Middle Orient News

A boat carrying 27 pro-Palestinian activists has arrived in Gaza despite an Israeli blockade of the territory – the second such voyage in three months.

Syria has reduced the sentences of 12 pro-democracy activists from six years to two-and-a-half years each in prison, a human rights group has said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Hundreds of Christian families who fled Iraq’s northern city of Mosul in fear for their lives this month have returned home in the past few days, a senior Christian lawmaker said Tuesday.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish separatist targets on Tuesday in northern Iraq with the backing of artillery fire from Turkey, the military said.

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas said Tuesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s security forces had arrested 170 of its members in the West Bank in the past four weeks in a campaign that could hamper Egyptian-sponsored unity talks.

Iraq has denounced a raid into Syria at the weekend, saying it does not want its territory to be used as a launch-point for US attacks on its neighbours.

Syria condemns a deadly US raid on its soil as “serious aggression” while Washington says the attack was meant to send a message to Damascus .

TEHRAN (FNA)- The United States is putting pressure on Iraqis to accept a security pact that outlines deployment of US troops in Iraq, an influential Iranian cleric said on Friday, after Baghdad called for changes to the draft.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced his country’s support for the idea of allowing the US troops to stay in Iraq under an extended United Nations mandate.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani lashed out on Wednesday at the security deal being negotiated between Baghdad and Washington, saying it impinged on Iraqi sovereignty.