Middle Orient News

CAIRO  – The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas is expected to give Egypt its response to proposals to reach a truce with Israel Saturday, Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Thursday. Talks between Egyptian intelligence officials and a Hamas delegation ended Wednesday without a deal. Hamas said Israeli proposals …

BASRA, Iraq – Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim voters chose nationalism and security over religion in local polls, backing allies of the prime minister in a vote that could give them the upper hand in parliamentary elections later this year. Results from Saturday’s election are due later on Thursday, and early signs …

JERUSALEM  – Israel admitted Wednesday that one of its tanks killed three girls whose father’s cries on live television shocked viewers in the final days of the Gaza offensive, but said the action was “reasonable.” An Israeli army (IDF) investigation found that two tank shells were fired at a building …

RAMALLAH, West Bank  – The government of Western-back Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Wednesday a $600 million reconstruction program for the war-battered Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who heads Abbas’s West Bank-based government, said the program would cover all Palestinian houses destroyed or damaged during Israel’s 22-day military …

KABUL  – With the reduction of violence in Iraq, foreign militants were now flooding into Afghanistan to join Taliban insurgents battling Afghan and international troops, the Afghan defense minister said Wednesday. There was a 33 percent rise in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in 2008, according to NATO-led forces. Violence is …

BAGHDAD  – Electoral officials are examining serious complaints of vote fraud in Iraq’s western Anbar province, where Sunni Arab tribal leaders are disputing provincial election results. The independent electoral commission has received a flood of complaints about fraud and other violations from the largely Sunni Arab province, Faraj al-Haidari, Iraq’s …

BAGHDAD  – Iraq must ensure it can maintain costly public works and avoid errors that marred past reconstruction efforts backed by billions of dollars of U.S. aid, the senior U.S. military engineer in the country says. The U.S. military has placed new emphasis on making sure that Iraqi officials, from …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki requested Lebanese officials on Tuesday to form a joint committee to probe into the fate of the four Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon in 1982. In a message to his Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Sallukh handed over by Iran’s Ambassador in Beirut Mohammad Reza …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani invited his Turkish counterpart Koksal Toptan to attend a parliamentary conference to be held soon in Tehran where participants will discuss the recent crisis in Gaza. During a phone conversation with Toptan, Larijani said regional countries should call for more effective measures to …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Muslims are set to support goals of Palestine and the holy Quds, said Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement representative to Tehran Abu Sharif here on Monday. Speaking in a ceremony on resistance victory at Tehran University, Abu Sharif said Islamic states will never permit Israel to attack and gain …