AFP - Indirect Middle East peace talks should begin soon, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday in the first public comment by an Israeli official on a US initiative.

AFP - The cash-strapped UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday it needs at least 100 million dollars this year to continue its services for millions of refugees in the Middle East.

AP - The Israeli government has stepped in to save a house built illegally by Jewish settlers in a volatile Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem, complicating already troubled U.S. efforts to renew Mideast peacemaking.

AP - There's a reason for the gritty feel of reality in "Ajami," an Oscar-nominated Israeli film about the lives of Arabs and Jews in the impoverished, crime-ridden neighborhoods of this Mediterranean city: Its amateur actors' lives eerily mirror their art.