Best of BBC news

The Vatican says it could appeal diplomatically to Iran to spare the life of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

US troops are called in to help Iraqi forces battle insurgents behind a deadly attack on an Iraqi army base in Baghdad, security officials tell the BBC.

Israel carries out three bombing raids on the Gaza Strip, killing one man and injuring another.

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery now faces being whipped for indecency, her son says.

Prosecutors in Bahrain accuse 23 Shia activists of forming a "terrorist network" aiming to overthrow the Gulf state's Sunni-dominated government.

At the Zikim Kibbutz, near Ashkelon in southern Israel, tourists come in to see what life is like living just a short distance from the Gaza border.

Former UN chief nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei accuses Egypt's government of being behind a campaign to smear his family.

How easy is to find an optimist in the Middle East?

Israeli and Palestinian talks seen from the inside

Reading Arabic 'hard for brain'

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair tells the BBC that radical Islam is the greatest threat facing the world.

Newspapers in Egypt are banned from reporting on a poster campaign promoting the chief of intelligence as a possible future president, the BBC learns.

A UPS cargo plane crashes at an air force base shortly after take-off from Dubai airport, killing two crew members on board.

The US secretary of state warns the current round of Mid-East peace talks may be "the last chance for a very long time".

Striking pictures from around the world this week.

Since the credit crunch Dubai has been attracting tourists with massively discounted prices at luxury hotels but during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan the city is having to work even harder to entice tourists.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are doomed to fail, in the first regional reaction to the talks.

Dublin delays a deal to allow transfers of EU citizens' data to Israel, which is accused of forging passports.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet in Washington for the first direct peace talks in nearly two years and agree a framework for negotiations.

The Israeli novelist David Grossman on how the Middle East conflict tore his family apart.