AFP - Egypt announced that a woman has died of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu, marking the first reported human case in the country.

Reuters - Hamas on Saturday completed forming a Palestinian cabinet and will present the line-up to President Mahmoud Abbas, a Hamas spokesman said.

AFP - More than 3,000 Egyptians staged a pair of protests in central Cairo to register their disapproval at the slow pace of reforms in the country.

Reuters - While its exiled chief challenged Israel to long-term conflict, Hamas fine-tuned its cabinet list on Friday after more moderate Palestinian factions refused to join the militant Islamist movement in a coalition.

Reuters - Hamas will finalize its cabinet on Saturday and hopes to soon submit the names to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group said on Friday.

AFP - Behind a vale of trees lies the largest leper colony in the Middle East, a virtual oasis in Egypt for those who have been ostracised by society.

AP - Muslim and Christian scholars and clerics agreed at a conference Friday that the West and Islam must use dialogue to repair ties frayed by the crisis over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

Reuters - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he was hopeful after talks with Hamas in Moscow this week that the militant Palestinian group would endorse the Israeli-Palestinian "road map" peace accord.

AP - Hamas' leader said his visit to Russia "opened the door to the entire global community," claiming in an interview published Monday that the international isolation of the militant Palestinian group was coming to an end.

Reuters - Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans a unilateral withdrawal from some settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins a March 28 general election, political sources said on Sunday.

Reuters - Gunmen briefly took over a Palestinian government building in Gaza on Sunday, firing into the air and demanding their salaries be paid.

AFP - The radical group Hamas admits it would have to "change its manners" now that it was the elected representative of the Palestinian people and says it views its landmark visit to Russia as a first step in that direction.

Reuters - Islamist militant group Hamas rejected Russian appeals for it to recognize Israel or disband its armed wing, senior leaders of the group said on Saturday.

AFP - Leaders of the radical Palestinian group Hamas met religious, business and other political leaders on the second day of a landmark first visit to a major world power following the movement's shock victory in Palestinian elections.

AFP - Egypt has arrested a leader and seven members of Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, the outlawed but tolerated Islamist group's number two told AFP.

Reuters - Palestinian election winner Hamas will not recognize Israel despite pressure from Russia to do so during talks in Moscow, a senior leader of the Islamic militant group said on Saturday.

AP - Hamas' leader made the militant Palestinian group's highest-level diplomatic trip ever Friday to hear out Russia's urging that it recognize Israel and abandon violence, but emerged showing no softening in hostility toward the Jewish state.

AP - Russia thrust itself to the center of two global entanglements this week — the faceoff over Iran's nuclear program and the stalled peace efforts in the Middle East — as it confidently strives to take up the mantle of an international power broker.

AP - Russia thrust itself to the center of two global entanglements this week — the faceoff over Iran's nuclear program and the stalled peace efforts in the Middle East — as it confidently strives to take up the mantle of an international power broker.

AP - Two people disguised as Christian pilgrims threw firecrackers into a revered church in Nazareth Friday, sparking a riot in the biblical Israeli town, police said.