Reuters - Russia and the European Union condemned Israel's strikes in Lebanon on Thursday as a dangerous escalation of the Middle East conflict but the United States said Israel had the right to self defense.

Reuters - President Bush had more on his mind than Iran's nuclear program, Middle East tensions and Russian press freedoms during a visit to Germany Thursday.

AP - President Bush blamed Syria and Iran for new Middle East violence Wednesday, faced further defiance from Iran and North Korea and got an acerbic retort from Russian President Vladimir Putin to U.S. criticism.

Reuters - Shares on Wall Street were expected to fall again on Thursday as mounting tension in the Middle East pushed oil prices to new record highs, near $76 a barrel, which in turn rekindled inflation worries.

AFP - German Chancellor Angela Merkel rolled out a down-home welcome, complete with roast boar, for US President George W. Bush before talks expected to take up issues like escalating violence in the Middle East.

FT.com - European equity markets moved lower shortly after opening on Thursday as an upswing in violence in the Middle East and a surge in oil prices to record levels weigh on investor sentiment.

FT.com - European equity markets were set for a weak opening on Thursday as an upswing in violence in the Middle East and a surge in oil prices to record levels weigh on investor sentiment.

AFP - Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won Israeli support for its accusations of a North Korean military threat, while urging the Jewish state to take "rational action" in the face of an escalating Middle East crisis.

AP - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday that insurgents are trying to take control of western Baghdad, but he vowed they won't succeed.

Reuters - Leaving behind a region set on edge by North Korean missile launches, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi departed on Tuesday for an increasingly tense Middle East to call for more efforts toward regional peace.

Israeli Prime Minister justifies the military onslaught on Gaza as nine more Palestinians are killed. In the face of increasing casualty, Hamas's exiled political chief says that the captured soldier at the middle of the worst Middle East crisis in months would not be set free without an exchange...

AP - Anger flared across the Middle East on Thursday over Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, and Arab governments were assailed for not aiding Palestinians. The Egyptian government's top rival, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, urged Egyptians to gather at pro-Palestinian demonstrations Friday, the day of weekly Islamic prayers.

AFP - Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi has called for economic cooperation to secure peace in the Middle East, after meeting with the Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

AFP - Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said that an incursion into Israel by Palestinian militants in which two Israeli soldiers were killed delays the prospect of peace in the Middle East.

AFP - The European Union's external relations commissioner has said that unilateral Israeli steps could not bring Middle East peace but nevertheless hailed plans to remove settlements as "courageous­".

AFP - The European Union hailed backing from the diplomatic quartet on the Middle East for an EU proposal for a temporary mechanism to funnel aid to the cash-strapped Palestinians.

AFP - The diplomatic quartet on Middle East peace endorsed a European Union proposal for a temporary mechanism to funnel aid to the Palestinians, bypassing the Hamas-led government.

Reuters - The European Union agreed on Friday on an aid scheme for Palestinians bypassing the Hamas-led government and said it was close to winning the backing of the United States and other Middle East peace brokers.

AFP - The European Union and its Middle East Quartet partners are close to accord on a "mechanism&­amp;quot; to channel aid to the cash-strapped Palestinians, EU external affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

AFP - The World Bank is in talks with the Middle East Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States -- on creating a donor-based aid package for the beleaguered Palestinian population, Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said.