Middle Orient News

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s parliament approved a measure on Tuesday that clears the way for troops from Britain, Australia and a handful of other nations to remain in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year’s end, a senior lawmaker said. “We authorize the government to take all necessary steps …

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel killed a Palestinian militant Tuesday in the occupied West Bank and launched at least one air strike against rocket-launching crews in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. A six-month-old ceasefire between Hamas and the Jewish state expires Friday, and tension along Israel’s border with the Gaza …

JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas has approved for the first time the establishment of a new bank in the Gaza Strip under its authority, a move that could open a door to bypass a financial blockade imposed by Israel and its Western allies. Islamic National Bank chairman Ala al-Rafati said the …

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syria has drafted a document defining the boundaries of the occupied Golan Heights and was waiting for an Israeli reply through Turkish mediators, sources familiar with the talks said this week. President Bashar al-Assad recently told Western officials that Damascus wants Israel to take a clear position …

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel released 224 prisoners in a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, prompting joyous family reunions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Families sang and danced as prison buses rolled up full of newly freed men, shouting and waving from the …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An Iraqi journalist who has admitted hurling his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush appeared before a judge on Tuesday and confirmed his action, a judicial spokesman said. TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, who also called Bush a “dog” at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister …

LONDON (Reuters) – An Iraqi doctor was convicted on Tuesday of planning to bomb a nightclub in central London and a packed Scottish airport a day later last year in order to commit murder on an “indiscriminate and wholesale scale.” Bilal Abdulla, 29, was part of an Islamist cell that …

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel released 224 prisoners in a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, prompting joyous family reunions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Families sang and danced as prison buses rolled up full of newly freed men, shouting and waving from the …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq is failing to give criminal suspects fair trials and abuse of prisoners appears common ahead of the transfer of thousands of detainees from U.S. prison camps to Iraqi control, a human rights group said on Monday. Human Rights Watch said prisoners had to wait months and …

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas leaders said on Sunday they did not expect to extend a six-month ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip when it expires this week, although it remained unclear whether this would mean an immediate surge in violence. Israel, which has traded fire with Palestinian Islamists in …