AP - A German reporter says he was beaten by guards during his nearly five months of imprisonment in Iran and that he heard constant, "horrible cries" of other inmates being tortured.

Reuters - Iran will target any country used as a launchpad for attacks against its soil, the deputy Revolutionary Guards commander said, expanding Tehran's range of threats in an increasingly volatile stand-off with world powers over its nuclear ambitions.

AP - A Gaza-born woman recently sneaked into her native land through a smugglers' tunnel because the legal route was blocked. A car mechanic who settled in the West Bank 15 years ago to raise a family lives in fear of deportation because his ID card says he's originally from Gaza.

AP - The Palestinian president and the head of rival Hamas resumed talks Sunday over efforts to move along a reconciliation pact that remains stalled after nearly a year.

AP - Iran will target any country where an attack against it is staged, a senior Guard commander warned Sunday, the latest Iranian threat tied to growing tensions over its nuclear program and Western sanctions.

Reuters - Each day that he struggles to buy food for his family, vegetable seller Hasan Sharafi shoulders part of the burden of Iran's defiance of the West over its nuclear programme. He can hardly bear it.

AP - Authorities say gunmen have killed an Interior Ministry official in a drive-by shooting in central Baghdad.

AP - American and Israeli gas prospectors say they have discovered a large amount of offshore natural gas in Israeli waters near the Lebanese border.

AP - Hamas officials say a senior member of the Palestinian militant group has left Syria because of the government's crackdown on an uprising there.

Reuters - Bahraini opposition parties, launching a week-long 'sit-in' for political reforms at a mass rally, swore on Sunday to take their campaign to the centre of last year's democracy protest in the capital Manama.

Reuters - An Israeli raid on Iran's nuclear facilities would deliver a painful shock to the global economy, revive flagging Islamist militancy and possibly drag the United States into a regional war whether it backed its ally's attack or not.

AP - Palestinians say extremist Jews have scrawled their home in a West Bank village with offensive graffiti in retaliation for an upcoming demolition of a wildcat Jewish outpost.

AP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that international sanctions on Iran are impeding some of his country's business deals with Tehran.

Reuters - Bahrainis of different political stripes faced off in a rare forum on Saturday to try to bridge deep rifts against a backdrop of continued disturbances outside the Gulf Arab state's capital.

Reuters - Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would not retreat from its nuclear program even if its crude oil exports grind to a halt, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.