Damascus/Istanbul - Syria will for the first time take up diplomatic relations with its neighbour Lebanon, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Thursday at a summit of four nations in Damascus.

The announcement, which was broadcast life on Arabic television, was made after French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Assad to break the diplomatic silence.

The meeting on current regional conflicts was attended by Sarkozy, who is current president of the European Union and Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, president of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Gaza - Egypt on Saturday opened its border with the Gaza Strip to allow stranded Palestinians and Egyptians to cross in two directions, Palestinian security sources said.

Five busses left the Gaza Strip through Rafah crossing when its gates were opened Saturday and one bus entered the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the sources added.

Ramallah - A 24-year-old Palestinian was killed early Friday in a landmine explosion in a West Bank village, police said.

Ramallah - Womanhood, domestic violence, sexuality and love are some of the themes dominating a new Palestinian soap opera, set to air next week at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"Our main focus was entertainment," said Fareed Majari, the producer of "Matabb" - Speed bump in Arabic - the name of what is being billed as the first homemade Palestinian soap opera, using local actors, dialect and themes to discuss pressing issues in the society.

"But we also wanted to talk about some of the burning issues which are sometimes swept under the carpet," he added, citing the English "Eastenders" and the German "Lindenstrasse" as his models.

Tel Aviv - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "the best present Israel has received" because of his anti-Israel statements, the former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency said Wednesday.

"He unites the world against Iran," Ephraim Halevy told the US-backed al-Hurra Arabic-language television station.

"Everything he says proves to that the Iran of today is an Iran you cannot live with," he said in the interview, which was broadcast Tuesday, but excerpts of which were quoted in the Israeli media Wednesday.

Amman - The Jordanian authorities on Wednesday freed four prisoners who were transferred last year from Israel to spend the remainder of their jail term at Jordanian prisons, an official statement said.

The four Jordanians - Sultan Ajlouni, Salem Abu Ghalyoun, Khalid Abu Ghalyoun and Amin al-Sane - were released after ending three quarters of their remaining jail term at Jordanian jails, the spokesman for the Public Security Department Major Mohammad Khatib said.