KIRKUK — Northern Iraq’s oilfields are a prime target for rebels looking to disrupt the country’s economy, but now local authorities have come up with innovative ways of getting the vital liquid flowing. Oil installations and pipelines around the northern hub of Kirkuk, also an ethnically tense city riven by …

PRISONER ABUSE REPORTS are dominating the news in Iraq, but poverty is also producing shocking images — of families living on rotting garbage dumps. “We are lost people. Nobody cares about us,” said Moussa Jabr, as flies swarmed around his young children’s faces near rotting food, slimy plastic bags and …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq is investigating allegations of abuse after more than 160 prisoners were found locked in an interior ministry bunker in Baghdad, many of them beaten and malnourished and some apparently tortured. The detainees were discovered on Sunday night during a raid by US troops who were searching …

TRIPOLI (Reuters) — Libya’s Supreme Court on Tuesday postponed to Jan. 31 its ruling in the final appeal of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for deliberately infecting children with the HIV virus. “The court delays the hearing to January 31 to give further time for …

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s top nuclear negotiator issued a blunt warning to the UN atomic watchdog on Tuesday, saying more pressure on the Tehran over its controversial nuclear activities would have “consequences.” The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to meet from November 24, with Iran running the risk of …

TEL AVIV (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s son Omri pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of providing false testimony and falsifying documents at the opening of his trial before a Tel Aviv court. The trial follows a police investigation into allegations of illegal financing of Sharon’s successful 1999 campaign …

CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptians were voting Tuesday in runoffs for the first phase of parliamentary polls, which the opposition Muslim Brothers charged were rife with fraud by President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party. Of the 164 first-phase seats, most of the 133 still undecided contests were pitting candidates from the ruling …

RAMALLAH — Palestinian and Israeli negotiators yesterday reached an agreement on opening the Gaza-Egypt border at Rafah after a marathon negotiations session chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn. The deal allows for the Rafah crossing to be opened on November 25 under Palestinian …

“Turkey together with Azerbaijanians tries to shatter the stability in the region; she is interested in shattering of stability.” The representative of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, the deputy chief of press-service of MD, colonel Nikolay Baranov came out with such a sensational statement. This information was reported by …

An armored troop-carrier on which OMON kafirs from Rostov province were sitting was blown up on a radio-controlled mine in the vicinity of the village of Assinovskaya of the Sunzha district of Chechnya, according to occupational sources. As a result of explosion two kafirs were eliminated and five others were …