Middle Orient

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 1045 GMT on Sunday. FALLUJA – A bomb wounded Zeki al-Mohammedi, a member of the Anbar provincial council and head of the Falluja branch of the Iraqi Islamic Party, and killed two of his bodyguards in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) …

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas security forces clashed with gunmen from the Army of Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired group, in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, part of a security crackdown following a surge in internal violence.

GAZA (Reuters) – Bomb blasts rocked a cafe and a Hamas politician’s home in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least one Palestinian in one of the biggest flare-ups in internal violence since Islamists seized the enclave a year ago.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy on Thursday returned 13 ancient Iraqi artifacts that had been smuggled out of the country after the U.S.-led invasion.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Six members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol and a civilian were killed in an attack by a female suicide bomber in northeast Iraq on Thursday, police said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon on Wednesday sought to play down the seriousness of growing violence in Afghanistan but declined to say the United States and NATO were winning their fight against Taliban insurgents.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli President Shimon Peres hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for talks in his official residence on Tuesday, saying the unprecedented visit should help dispel doubts about Israel’s desire for peace.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama traveled to Anbar province on Tuesday to meet Sunni Arab tribal leaders whose decision to fight al Qaeda helped change the course of the conflict in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and Iraq were unlikely to meet a July 31 deadline for completing a long-term security pact, but intensive negotiations were under way on an agreement that will help dictate the role of U.S. forces after year-end, the White House said on Monday.

BUFFALO, New York (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate John McCain appeared to leave a door open on Monday to a large-scale drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq in the next two years.