Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - An international meeting on Middle East peace opened Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh amid hopes that a Barack Obama administration in the United States will accord adequate attention to settling Arab-Israeli differences.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were present at the meeting of the so-called Middle East Quartet.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were to brief participants on negotiations over 12 months that failed to reach a final status agreement, or a framework for one.

Nairobi/Goma - The head of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), Alan Doss, has condemned militias fighting in the east of the country, accusing them of committing "war crimes."

Doss said that the UN did not yet have a clear idea of a massacre that occurred in the town of Kinwanja, which was first taken by Mai Mai militias loyal to the government, then by the forces of rebel general Laurent Nkunda.

UN aid workers had found the bodies of dozens of civilians in the town some 80 kilometres north of the provincial capital of Goma.

African leaders attending an emergency summit in Nairobi Friday on the conflict urged an immediate ceasefire and the extension of UN peacekeeping powers in the country.

Islamabad - Pakistani security forces killed at least 43 militants and lost three soldiers in overnight clashes and airstrikes in the conflict-ridden north-western districts near the Afghan border, officials and media reports said on Sunday.

Up to a dozen insurgents were killed on Sunday when Pakistani aircraft pounded militant hideouts in the restive Bajaur tribal district, a known hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

"Jets targeted the positions in Khar and Mamoond areas, killing at least 12 militants and leaving many more injured," a security officials said on condition of anonymity.

Successive explosions were reported from the bombed locations, suggesting ammunition caches were also hit, the official added.

New York, Nov. 9 : U. S. President-elect Barack Obama will act on his campaign promise to tax the wealthiest Americans, an Obama senior adviser has told the New York Daily News. 

He said that Obama plans to raise taxes on the wealthy by asking the Democratic-controlled Congress to allow President Bush''s tax cuts to expire at the end of 2010. When they expire, it could pump in about 72 billion a year toward balancing the budget, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. 

London, Nov. 9 : Here, according to The Telegraph, are the fifty facts about US presidential elect Barack Obama that you might know of.

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics 

• He was known as "O''Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball 

• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili 

• His favourite meal is wife Michelle''s shrimp linguini 

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father 

Washington, Nov. 9 : Agents of the United States Security Service have squarely blamed Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin for the death threats against president-elect Barack Obama.

According to the agents, Palin’s repeated questioning of Obama’s patriotism sparked off the death threats from white supremacists.

According to The Telegraph, Palin attracted criticism for accusing Obama of "palling around with terrorists", citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers.