Egypt

JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian officials say Israel has allowed some formerly banned food items into the Gaza Strip after widespread international criticism of its three-year-old blockade.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - A Palestinian who had to delay graduate school in Malaysia and an elderly man forced to put off eye surgery in Egypt are among thousands anxiously trying to get out of Gaza now that the blockaded territory's gateway to the world has opened just a little.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip - Suleiman Baraka's journey could be measured in light years: the eldest of 14 children of a butcher, he rose from humble beginnings in violence-wracked Gaza to become an astrophysicist, space weather expert and researcher for NASA, the U.S.

CAIRO - Egypt's largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, announced Saturday it has chosen a new leader, a conservative academic who looks unlikely to challenge the government's relentless crackdown on the group.