Amman - Arab stock markets, which witnessed a strong rally on Thursday, are expected to be vigilant next week with investors monitoring any developments on Wall Street and other global markets, financial analysts said Friday.

The rebound followed a bloody week that reportedly cost the Arab world about 180 billion dollars in losses.

Tel Aviv - A brawl between Arab and Jewish youths on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur in the town of Akko has led to some of the most intense inter-ethnic rioting in years, Israeli media reported.

According to the Ha'aretz daily in its Thursday edition, an Arab youth was harassed by a group of Israelis who claimed that the Arab youth was making too much noise with his car on the Jewish holy day.

Amman - Arab stock markets dived for the fourth day in a row Wednesday amid a spiraling lack of confidence that the world financial crisis could be brought under control within a reasonable time, financial analysts said.

However, two of the major regional markets, the Saudi and Kuwaiti stock exchanges, trimmed their losses at a later stage apparently in response to local and global steps taken to stem the turmoil, including the reduction of prime interest rates by the world's leading central banks.

Baghdad  - Arab League envoy to Iraq, Hani Khalaf, is expected on Monday to resume the diplomatic work of the Arab League mission in Baghdad, the state Middle East News Agency
(MENA) reported.

In July Arab League Chief Amr Mussa appointed the retired diplomat, an Egyptian national, to head the Arab League representation in Iraq.

Khalaf made a number of visits to Baghdad in August to check the security situation there.

The Arab League office in Baghdad was previously headed by a Morrocan, Mukhtar Yemeni, who resigned in the summer of 2007 over the security conditions in the country. Since then the post has been vacant.

Amman - The US bailout plan is expected to have a "positive impact" on Middle East markets, which plummeted under the "psychological" fallout of the US financial crisis over the past few weeks, financial analysts said Friday.

"We believe the US rescue plan will have a positive impact not only on global markets but also on Middle East markets," Wajdi Makhamreh, Chief Operating Officer at the Sanabel International Holding told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"The scheme will help evade the collapse of the world financial system. However, doubts will continue to be raised as to the effectiveness of the salvage blueprint," he said.

Amman - Arab stock markets tumbled this week in response to the collapse of the US Lehman Brothers bank, and financial analysts said Friday they did not exclude further repercussions on regional markets.

"The direction of markets is unclear," Nizar Taher, chief of brokerage at the Jordan Ahli Bank told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Arab markets reacted violently to latest developments in the United States, an indication that there are investors who work in the two regions," he said.