1.   Arafat has made extensive efforts to strike a deal with the political forces of the movement, whose leaders have said they have no link to the armed militants.

2.   Armed Islamic militants battled Libyan security forces this week in a significant challenge to the government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Arab officials and foreign diplomats said Saturday.

3.   But a Cabinet minister and a former intelligence official said there were significant defections in the ranks of the armed militants.

4.   But armed Albanian militants have used the protection of the zone to recruit, train and attack Serbian police officers.

5.   But armed Chechen militants also made their way across the countless mountain paths that traverse the border into Georgia.

6.   Earlier on Thursday, in an exchange of fire near the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli soldiers shot dead an armed Palestinian militant, the army said.

7.   Early reports from the police indicated that the dead included pilgrims, Indian soldiers and two heavily armed militants.

8.   Egypt and other countries in the region have long charged that Sudan is a training ground for armed Muslim militants who are sent out to undermine secular governments.

9.   Government officials assert that Belhaj has even given instructions in sumggled letters to armed militants to step up the war against the army.

10.   He was referring to the bloody civil war in Algeria, which has pitted a military-backed secular regime against armed Islamic militants.