Jewish Israelis are divided on the question of removing some settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians, with 50 percent in favor and 43 percent opposed, a poll said on Thursday.

The survey, which was conducted by Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute, found that just 28 percent of Jewish Israelis thought the government would need to remove all settlements, including major blocs.

A prominent Arab-Israeli human rights activist was convicted on Wednesday of spying for Lebanon's Hizbullah, a statement from the Israeli justice ministry said.

In a plea bargain submitted to the Haifa district court, Amir Makhoul "confessed to and was convicted of ... espionage and aggravated espionage," the statement said.

Israeli police and stone-throwing Arabs clashed in northern Israel on Wednesday as a group of extreme right-wing Israelis tried to march through the Arab Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm.

Hundreds of police clad in riot gear fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse angry Arab youths, many with scarves wrapped around their faces, who burned tires and hurled stones in protest ahead of an extremist rally in their town.

Iran hit out on Tuesday at whistleblower website WikiLeaks describing as "mischievous" the disclosure of classified U.S. military documents detailing assessments of its role in neighboring Iraq.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the timing of the leaks raised questions about the website's independence and Iran's ISNA news agency quoted him as saying it was aimed at influencing protracted coalition talks in Baghdad.

Queen Elizabeth II formally welcomed the emir of Qatar to Britain on Tuesday for a trip aimed at boosting growing trade links and both countries' bids for the football World Cup.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani shook hands with the British monarch upon their meeting in Windsor, west of London, as the military sounded a gun salute.

Iraq's supreme criminal court sentenced former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz to death on Tuesday, state television reported, the first death sentence handed down against the longtime international face of the Saddam Hussein regime.

"The supreme criminal court issued an execution order against Tareq Aziz for his role in eliminating religious parties," the television reported.(AFP)

Bahrain's main Shiite opposition group, the Islamic National Accord Association, won 18 of parliament's 40 seats in a weekend poll, the electoral commission said on Sunday.

The 18 candidates of INAA, which won 17 parliamentary seats at the last election in 2006, were elected in the first round of the legislative poll held on Saturday, electoral commission chairman Abdullah al-Buainain told AFP.(AFP)

Jewish settlers have started building at least 600 homes since the end of a building ban on September 26, Peace Now said on Thursday.

"In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month, which is four times the pace of construction since before the freeze," Peace Now's Hagit Ofran told AFP, referring to the moratorium that began at the end of November 2009.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Abdullah have had telephonic discussions on regional affairs for a second time within a fortnight, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported Thursday.

The Wednesday evening conversation comes at a time when the two regional arch-rivals are at odds over what is perceived as rising Iranian influence in Lebanese politics and protracted efforts to form a government in Iraq.

A bomb attack Monday in central Baghdad on a government convoy killed a provincial councilor and wounded eight other people, including three bodyguards, an interior ministry official said.

"Jassem Ali Mahmud was killed and three of his bodyguards and five passersby were wounded when a bomb exploded as their convoy passed through Khulani neighborhood," the official said.