Middle Orient News

GENEVA (Reuters) – Israel’s deadly shelling in the Gaza Strip in November 2006 may constitute a war crime, South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a report to the United Nations released on Monday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A dramatic fall in violence has breathed life into Baghdad’s once moribund property market, although the hunt for homes in Sunni and Shi’ite enclaves bodes ill for sectarian reconciliation in the Iraqi capital.

US defence secretary Robert Gates is in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on a previously unannounced visit.

Teams of divers and helicopters with night vision cameras are continuing to search for survivors after a ferry carrying around 150 people sank off the Black Sea coast of Turkey. The roll-on, roll-off vessel, which also had 75 vehicles on board, had left the port of Bandirma and was heading …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraq is prepared to restart talks with the United States and Iran, and is checking with both sides to see if a fresh round can be scheduled, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Sunday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Bush administration is pushing through a broad array of foreign weapons deals as it seeks to rearm Iraq and Afghanistan, contain North Korea and Iran, and solidify ties with onetime Russian allies.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The US has agreed to sell 1,000 buster-bunker bombs to Israel – a deal that could significantly improve Israel’s ability to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview published on Sunday he will remain in office until 2010, a decision likely to stoke tensions with Islamist Hamas rivals who oppose his peace talks with Israel.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s cabinet debated for the first time on Sunday a proposal to offer compensation to Jewish settlers who volunteer to leave parts of the West Bank that would be handed to the Palestinians in a future peace deal.

At least 10 people have been killed in two bomb attacks targeting security forces in Iraq. A roadside bomb killed six Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Khanaqin town in Diyala province, north-east of Baghdad.