Investigators on Friday searched for the motive behind a mass shooting at a sprawling US Army base in Texas, in which an army psychiatrist trained to treat war wounded is suspected of killing 13 people.A spokesman at the base said the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a lifelong Muslim born in the United States of immigrant parents.

Turkey is ready to oversee a new stage of secret peace talks between Israel and Syria, resuming a role it had played until last year, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said here Friday.Historically Israel's only friend in the Middle East, Ankara has in recent years served as a conduit for diplomatic exchanges between Israel and its arch foe Damascus about improving relations.

Israel on Friday rejected a UN General Assembly resolution urging an investigation into a report saying that war crimes were committed in Gaza, and condemned the world body vote as "completely detached from realities."In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in response to Thursday's vote that Israel "maintains the right to self-defense," and would "continue to act.

Younger Palestinian leaders were in no rush on Friday to step into the shoes of President Mahmoud Abbas after he said he did not want to run for re-election in January.Making clear Abbas' Fatah movement is, so far, unwilling to take the 74-year-old president at his word, none of the men seen as potential successors threw their hats into the ring after Ab bas' announcement Thursday.

Saudi Arabia, deeply worried by instability in Yemen, has hit back hard at Yemeni insurgents who breached the kingdom's border, but will try to avoid getting sucked deeper into the conflict in its chaotic neighbor.The world's biggest oil exporter has rarely, if ever, taken unilateral military action beyond its borders in recent decades, preferring to wield regional influence via wealth and diplomacy.

France voiced concern Friday over the fate of a Tunisian journalist and vocal critic of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting a woman and faces trial.Taoufik Ben Brik was detained on October 29 after reporting to a police station in response to a summons in connection with an alleged attack on a woman in the street the week before.

Southern Sudan is facing a "serious outbreak" of the deadly kala azar tropical disease, the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned on Friday.Outbreaks have been recorded in several locations across the remote states of Jonglei and Upper Nile, with more than 380 patients being treated since October.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by a UN court for war crimes, is to travel to Turkey over the weekend, but will not be arrested, a Turkish government official said Friday.Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and ones against humanity in Darfur.The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has invited Bashir to an economic summit in Istanbul.

Yemen's Shiite rebels said they had captured some Saudi soldiers on Friday, after Riyadh said it would press on with its offensive until it had cleared them from its territory.A Saudi official said on Thursday that Riyadh had launched air strikes on rebels in northern Yemen after the Shiite insurgents made a cross-border raid earlier in the week.

Norwegian prosecutors announced on Friday they would not pursue war crimes charges against Israeli officials, including former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, over the Gaza Strip offensive.Six Norwegian lawyers brought a case against Olmert and nine others in April for alleged offenses during the conflict in December-January.

Hamas said Friday it is allowing Muslims to leave the Gaza Strip on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca after blocking them last year because of a Palestinian political dispute."The first wave of around 1,000 hajj pilgrims from the Gaza Strip is now traveling to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing," Hamas religious affairs minister Taleb Abu Shaar toldAFP.

The UN nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting the Islamic Republic's scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, while Iran said it is preparing to give more details on its response to international proposals for supplying nuclear fuel.Citing what it describes as "previously unpublished documentation" from an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) compiled dossier.

Iraq's electoral authorities called on Friday for polls due next January to be delayed after Parliament failed once more to agree on how to hold the vote.If Parliament insisted on sticking to the scheduled January 16 date, the electoral commission could not guarantee the ballot would meet international standards due a lack of time for preparation, said the Commission's head Faraj al-Haidari.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde criticized as "over the top" Friday a fellow minister's comments that Britain's main opposition party's EU policies were pathetic and autistic.French Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche sparked a storm here Thursday when he was quoted as attacking the Conservatives' pledge to take back some powers from the European Union if they win power next year.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said Friday that a US-brokered pact failed to end a four-month political crisis after a deadline for forming a unity government passed."The accord is dead," Zelaya told Radio Globo from from the Brazilian Embassy where he has been hold up under threat of arrest.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, winner of a fraud-tainted election, risks losing British and international support unless he acts decisively to fight corruption, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday. Brown, seeking to bolster dwindling public backing at home for keeping British troops in Afghanistan, said Karzai must pass five key tests.