Middle Orient Press

Behind concrete blast walls and battling a flickering power supply, Baghdad’s international film festival opened in a hotel on Wednesday in another sign of how improved security is bringing life back to the city.

Iraq’s interior minister ordered the dismissal of Baiji’s police chief, after a suicide bomber killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 in the northern Iraqi town on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

A suicide truck bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji on Tuesday, the police and U.S. military said, in the deadliest attack in Iraq for two weeks.

Israel is considering easing criteria for freeing Palestinian prisoners, a move one Israeli official said on Monday could pave the way for the release of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi.

Israel’s plan to build houses on occupied land near Jerusalem will cloud renewed peace talks, the Palestinian Authority said on Sunday, the day before an international aid conference opens in Paris.

GAZA (Reuters) – An explosion near a funeral procession in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Friday injured least 20 mourners, medical officials said.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Lebanon has asked the United Nations to help it investigate a car bomb that killed a top general this week in the latest of a string of political assassinations, the world body said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush on Thursday condemned the assassination of a Lebanese general and warned Syria against interfering in Lebanon. Brig. Gen. Francois al-Hajj, who was poised to become Lebanon’s army chief, was killed by a car bomb on Wednesday. He was a leading contender to replace …

GENEVA (Reuters) – Israeli restrictions have caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank that is growing worse, leaving hospitals unable to treat the sick and keeping farmers off their land, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Plans to rein in Palestinian government spending and boost foreign aid will not be enough to revive the Palestinian economy if Israeli restrictions stay in place, the World Bank said on Thursday.