1. FATAH VOWS REVENGE…Leading figures in the military wing of Fatah say they will launch attacks in pre-1967 Israel, after two of their members were killed in a shoot-out with Israeli soldiers overnight. The incident took place as Israeli forces continued their searches for armed groups in Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank. This time the clash occurred in the Balata area of Nablus. Three armed Palestinians were killed 24 hours earlier in Jenin.
2. FATAH WINS MOST AREAS IN LATEST ELECTION…Fatah, the movement that controls the Palestinian Authority, won most seats and municipalities in the third round of voting in the West Bank on Thursday. Election officials say Fatah took 60 percent of votes cast, giving it control of 61 of the councils where elections took place. Hamas was victorious in 28 local authorities. Most of the polls were in rural areas, with a few in suburbs of larger towns. This round of municipal elections began in May.
3. ALGERIA: LARGE TURNOUT IN AMNESTY VOTE…Algerians flocked to the polling booths on Thursday to take part in a national vote that would effectively signal the end to a 10-year civil war. The vote offered an amnesty for tens of thousands of opponents of President ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz Boutefliqa. The charter would exempt all individuals – whether in armed groups, state-armed militias or government security forces – from prosecution for crimes committed during Algeria’s civil war. The war, which raged between 1992 and 2002 and claimed more than 150,000 lives, also resulted in thousands of disappearances. The proposed amnesty would rule out investigations into those who disappeared. Human-rights organizations have expressed their anger at the move, however, it is thought a majority has backed the plan, because they want to draw a line under the country’s bloody past.