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BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. troops arrested four Iraqi men in the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll who was held captive for 82 days, a U.S. spokesman said Wednesday, as troops reinforcements were moving into the capital to stem sectarian violence that threatens civil war. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the four, who were not identified, were arrested in Anbar province west of Baghdad but he did not say when. Another U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said the arrests were made about a month ago

Fifteen Israel Defense Forces troops were killed on Wednesday as fierce fighting with Hezbollah guerillas raged in the southern Lebanon villages of Ayta al-Shaab and Dibel, the IDF annonced late Wednesday night. 10 IDF soldiers were reported injured in the battle. They were evacuated to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and to the Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Safed for treatment. The guerillas are equipped with anti-tank missiles, which have previously caused losses among the IDF troops in the area.

JPost.com » Opinion » Editorials » Article Aug. 8, 2006 2:32 | Updated Aug. 8, 2006 2:38 Corrective tactics [Print this Article] [EMail this Article] [Subscribe] [SMS Alerts] [JPost Toolbar] [JPost ePaper] The Lebanese government, presumably representing Hizbullah, has rejected the draft Security Council resolution on ending the current hostilities, apparently in the belief that the US and Israel are essentially suing for peace and that it can therefore squeeze out a better deal. This is actually an opportunity for Israel to turn the tables and correct its premature declaration of victory and tentative embrace of a cease-fire. In a...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The Lebanese government unanimously agreed Monday to send 15,000 soldiers to south Lebanon if Israeli troops withdraw, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. Earlier in the day, the Lebanese army called up reserve soldiers in a move linked to the possible deployment on the border if a cease-fire agreement is reach to end nearly four weeks of fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces.

The Islamic Resistance, armed wing of Hezbollah, announced it had killed four Israeli soldiers including an officer in a pre-dawn attack in south Lebanon on Monday. "Our fighters spotted a group of enemy elite forces at 3:20 am entering a house near the village of Hula. They attacked the house and managed to kill four Zionist soldiers including an officer," the Shiite group said in a statement. Hula is located at the edge of the central part of the border between Lebanon and Israel, where there have been repeated clashes over the past week between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has promised to give $500m to Lebanon to pay for reconstruction. He also approved $1bn for the Central Bank of Lebanon to support the economy. The Saudi monarch warned that Israel's military offensives in Lebanon and Gaza could ignite a war in the region. He is holding talks with Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, in the Saudi capital Riyadh ahead of a conference on Lebanon in Rome on Wednesday. Pressure on the Lebanese pound has risen over the past fortnight during the military action by Israel in response to Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in...

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that Israel would accept a temporary international force, preferably headed by NATO, deployed along the Lebanese border to keep Hizbullah guerrillas away from Israel, according to officials in Peretz's office. "Israel's goal is to see the Lebanese army deployed along the border with Israel, but we understand that we are taking about a weak army and that in the midterm period Israel will have to accept a multinational force," he said according to his office. Peretz made the comments during a closed meeting with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. US President George W....

Avi Dichter, the former head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and now Minister of Internal Security, has reportedly said that Israel may have to consider a prisoner swap at some point in the future to help bring an end to the current crisis in the region. His comments are the first from a senior Israeli cabinet member that some form of deal may have to be struck with Hizbullah and the Palestinians to end the fighting. Dichter is a respected member of the Israeli intelligence and security establishment; as a member of a cabinet that has been accused...

Amman - Toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has issued a warning to the Syrian leadership 'not to go too far in its alliance with Iran,' blaming Tehran for the current flare-up of violence in the Middle East, the head of Saddam's defence team claimed Tuesday. Iraqi lawyer Khalil Duleimi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that he and another member of the defence panel, Ziyad Najdawi, met with the former Iraqi president at his place of custody in Baghdad on Monday for three and a half hours. 'The president told us that the Syrian leadership should not go too far in its...

Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee Chair Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) at a hearing on Friday suggested that advocates for medical research become more politically active in requesting additional federal funding, the Baltimore Sun reports (Rockoff, Baltimore Sun, 5/20). The hearing included testimony from representatives of nearly two dozen disease advocacy groups.

WASHINGTON - The federal government predicted Monday that the supply of doctors who specialize in treating critically ill patients probably won't keep up with the demand of the country's aging population. That's important, some groups say, because more doctors with such expertise could help save lives and money. Critical care doctors, or intensivists, make up an evolving specialty, and one of the newest specialties to be certified under the American Board of Medical Specialties. About 2,000 such doctors specialize in treating patients in the nation's intensive care units. In 2003, Congress asked the Health Resources and Services Administration to analyze...

New York (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline prices fell 6.4 cents over the last week to $2.88 a gallon, as crude oil costs fell sharply, the government said on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT Drivers are still paying 76 cents per gallon more at the pump than they were a year ago heading into the Memorial Day holiday weekend -- the traditional start of the summer vacation period. The new drop in pump prices could be short lived, following a sharp rise on Monday in crude oil futures at the New York Mercantile Exchange, where the expiring contract for delivering oil in June...