The first peace negotiations in 20 months hosted by Hillary Clinton are to begin in the US State Department. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama held separate one-on-one White House meetings with the leaders, urging them not to miss the chance of setting permanent peace.The beginning of talks caused fresh violence in the West Bank. On Wednesday, an Israeli man and woman were shot and injured when the car they came under fire from another vehicle east of Ramallah. One day earlier another four Israelis were killed in a West Bank shooting. Bbc.co.uk.

Two deadly incidents in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, have resulted in the deaths of at least 14 people. Eight people were killed and 14 others wounded in a roadside bomb blast on Tuesday. The driver got unconscious after the explosion but was not seriously injured. Nobody claimed responsibility. In the north of Mogadishu, six civilians were killed in a mortar shelling incident between African Union (AU) peacekeepers and al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab fighters near the main market. Residential blocks near the market are often destroyed when fire mortar shells leaving civilian casualties. Aljazeera.net.

U.S. President Barack Obama declares the end of America's combat mission in Iraq, seven years after an invasion. Today will address Americans in a nationally televised speech at 8 pm Washington D.C. time. Before that he will go to a military base in Texas to meet with just returned soldiers. The size of the U.S. force in Iraq has dropped below a symbolic quantity of 50,000 troops. Since Monday, their mission will be so-called "advise and support" the Iraqi army. Alarabiya.net.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said that Israel would be to blame for the collapse of a new round of U.S.-backed peace talks if it continues settlement expansion on occupied territory. The Palestinians have threatened to pull out of the direct peace talks with Israel, due to begin on Sept. 2 in Washington D.C., unless it extends a moratorium on West Bank settlement construction when it expires on Sept. 26. "Israel alone will bear the responsibility of threatening these negotiations with collapse and failure if it continues settlement expansion in all its forms in all the Palestinian lands occupied since 1967," Alarabiya.net quotes Abbas’ TV speech as saying.

Iran's defence minister has said his country is prepared to sell arms to Lebanon. General Ahmad Vahidi called Lebanon their friend and expressed readiness to aid. "If there is a demand in this respect, we are ready to help that country and conduct weapons transactions with it," he was quoted as saying by Aljazeera.net. Vahidi's speech comes a day after Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, proposed the Lebanese government officially seek military aid from Iran. Some weeks ago the US froze in its military aid to Lebanon after deadly border clashes between Lebanese and Israeli troops.

The Iraqi prime minister has said Iraqi intelligence indicated that an al-Qaeda front group and members of Saddam Hussein's forbidden Baath party are collaborating to launch terror attacks to cause fear and chaos and kill more civilians. Nouri al-Maliki put police and army on its highest alert for terror attacks. "We direct the Iraqi forces, police and army and other security forces, to take the highest alert and precautionary measures to foil this criminal planning," Alarabiya.net quotes al-Maliki’s statement to state-run television as saying.

Amnesty International has blamed Yemen on violating human rights in the name of national security. Activists have documented what they say is a series of violations such as unlawful killings of those suspected of having links to al-Qaeda. They also say that Yemeni authorities abandoned human rights as they tackle a separatist movement in the south and Shia rebels in the north. Sanaa say they are doing their best to protect civilians. Yemen, the poorest Arab country, is fighting with multiple enemies. As well as struggling with al-Qaeda, the central government is trying to quell armed Shia rebels, known as the Huthis, in the north, and a southern breakaway movement. Bbc.co.uk.

Iraqi police have arrested nine men and three women allegedly of al-Qaeda gang. The Interior Ministry says they killed traffic police in Baghdad. According to the police they confessed to the shootings. About 20 traffic policemen have been killed over the past three weeks. The ministry says the operation shows the strength of the police and that they are ready to handle security in Iraq when the American troops have been withdrawn. Bbc.co.uk.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has commented planned direct talks between Israel and Palestinians for the first time. "Achieving a peace agreement between us and the Palestinian Authority is difficult, but possible," bbc.co.uk. quotes Mr Netanyahu’s speech at an Israeli cabinet meeting as saying. He added that Palestinians must recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people and its security must be guaranteed. The direct talks are to begin in September.

A year after the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person jailed over the 1988 Lockerbie attack, the UK has warned Libya against a repeat of the ceremonies which marked his return home. Britain's foreign minister called celebrations seen last year after al-Megrahi's release from a Scottish prison would be "deeply insensitive". Milad Maatoug, the head of Libya's National Youth Council, which organized celebrations last year, said its annual festival would "have nothing to do with al-Megrahi’s homecoming at all". Many relatives of the 270 people killed in the bombing of a Pan American airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie are still indignant at al-Megrahi's release.
Aljazeera.net.