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[صمت الكلام]

$50mn Arab aid to ‘people of Palestine’RABAT: Large Arab investment funds will funnel about $50mn into projects to ease the hardships of the Palestinians, but the money will not go to the cash-strapped Hamas-led government, fund heads said yesterday. “We agreed to allocate 10% of 2005’s net profits of the funds to aid the Palestinian population,” said Jassim al-Manai, the managing director of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF).



Blair’s envoy holds talks with Abbas over roadmap
RAMALLAH: British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Middle East envoy, Lord Levy, delivered a letter to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas yesterday, outlining proposals to revive the moribund peace process.



Kadima, Labour face off in coalition talks
JERUSALEM: Tensions between Israel’s ruling Kadima party and the Labour party reached a new high yesterday as the two parties continued efforts to hammer out joint guidelines for a coalition government.



Damascus rejects UN Lebanon border call
BEIRUT: Syria cannot draw its shared border with Lebanon because a key southern zone remains occupied by Israel, a government official has said in response to a UN call to firm up its frontiers.



Israel minister justifies revoking Hamas MPs Jerusalem residency
JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni yesterday justified a government decision to revoke the residency cards of three Palestinian Hamas MPs that allowed them to live in occupied east Jerusalem.



Arab MP requests to visit Saudi national held in Israeli prisonJERUSALEM: An Arab Israeli MP yesterday requested permission from the authorities to visit a Saudi national detained in Israel. Ahmed Tibi said he had submitted a written request to make the visit with Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra. “I asked for his release or at least to be able to visit him because his state of health is failing and he has been on hunger strike,” Tibi said.




‘Smuggled arms for Palestine militants came from Syria’AMMAN: Jordan’s Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet told a meeting of parliamentarians that weapons seized from a secret Hamas arms cache in Jordan had been smuggled from Syria, deputies said on yesterday.