Middle Orient News

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — While archfoes Israel and Iran step up tough rhetoric against one another, short-waves and a wood-panelled radio studio in Jerusalem offer the two peoples a rare bridge for communication.

CAIRO — Egypt’s announcement last week that it was relaunching its civil nuclear energy programme after a 20-year freeze prompted a frenzy of government announcements about the need for nuclear energy.

BEIRUT — As Lebanon turns another page in its turbulent history, with Israeli firepower giving way to peacekeepers from around the world, the summer war has left young Beirutis seeking an exit strategy of their own.

NABATIYAH — From a hospital bed, 14-year-old Hassan tells how half his foot was blasted away by one of the million bomblets that Israel rained on south Lebanon during its war with Hizbollah.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Qatar’s UN ambassador said a panel of experts had recommended that the Security Council impose sanctions on top Sudanese officials for violating peace efforts in Darfur, and strongly suggested that President Omar Bashir was among them.

BAQUBA — As the death squads’ grim threats began to mount against Shiite families in the Mafraq neighbourhood of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, fewer and fewer people attended their local prayer hall. Soon, the only members of the embattled Shiite community to brave the narrow streets of this religiously-mixed quarter …

BEIRUT (Agencies) — Israel plans to pull out the last of its troops from south Lebanon on Sunday in line with a UN resolution that ended a bloody war with Hizbollah, security sources in Israel said on Saturday. The sources said the aim would be to get the soldiers out …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraqi forces placed Baghdad under a blanket curfew throughout Saturday after US troops arrested a man suspected of plotting to attack the capital’s government compound with suicide car bombings. US troops arrested a security guard at the home of the leader of the main Sunni Arab political …

GAZA (Agencies) — An Israeli air strike killed one fighter and wounded three other Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Saturday, residents said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the strike was aimed at a vehicle used by fighters it accused of planning an attack against Israel.

ANKARA (AFP) — Turkey’s rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Saturday ordered a unilateral ceasefire effective October 1 in operations against the Turkish military. “The only path to resolve the region’s problems is through democratic dialogue, and to give life to a democratic and modern system that respects national or …