Israeli officials have warned in recent weeks that 'radical' Islamist groups and Iran are trying to leverage the unrest in the Middle East to expand their influence and pull Israel into the conflict.

A turnout of some 50,000 Palestinian refugees at the Israel-Lebanon border exceeded organizers' expectations and spurred calls for a peaceful 'third intifada.' But it is too soon to tell whether a fresh mass uprising will gain traction.

The US Army of Corps of Engineers has opened the Morganza spillway to prevent the surging Mississippi from endangering New Orleans. But farms and natural habitat will be flooded as a result.

AP - Dominique Strauss-Kahn's reputation with women earned him the nickname "the great seducer," and not even an affair with a subordinate could knock the International Monetary Fund leader off a political path pointed in the direction of the French presidency. All that changed with charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room, a case that generated shock and revulsion, especially in his home country.

AP - Mobilized by calls on Facebook, thousands of Arab protesters marched on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday in an unprecedented wave of demonstrations, sparking clashes that left at least 15 people dead in an annual Palestinian mourning ritual marking the anniversary of Israel's birth.

AP - Deputies warned people Sunday to get out as Mississippi River water gushing from a floodgate for the first time in four decades crept ever closer to communities in Louisiana Cajun country, slowly filling a river basin like a giant bathtub.