Middle East News - AP

As of Monday, Dec. 24, 2007, at least 3,897 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,171 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

JERUSALEM - The Israeli army on Monday said it will not press charges against officers who ordered the use of cluster bombs during last year's war in Lebanon, brushing off international criticism that the weapons unnecessarily put Lebanese civilians at risk.

BAGHDAD - Iran wants to renew high-level talks with U.S. officials on security in Iraq, insisting that discussions take place between ambassadors and not lower-level functionaries, Iraqi officials said Monday.

CAIRO, Egypt - A 12-story building collapsed Monday in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing at least three people, according to rescuers and the state-run news agency MENA.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed Monday to immediately win Cabinet support for a plan to make it easier to release some Palestinian prisoners — a change necessary for a deal to free an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkish police thwarted a bomb attack in Istanbul on Monday, arresting a 25-year-old man with explosives in his backpack outside a subway station, the city's governor said.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran plans to build 19 more nuclear power plants and will soon solicit international bids for their construction, a lawmaker said.

BAGHDAD - The spiritual leader of Iraq's Catholics made a Christmas appeal Monday for all those who have fled Iraq to return and help rebuild their shattered homeland, acknowledging that fear still persists even as the country enjoys one of its most peaceful holiday seasons in years.

BAGHDAD - Fear still pervades life in Iraq despite a recent reduction in violence, the spiritual leader of Iraq's Catholics said Monday, making a Christmas appeal for refugees who have fled the country to return nonetheless.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A train struck a minivan at an intersection south of Baghdad on Monday, killing a couple and 11 children, police and hospital officials said.

BAGHDAD - The rise of armed Sunni groups — who now battle al-Qaida in Iraq instead of fighting U.S. troops — is widely seen as a major reason for a drop in violence across the country.

JERUSALEM - Israeli scientists have inscribed the entire Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible onto a space less than half the size of a grain of sugar.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkey's prime minister defended the recent bombing of Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq as military jets pummeled the area with fresh attacks on Sunday.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gaza's tiny Christian community is keeping a low profile this Christmas, traumatized by the killing of a prominent activist in the wake of Hamas' takeover of the coastal territory.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabian police have arrested 28 men for allegedly planning to attack holy sites around Mecca and Medina during the recently finished Muslim hajj pilgrimage, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said Sunday.

JERUSALEM - Israel has plans to build an additional 740 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2008, a Cabinet minister said Sunday, enraging Palestinians who say such construction undermines nascent peace talks.

MANAMA, Bahrain - Security forces conducted sweeps through Shiite villages in Bahrain on Saturday, arresting several protesters involved in a week of demonstrations against the Sunni-led government, witnesses and opposition groups said.