dominate Lebanese state of affairs.
At any rate, it seems that the situation in Lebanon will remain to be dependant on regional and international developments. Amid all this, the reality is that after its victory in the 33-day war and its effective crisis management, Hezbollah’s prestige has increased substantially at home and also overseas.

Kuwaitis voted to elect a 50-seat parliament, the second in two years, after a series of disputes between MPs and the government held up development in this wealthy OPEC member, AFP reported.
A total of 275 candidates are standing in the elections, which will be contested under a new system in which the number of constituencies has been cut from 25 to five, a demand which united the opposition in the June 2006 polls.
The candidates include 27 women, the same number of female hopefuls as in the previous election.
Women are standing and voting for only the second time. No female candidate won a seat in the last polls.
About 361,700 people are eligible to vote in a country with a native population of just over one million. The voting age is 21 and servicemen in the police and army are banned from taking part in the ballot.
Early results are expected early on Sunday as ballot papers are still counted manually.
Parliament in oil-rich Kuwait, which is elected for a four-year term, has legislative and monitoring powers and can vote ministers out of office. Unelected ministers become ex-officio members of parliament.

The United States intends to build a big new prison at its main military base in Afghanistan, a shift from earlier aims to transfer most detainees to Afghan custody, The New York Times reported.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the report in the Times Saturday edition of the planned 40-acre complex at the Bagram military base. “There are plans underway to do that,“ Lt. Col. Mark Wright said.
Wright said the new facility would offer more room and more opportunity for vocational, educational and religious training. The current, makeshift prison at Bagram holds about 630 prisoners, kept in wire-mesh pens surrounded by coils of razor wire, the Times said.
US officials concede a new Afghan-run prison cannot absorb all the Afghans detained by the United States and waves of new prisoners who are expected from an escalating fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the report said. It said the plans represent an acknowledgment that the US was likely to hold prisoners overseas for many years to come.
The new US prison would hold about 1,100 detainees and cost about $60 million, the Times said.
“Our existing theatre internment facility is deteriorating,“ Sandra L. Hodgkinson, the senior Pentagon official for detention policy, told the Times. “It was renovated to do a temporary mission. There is a sense that this is the right time to build a new facility.“
Suicide Bombes
An Afghan soldier was killed and two NATO troops injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military patrol in southern Afghanistan, officials said.
The attack in Kandahar province’s Zhari district, which followed a mine explosion, comes a day after another suicide bomber killed 16 people mostly civilians in southwestern Farah province, AFP reported.
Both attacks were claimed by Taliban insurgents.
Meanwhile, a bicycle bomb killed a child and wounded four people in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Saturday, police said.
The bomb was detonated by remote-control as a police convoy passed through the center of Kandahar city, police official Mohammad Yaqub told Reuters. Three of those wounded were police, Reuters said.
A NATO spokesman confirmed the attack, saying the child who was killed was nine years old.

Some 10,000 civilians in northern Yemen have been displaced from their villages over the past week by sporadic clashes between government troops and Muslim rebels, said the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday.
The most recent round of fighting started last Saturday, and troops have been shelling rebel hideouts with artillery in the mountainous Saada province, said a military official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, AP reported.
“In the past six days only, I can say that some 10,000 Yemenis left their villages and sought shelter in the town of Saada,“ said Iman Monqar, the spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Yemen. The town of Saada is located in the province of the same name.
“We provided mattresses, bed sheets, food, water and other stuff to help facilitate the lives of people affected by the clashes,“ said Monqar.
The Red Cross official said that a total of 100,000 people in Saada province are struggling with tough living conditions as a result of the fighting. She said the clashes have also spread into other areas, such as the town of Harf Sufian in Arman province, located between Saada and the capital Sanaa.

GENEVA - Ministers from trade powers are expected to meet to seek a breakthrough in long-delayed negotiations for a global trade deal (in the week of May 1)

PARIS - France is to try 17 Chileans in absentia over the disappearance of four French or French-Chilean nationals in Chile during the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet (to May 23)

ABUJA - Court hearing resumes in the 5.3 trillion naira lawsuit brought by the federal government against three tobacco companies -- British American Tobacco, Altria unit Philip Morris International and Nigerian International Tobacco Ltd.

BONN, Germany - The governing body of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will hold its ninth meeting (to May 30)